INTERVIEW ▶▶▶ Aidan Connolly, CEO Cainthus
The rise of camera technology on farms
Cainthus develops technology based on visual recognition of cows, but the CEO of the company, Aidan Connolly, sees great potential in using camera technology for all kinds of livestock.
BY CAROLIEN KLOOSTERMAN, EDITOR BOERDERIJ N
ot so long ago, Aidan Connolly worked as chief inno- vation officer at animal nutrition company Alltech, al- ways looking for innovative start-ups to work together with. A couple of weeks ago he made the switch to be-
come the CEO of a start-up instead. Mr Connolly now stands at the helm of the Ireland-based start-up Cainthus, that develops livestock technology. Mr Connolly entered as a CEO with high ex- pectations of Cainthus and believes that the technology the start-up develops will be transformational in the livestock sector. He is not the only one with high expectations; protein giant Cargill also entered as an investor and into a partnership with Cainthus last year.
It is important to test the cameras on real farms.
Farmers are excited about the technology Cainthus develops technology based on visual recognition of cows. the company uses various types of imaging equipment to monitor livestock operations by using artificial intelligence and custom algorithms. Its system can detect behaviour, monitor health, measure feed and water intake, detect when the animals are in heat and more. By using cameras in the barn, the behaviour of cows is tracked and is turned into actionable data for the farm- er. The focus is now on dairy, but plans are being made to expand
8 ▶DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 6, No. 2, 2019
to other livestock such as pigs and poultry. Cainthus was founded in 2016 and within three years, the start-up grew to 45 employees and is now testing its technology in ‘quite a number’ of dairy farms. “We are now in the phase of getting the technology ready for commercialisation. The farmers who are now involved, about 17 in Ireland and the United States, are very excited about the technology,” he says.
Lack of information According to the new CEO, the visual recognition is the new promising technique ‘of tomorrow’ to improve the status of the herd. “Wearables have been successful and are the most used tool of today. But they are breakable, need a lot of hardware in the barn and often do not give actionable information to farmers,” Mr Connolly adds. For the long term, he believes that the camera technique will be more effective in relation to the costs than wearables. “At this time, a lot of farmers have a lack of information about their herd. They have limited knowledge about feed or wa- ter intake, and these factors are very important to know to assess the health status of the animals. Cows that don’t eat or drink often have a problem. With the real-time animal recognition, fast inter- vention by farmers is possible.” Mr Connolly adds that looking at more data points is important. “When you only look at individual milk production, and see that one cow produces more than aver- age, you might think that is a good thing. However, when you can combine this information with the information about feeding be- haviour, you might find out that this cow is less efficient in its feed conversion.”
Roots in agriculture There are also challenges for the new technique. Dust, dirt and water may blur the sight of the camera and the faces of the cows
PHOTO: MARGARET MOORE
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