The Country 05/09/24: Richard Appleby talks to Rowena Duncum

Livestock Visibility Solutions chief executive and founder updates how their FLOW system, and AI technology in general, is making life easier for farmers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want to turn my attention to AI technology now.
It's something that's come up a lot in a couple
of the rural conferences that I've been attending lately. So
with me is Richard Appleby, the CEO of Livestock Visibility Solutions.
Tell me a bit about LVS.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good afternoon, Good afternoon, roumina. So Lvis's were started during
COVID and came off the back of being trapped in
New Zealand like everyone else, talking to some of my
farmer friends and having them just bring up over and
over again that the backing gate wasn't being used properly
and they were worried about their animal welfare, They're worried
about their staff, and they just had a whole bunch
of stuff they were worried about. And we just got

(00:39):
talking and we decided as a company that we could
probably relieve some of these pressures they were feeling, you know,
so that could get some better animal wellbeing outcomes and
some better staff welding outcomes. And so LVIS was born
on the back of trying to help these guys out.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, and so you've turned your attention to AI. You
guys created Flow, which is a software that's, as you say,
to streamline cow movement from the yard into the milking shed. Look,
when I was farming, and this is just how much
things change in a decade or so. You know, it
was cool doing the old come on girls, cool or
if you needed to pushing the backing gate and you know,

(01:16):
making sure you're remembered to stop it as well. But
this goes beyond that.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, this is just the next step up of automation
and dairy sheds. Right. So what we do is just
make sure that the farmer or the farm staff can
focused on where the money's really made, and that's putting
milk in the bat and so this is just an
extension of what they're already doing. We take over the
back and gate and we move it when it would
normally be moved by them, and we just do that

(01:41):
consistently throughout the milking and through that you see it
just a much smoother flow of cows into the kiosheed.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
So is there kind of like a camera that's keeping
an eye on the stock density and the yard or
is it just a sensor that there's nothing kind of
in front of the gate. How does that actually work?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
So we mount some cameras and these guys cowshed and
they watch the yard during milking and then so they're
you know, they're mounted above the cowshed and watching the yard.
When the guys have got the gates closed, they push
start and that's when flow takes off. We watch the
yard in real time and we make a decision every
thirty seconds of whether the densities at target or not,
and if it's blow target, we move forward and that

(02:20):
just keeps that density consistent. And so that camera takes
an image, sends it through to the brains of the operation,
the AI unit on the farm, and then the AI
unit makes a decision and then it tells electrics, hey, look,
cows aren't quite tight enough. You should move forward for
three or four seconds to just tighten those cows up
to facilitate that flow.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, so that means that no matter who's milking, you're
always going to have consistency, correct.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, And so that's why the managers and the farm
owners really love it. So they can make sure that
the cows are treated how they want them treated and
across milkings days, you know, weather events and all that
sort of stuff, and the staff really enjoy it. Because
it's just one less thing they have to worry about. Yeah,
that the cow's going to be treated probably, and everyone's
just happier, cows included. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, Like I know, it doesn't seem much to flick
a gate on and off, but I could even see
the joy in not having to even do that and
keep an eye on it when you're milking as well.
You'll have done some economic modeling on this. What is
it showing, because obviously there is an investment to put
in a system like this, Does it pay off? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
So what the modeling is shown and what the actuals
on farm have shown, because we mean running for a
fair amount of time now, right, So a lot of
our few a good chunk of our farms have been
running since twenty twenty, and what we've seen is an
average payoff of under twelve months within eighteen percent, reduction
of milking time, reduced electricity cost of about on average

(03:45):
nine percent, and then just a reduction and lameness overall
of about fifteen to twenty percent.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
So all of that together, depending on your size of farm,
is generally a payoff on under twelve months.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Well, yeah, that lameness one is a big one because
often you can't tell. You know, right at the back
of the yard if there is a cow who is
a bit slow to get out of the way of
the gate, and then you're putting her under pressure. I
love the idea of this. Ritched Applebee, CEO of Livestock
Visibility Solutions, appreciate your time. I feel like I'm getting
up to speed with things in dairy again after chatting

(04:17):
to you, so don't really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
No, thanks very much for your time, and it's just
good to stand the flow.