July 21, 2025 • 5 mins
We continue Innovation Week here on The Country with Herd-i. Today we talk to a former pharmacist and one of the three-man team behind the Agri AI teat sprayer, which promises to reduce the huge cost of mastitis to the dairy industry.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bowing the future.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Innovation Week on the Country with herd Ie Daily scoring
a body condition powered by AI. It is innovation Week
here on the Country. It's brought to you by herd Eye,
a really smart AI company ideal for detecting cow lameness
and body condition scoring.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
AI is the way of the future. So our innovative
product today is another AI product, and it's all about
teat spraying using AI and reducing mastitis. To tell us
more about it, a guy with a really interesting backstory,
Brian Johnson, used to be a pharmacist. Brian, you decided
(00:42):
to go dairy farming in your fifties.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Why was that today?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
A bit of insanity, probably, Jamie. I got sick of
being inside. To be honest, I love the pharmacy profession.
It was very rewarding. But you decided to get into
dairy farming. Always had lifetyle and yeah, fell in love
with some land just out of fitty hanger and got
into it. It took me about three years to feel
(01:07):
reasonably comfortable. It's quite a big jump.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So you've come up with this AI product, but with
the help of another couple of people. One of them
is your son who studied mechanical AI engineering at Waikata University,
and the other one is a bloke with an electronic degree.
So tell me about your product.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
What we've done is we've started from scratch. We've built
it from the ground up, you know, researching nozzle placements
and all that sort of thing. But the main point
of difference is our sensor device is an actual machine
vision camera. So like heard I, you know, we're both
sort of onto the same sort of check that when
(01:50):
the sense is up high, it doesn't get covered in crap,
which sort of negates any effect on the track.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, we'll excuse my ignorance here, but if the sense
is up high and the camera's up high, how can
you tell what's going on down the bottom at the
teat area.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Okay, So what happens is we've said in about somewhere
in the vicinity of fifty thousand odd images Jamie of towels,
all different colors, different lighting, all that sort of thing,
and we use a computer model to predict where the
other is. So you know, with that number of images,
(02:27):
we've we've got a pretty detailed picture of where that
utter is. So and the camera works at twenty five
frames a second, so no matter how fast the cows
run across it, or they bunch up, or you know,
there's all sorts of cow behavior as everyone knows. And
sometimes they'll stop over the unit then take off. But
(02:49):
because the camera takes that many frames a second accurately,
you can't avoid the teeth spray. Our accuracy rates with
pushing up towards ninety eight percent.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So what's the accuracy rate in a typical non AI dairy.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Shared Other automatic teat sprayers have had a bit of
a bad rap over the years. Just you know, they
are around fifty or sixty percent, I think would be fair.
You know, a lot of vets are anti or we're
anti auto teach prayers, and you know, the purists will
say that hands spraying is still the best. But my
way of thinking, you know, and from experience, you know,
(03:28):
you're on your four hundred or five hundredth cow of
the day, you know, trying to get all four barrels covered.
Evenly Europe against it. But with this this new technology
which we've we're very very happy with, you know, we're
getting up to around ninety eight percent.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well it sounds wonderful now for the great unwashed, and
no pun intended there, Brian. Obviously the teeth spraying is
to prevent mastitis and the numbers around mastitis I think
according to Dairy and Z mastitis in New Zealand brings
with it an average cost of one hundred and a
dollars per cow. If you can eliminate that or get
(04:03):
close to eliminating it, the payback on technology like this
would be pretty swift.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yes, no, exactly, Jamie. So not only do we you know,
it's the definite labor cost saving roughly half an hour
per milking, which you know is a big deal. And
we can also trim up the amount of teeth spray
used so you're not wasting their precious chemical. And also
(04:32):
you know, if we can eliminate ten to fifteen mass
statist cases a year, it pays for itself well within
a well within a season.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, okay, that's good. So if people want to have
a look at this will get a hold of it.
I think you've licensed your product to a milk tech specialist, GEA,
so that's where you go.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Is this thing going to roll out globally as well?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yes? Yeah, yeah. GEA yet have been absolutely brilliant to
deal with Ben Morris product managers. Trusted US and believed
in US. But yeah, no, there's an international rollout planned.
We've got a couple in Victoria, Australia, and yeah we're
going to roll up Newdell and Tech to the world.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Brian Johnson, Managing Director of agri AI, Thanks for your time.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Good luck with your new product. Like herd I, it's.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Using AI for fantastic advancement in the dairy industry.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Good luck go well.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Thank you very much. Jamie good talking to you. Thank you.
Bowing the future.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Innovation Week on the Country with herd Ie Daily scoring
a body condition powered by AI. It is innovation Week
here on the Country. It's brought to you by herd Eye,
a really smart AI company ideal for detecting cow lameness
and body condition scoring.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
AI is the way of the future. So our innovative
product today is another AI product, and it's all about
teat spraying using AI and reducing mastitis. To tell us
more about it, a guy with a really interesting backstory,
Brian Johnson, used to be a pharmacist. Brian, you decided
(00:42):
to go dairy farming in your fifties.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Why was that today?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
A bit of insanity, probably, Jamie. I got sick of
being inside. To be honest, I love the pharmacy profession.
It was very rewarding. But you decided to get into
dairy farming. Always had lifetyle and yeah, fell in love
with some land just out of fitty hanger and got
into it. It took me about three years to feel
(01:07):
reasonably comfortable. It's quite a big jump.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So you've come up with this AI product, but with
the help of another couple of people. One of them
is your son who studied mechanical AI engineering at Waikata University,
and the other one is a bloke with an electronic degree.
So tell me about your product.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
What we've done is we've started from scratch. We've built
it from the ground up, you know, researching nozzle placements
and all that sort of thing. But the main point
of difference is our sensor device is an actual machine
vision camera. So like heard I, you know, we're both
sort of onto the same sort of check that when
(01:50):
the sense is up high, it doesn't get covered in crap,
which sort of negates any effect on the track.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, we'll excuse my ignorance here, but if the sense
is up high and the camera's up high, how can
you tell what's going on down the bottom at the
teat area.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Okay, So what happens is we've said in about somewhere
in the vicinity of fifty thousand odd images Jamie of towels,
all different colors, different lighting, all that sort of thing,
and we use a computer model to predict where the
other is. So you know, with that number of images,
(02:27):
we've we've got a pretty detailed picture of where that
utter is. So and the camera works at twenty five
frames a second, so no matter how fast the cows
run across it, or they bunch up, or you know,
there's all sorts of cow behavior as everyone knows. And
sometimes they'll stop over the unit then take off. But
(02:49):
because the camera takes that many frames a second accurately,
you can't avoid the teeth spray. Our accuracy rates with
pushing up towards ninety eight percent.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So what's the accuracy rate in a typical non AI dairy.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Shared Other automatic teat sprayers have had a bit of
a bad rap over the years. Just you know, they
are around fifty or sixty percent, I think would be fair.
You know, a lot of vets are anti or we're
anti auto teach prayers, and you know, the purists will
say that hands spraying is still the best. But my
way of thinking, you know, and from experience, you know,
(03:28):
you're on your four hundred or five hundredth cow of
the day, you know, trying to get all four barrels covered.
Evenly Europe against it. But with this this new technology
which we've we're very very happy with, you know, we're
getting up to around ninety eight percent.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well it sounds wonderful now for the great unwashed, and
no pun intended there, Brian. Obviously the teeth spraying is
to prevent mastitis and the numbers around mastitis I think
according to Dairy and Z mastitis in New Zealand brings
with it an average cost of one hundred and a
dollars per cow. If you can eliminate that or get
(04:03):
close to eliminating it, the payback on technology like this
would be pretty swift.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yes, no, exactly, Jamie. So not only do we you know,
it's the definite labor cost saving roughly half an hour
per milking, which you know is a big deal. And
we can also trim up the amount of teeth spray
used so you're not wasting their precious chemical. And also
(04:32):
you know, if we can eliminate ten to fifteen mass
statist cases a year, it pays for itself well within
a well within a season.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, okay, that's good. So if people want to have
a look at this will get a hold of it.
I think you've licensed your product to a milk tech specialist, GEA,
so that's where you go.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Is this thing going to roll out globally as well?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yes? Yeah, yeah. GEA yet have been absolutely brilliant to
deal with Ben Morris product managers. Trusted US and believed
in US. But yeah, no, there's an international rollout planned.
We've got a couple in Victoria, Australia, and yeah we're
going to roll up Newdell and Tech to the world.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Brian Johnson, Managing Director of agri AI, Thanks for your time.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Good luck with your new product. Like herd I, it's.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Using AI for fantastic advancement in the dairy industry.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Good luck go well.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Thank you very much. Jamie good talking to you. Thank you.
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