September 3, 2025 • 8 mins
Aaron Meikle of Beef and Lamb NZ explains how Bella can benefit farmers on a day to day basis.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Long and the streets. The Muster Events Diary brought to
you by Beef and Lamb New Zealand Click Beef lamb
endz dot Com, Crack Indies, Dude sad Bro.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Joining us in the Beef and Lamb slut this afternoon
on the Muster. There's a voice from year's gone past
here on the program. His name is Aaron Meekael. These
days of full the Ebb of Beef and Lamb erin
good a.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Good to catch up, good Andy, And it has been
a week while, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It has been. Of course you are on the show
with Jamie mckaye oh ge, probably about twenty odd years
ago now to believe.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, unfortunately it was that long and I started to
think back, I don't feel that old, but yeah about when. Yeah,
as we were talking mister Macayo, the show was a
lot more casual then, but not quite the big multi
media beastie is now.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Technology comes under that boat as well. Now, Aaron, today
we're talking about Bella. Tell us about Bella. It's ai
the Beef and Lamb version.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah. So we've been working on this for a wee while.
We had a few ideas, but obviously when the chet
GPT type revolution hit. It changed the ballpark. So yeah,
on Tuesday we release BALA, which is short for Beef
and Lamb Assistant, which is it's an AI tool. Basically,
it's an answer tool powed by AI and as hopefully
(01:20):
a lot of your listeners know, we've got a heap
of information from researchers, other farmers, industry people, et cetera
on our knowledge hub and what we wanted to move
from it. We had a search engine so you could
locate stuff, but the AI tool we've created, BALA is
an answer tool and it's there to create answers. And
(01:42):
so rather than us saying this is the fact sheet
or a resource bock on throwing break lambs or something
like that, people have got their own question and they
get their own answer. So it's quite specific and hopefully
some of your listeners have had a lot. I don't
know if you've had a look yet.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
But I'm not as not yet. I'm going this afternoon.
They re is assured about that. Its threatly grab my curiosity.
Now you think about when the Internet started up and
all these search engines, I mean Yahoo, like us whatever
you call that. Ask Gees was a search engine for
looking at things. But these days is that many different
platforms about finding out knowledge. So I suppose it just
made sense for farming to get on board.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, you use check GPP, A beller will be very familiar.
The platforms don't change much. But the thing you get
with chet GGPT is what they call hallucinations. So it
makes stuff up or it gets stuff that's irrelevant, so
excuse me. And actually the problem they talk about is
it's a bit like BS. Some of the stuff that
(02:41):
AI makes up then gets on the internet and gets
ingested by other AI tools and so it spreads, like
you know, the infection spread. So Voller is ring fence.
It's only working on information that's on beef and Ama
Zealand Knowledge Hub. And for those of you that have
seen it or have a go, you'll see we've got
an avatar there. It looks like a heading dog, and
(03:02):
that's how we said. It's a digital heading dog, a
well trained one. It will get better, but it only
works within the fences on our property. It won't jump
the fence into the neighbor's place and come back with
a zel packers. It won't chase a rabbit. It's just
out there to round up digital sheep effectively digital information
and do what you want it to the same with
(03:24):
AI that we like is AI is coming for tasks,
not for jobs. So it's not going to run the farm.
It's not going to make those decisions, but it's there
to support decisions and do tasks. So rather than Beef
and Lamb saying here's the answer or as best we can,
he's a bit of information. It's there for farmers to
(03:44):
ask their questions and get their answers. And the other
thing that I'll finish on is it's search engine. You
tend to ask a specific question to locate something. Bala
will handle really long and quite detailed and specific questions.
So your fane's information, you'll question lots of details and
it'll it'll create an answer. So very different from a
(04:06):
search engine. But yeah, we're really excited about it. We
think it puts the ultimately, it puts the power for
dealing with information in the in the user's hands, not
Beep and Landy Zell and t hands.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So it's been, like you say, quite a few years
in the making and you're pretty happy with the final product.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, lot we have. As I say, there, we're early
chap box before I I, but they were quite constrained.
You had to write their questions and answers and it
could guide people through those, and we were after something
a bit more flexible. Yeah, we're really happy, but also
we want people to use it and give us feedback.
We've deliberately gone out with Fella like a heading up.
(04:43):
She's well trained, we've let her off the leash and
she's she's performing well, but she's not the finished article
yet and it'll keep learning and keep training. So we
know there's things that's not quite right yet not perfect,
but we want people to tell us where they want
to go within what we to spend the money or
do further development. So if you or others are using it,
(05:04):
there's there's sums up and thumbs down buttons when you
get an answer to tell us that you think it's right,
or if it's not right, tell us why it's not,
or let us know if there's something else that could do.
We've got a few ideas for development there. We think
Bella the digital heading dog can go with her training,
but it's worthing well enough that we want to seeble
to have it now see what they can do. But yeah,
(05:25):
we really want to get that usually lead feedback on
where we can go. I'd rather than be as I
said to say, here you going to finished product, take it.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
To leave it, and here you're talking about. One of
the instances you could pop in there is about managing worms,
I mean drench rotations. That's a big thing these days.
If wream burden's being in issue, what can people expect
and they type that in for example.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, so Bala has a lot of information so can
get quite long answers, but it'll first come back with
so I should say if we haven't missed ready, it's
online at Askbala dot co dot MD, or it's linked
from the Beef and Land New Zealand website. Bella will
start with summary, a few key bullet points to the
key bit. So if you ask a drench question like that,
(06:08):
or go to the Wormwise database, which is sort of
the standard, the industry standard for all the best information
and a greed practice around internal parasite management. But it
really depends on the question that the answers aren't set.
So if you ask about managing nematidioris in Southland in spring,
it'll give an answer about that targeted to that area,
that species of internal parasite and that time of year.
(06:31):
So what it really does well as well as answer it,
it'll prove where it got the information from. So all
the answer will have the sources linked hyperlink through it.
You can click on those and it'll take you to
those so that are fat Sheep their resource box. But
if you try it, what's really interesting about that, It'll
(06:52):
take you to the Wormwise guidebook, which is you know,
forty or fifty pages long, but Balo will open it
on the page and highlight the power where it got
a bit of information. So if you want to check
your answer, you'll get that reference and it does the same.
This is the really neat bit ending for videos and podcasts.
So we might have an hour long web in our
video with Jenny Didanski on internal parasite management or Trevor
(07:15):
Colock on body condition score, those sorts of industry experts.
It'll open the video right at the minute you know
we're they're talking about that specific that say nematodorus, So
you don't have to sit through the whole hour. You
can go click on that and open up and you'll
hear Jenny or Trevor, whoever it may be, talking about
that specific bit of information you wanted. So it's it's
(07:35):
a comprehensive answer, it backs it up and it lets
you find out more if you really want to go
and dig into it. So yeah, amazingly powerful.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Good on you, Aaron. Always good to catch up. Ask
Ballad dot co dot Nz if people have got a
curiosity right.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yes, definitely have a go and as I say, let
us know what you think and how we can make
it even better, like.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
A Mikael talking about Bella. Askbella dot co dot in Zen.
Thanks to Beef for their New Zealand who at Taikey
Rugby South and CEO. He's had a busy week. I'd
imagine we catch up next.
Long and the streets. The Muster Events Diary brought to
you by Beef and Lamb New Zealand Click Beef lamb
endz dot Com, Crack Indies, Dude sad Bro.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Joining us in the Beef and Lamb slut this afternoon
on the Muster. There's a voice from year's gone past
here on the program. His name is Aaron Meekael. These
days of full the Ebb of Beef and Lamb erin
good a.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Good to catch up, good Andy, And it has been
a week while, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It has been. Of course you are on the show
with Jamie mckaye oh ge, probably about twenty odd years
ago now to believe.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, unfortunately it was that long and I started to
think back, I don't feel that old, but yeah about when. Yeah,
as we were talking mister Macayo, the show was a
lot more casual then, but not quite the big multi
media beastie is now.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Technology comes under that boat as well. Now, Aaron, today
we're talking about Bella. Tell us about Bella. It's ai
the Beef and Lamb version.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah. So we've been working on this for a wee while.
We had a few ideas, but obviously when the chet
GPT type revolution hit. It changed the ballpark. So yeah,
on Tuesday we release BALA, which is short for Beef
and Lamb Assistant, which is it's an AI tool. Basically,
it's an answer tool powed by AI and as hopefully
(01:20):
a lot of your listeners know, we've got a heap
of information from researchers, other farmers, industry people, et cetera
on our knowledge hub and what we wanted to move
from it. We had a search engine so you could
locate stuff, but the AI tool we've created, BALA is
an answer tool and it's there to create answers. And
(01:42):
so rather than us saying this is the fact sheet
or a resource bock on throwing break lambs or something
like that, people have got their own question and they
get their own answer. So it's quite specific and hopefully
some of your listeners have had a lot. I don't
know if you've had a look yet.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
But I'm not as not yet. I'm going this afternoon.
They re is assured about that. Its threatly grab my curiosity.
Now you think about when the Internet started up and
all these search engines, I mean Yahoo, like us whatever
you call that. Ask Gees was a search engine for
looking at things. But these days is that many different
platforms about finding out knowledge. So I suppose it just
made sense for farming to get on board.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, you use check GPP, A beller will be very familiar.
The platforms don't change much. But the thing you get
with chet GGPT is what they call hallucinations. So it
makes stuff up or it gets stuff that's irrelevant, so
excuse me. And actually the problem they talk about is
it's a bit like BS. Some of the stuff that
(02:41):
AI makes up then gets on the internet and gets
ingested by other AI tools and so it spreads, like
you know, the infection spread. So Voller is ring fence.
It's only working on information that's on beef and Ama
Zealand Knowledge Hub. And for those of you that have
seen it or have a go, you'll see we've got
an avatar there. It looks like a heading dog, and
(03:02):
that's how we said. It's a digital heading dog, a
well trained one. It will get better, but it only
works within the fences on our property. It won't jump
the fence into the neighbor's place and come back with
a zel packers. It won't chase a rabbit. It's just
out there to round up digital sheep effectively digital information
and do what you want it to the same with
(03:24):
AI that we like is AI is coming for tasks,
not for jobs. So it's not going to run the farm.
It's not going to make those decisions, but it's there
to support decisions and do tasks. So rather than Beef
and Lamb saying here's the answer or as best we can,
he's a bit of information. It's there for farmers to
(03:44):
ask their questions and get their answers. And the other
thing that I'll finish on is it's search engine. You
tend to ask a specific question to locate something. Bala
will handle really long and quite detailed and specific questions.
So your fane's information, you'll question lots of details and
it'll it'll create an answer. So very different from a
(04:06):
search engine. But yeah, we're really excited about it. We
think it puts the ultimately, it puts the power for
dealing with information in the in the user's hands, not
Beep and Landy Zell and t hands.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So it's been, like you say, quite a few years
in the making and you're pretty happy with the final product.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, lot we have. As I say, there, we're early
chap box before I I, but they were quite constrained.
You had to write their questions and answers and it
could guide people through those, and we were after something
a bit more flexible. Yeah, we're really happy, but also
we want people to use it and give us feedback.
We've deliberately gone out with Fella like a heading up.
(04:43):
She's well trained, we've let her off the leash and
she's she's performing well, but she's not the finished article
yet and it'll keep learning and keep training. So we
know there's things that's not quite right yet not perfect,
but we want people to tell us where they want
to go within what we to spend the money or
do further development. So if you or others are using it,
(05:04):
there's there's sums up and thumbs down buttons when you
get an answer to tell us that you think it's right,
or if it's not right, tell us why it's not,
or let us know if there's something else that could do.
We've got a few ideas for development there. We think
Bella the digital heading dog can go with her training,
but it's worthing well enough that we want to seeble
to have it now see what they can do. But yeah,
(05:25):
we really want to get that usually lead feedback on
where we can go. I'd rather than be as I
said to say, here you going to finished product, take it.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
To leave it, and here you're talking about. One of
the instances you could pop in there is about managing worms,
I mean drench rotations. That's a big thing these days.
If wream burden's being in issue, what can people expect
and they type that in for example.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, so Bala has a lot of information so can
get quite long answers, but it'll first come back with
so I should say if we haven't missed ready, it's
online at Askbala dot co dot MD, or it's linked
from the Beef and Land New Zealand website. Bella will
start with summary, a few key bullet points to the
key bit. So if you ask a drench question like that,
(06:08):
or go to the Wormwise database, which is sort of
the standard, the industry standard for all the best information
and a greed practice around internal parasite management. But it
really depends on the question that the answers aren't set.
So if you ask about managing nematidioris in Southland in spring,
it'll give an answer about that targeted to that area,
that species of internal parasite and that time of year.
(06:31):
So what it really does well as well as answer it,
it'll prove where it got the information from. So all
the answer will have the sources linked hyperlink through it.
You can click on those and it'll take you to
those so that are fat Sheep their resource box. But
if you try it, what's really interesting about that, It'll
(06:52):
take you to the Wormwise guidebook, which is you know,
forty or fifty pages long, but Balo will open it
on the page and highlight the power where it got
a bit of information. So if you want to check
your answer, you'll get that reference and it does the same.
This is the really neat bit ending for videos and podcasts.
So we might have an hour long web in our
video with Jenny Didanski on internal parasite management or Trevor
(07:15):
Colock on body condition score, those sorts of industry experts.
It'll open the video right at the minute you know
we're they're talking about that specific that say nematodorus, So
you don't have to sit through the whole hour. You
can go click on that and open up and you'll
hear Jenny or Trevor, whoever it may be, talking about
that specific bit of information you wanted. So it's it's
(07:35):
a comprehensive answer, it backs it up and it lets
you find out more if you really want to go
and dig into it. So yeah, amazingly powerful.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Good on you, Aaron. Always good to catch up. Ask
Ballad dot co dot Nz if people have got a
curiosity right.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yes, definitely have a go and as I say, let
us know what you think and how we can make
it even better, like.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
A Mikael talking about Bella. Askbella dot co dot in Zen.
Thanks to Beef for their New Zealand who at Taikey
Rugby South and CEO. He's had a busy week. I'd
imagine we catch up next.
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