George McMaster's farming career started with milking eight cows in a byre, relying on his eyes to spot any health issues in his cattle. He still watches his now-300-strong herd, but via a feed from an AI camera in the milking parlour at the farm near Islandmagee in County Antrim. The device uses an algorithm which assigns each cow its own ID, records a short video of the animal every day, analyses it and flags any changes - often before they are visible to the human eye.
For the third generation farmer, it is "absolutely incredible to move from all hand-done to sitting on the phone, watching what's happening outside". It is just one example of how technology is changing the traditional profession. George's son Jack, who is taking over the farm, jumped at the chance to get involved with the CattleEye app when a local developer approached him.
He, too, is astonished by the potential. "There's cows there we would never have thought of as lame when we were just watching them every day, but whenever the camera's watching they're picking them up so much earlier, any emergencies that we have, to check cows before they lose condition and get sick," he said. "And if cows are in better health, we get more milk and they're happier - happy cows make happy farmers." Caleb Howard is using technology to manage his 90 Jersey cows on the farm near Coagh in County Tyrone.
They filter in and out of a robotic milking machine when they want to, rather than being herded in at set times. Like the McMasters, he thinks "everything is going down the robotic route" to improve efficiency. But historically in a place like rural Tyrone, that has come with its own challenges.
Getting high-speed broadband was a game-changer for him - he has been able to open a farm shop with an electronic payment system. "Ten years ago, in our area, phone signal was rubbish, the broadband wasn't great, it was just like a slightly faster dial-up," he said. "So now everything is much simpler and much easier-used when you've got a good internet connection." Project Stratum was set up to deliver high-speed broadband to areas like the one Howard lives in.
Colin Hutchinson from Fibrus, which delivered the project, said it had had a "massive" economic impact. "Being online and having good broadband access is really crucial now," he said. "And it's enabling businesses like this to thrive in really rural locations." Robert Smyth runs a herd of 100 dairy cows in another rural location, near Randalstown in County Antrim.
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