Imagine taking a pebble, throwing it into the water, and watching the water, seeing how one small stone can create a huge pattern of ripples. Now that you have that picture in your mind, let’s compare this idea to the growth of the dairy farming industry. Robotic milkers, GPS technology, and artificial intelligence solutions are just a small part of the recent revolutionary technology in the dairy industry. With drones, GPS technology, and sensors, they can monitor the health and well-being of their cows, quality of their milk, and the efficiency of their operations.
One cow provides an economic impact of $13,000 for a local community, and every nine cows supports one job somewhere in the dairy industry. The dairy industry is generating many opportunities and is creating jobs that cover nearly all aspects of our day-to-day lives. Drones are providing AI powered solutions that utilize technology to gather season-long images of growing crops. GPS technology creates maps to identify expected outcomes in each area based on seed and land characteristics. Some dairy farms such as a farm in Bethel Pennsylvania, are even using robotic milkers to increase their cattle’s efficiency and maximize animal care.
Gene Kreitzer, the Pine Grove FFA advisor, said, “The agricultural industry needs to adopt the new technology to remain current and also to have more efficient methods of raising crops and livestock.” The strides agriculture is making is revolutionary, and every agriculture advisor and industry worker is marveling at what is becoming of the industry. As our world population grows, we need new technology to grow our industries and specifically the dairy industry to create enough food for our world. Now, let’s think about that pebble again. Even though it is small and seemingly insignificant, it can create large-scale effects. In the same way, every new avenue of innovation that the dairy industry pursues is creating this ripple-effect in our society.