Once upon a time, not so long ago, things were simpler! A.I. in farming circles meant "artificial insemination”; some countries called it called A.B.- ‘artificial breeding’. In its day, this revolutionary technique, which involved the introduction of fresh semen into a cow, hopefully at the correct time, was the basis upon which the genetic advances of the last seventy or so years have been founded. The later provision of frozen semen which allowed for long term storage and international transportation rapidly accelerated this genetic advance. Linked to sire proving schemes and data recording, A.I. is now routine on most New Zealand Dairy farms.
Incidentally, the oldest known frozen cattle semen in existence is from a Holstein sire named Cottonade Emmet, which was collected in November 1952 and semen collected in the 1960’s has resulted in pregnancies so the there is no current “use by” date for frozen semen stored in liquid nitrogen .
There is now nothing new or revolutionary about A.I.; there is nothing to fear.
Veterinarians have increasingly been at the centre of this type of technology transfer, which formed the core of the green revolution, that revolution that saw the adoption of a number of changes which improved the efficiency and productivity linked to better animal health. Whether working on new breeding techniques and programs, or on disease control, or a plethora of other animal health innovations, vets often find themselves at the cutting edge of technology transfer. Evaluating new techniques, educating their users and sometimes helping to adapt new tools into more practical, usable versions, has been central to the role of many farm vets. Better breeding programs, based on fixed time artificial insemination, are just one example of the adaptation and innovative development of a technique such as A.I.
The dairy industry now stands at the dawn of a new A.I. challenge, as the utilisation of Artificial Intelligence is surging onto the scene at a rate that few would have anticipated only a few years ago. What impact will A.I. have on dairy farming? And is there a role for veterinarians to be once again involved in the adaptation and development of this new technology?
But firstly, what is A.I.?
The term is bandied around in the media on a daily basis, often linked to sensational stories that engender fear of the unknown. The obvious way to answer this question was surely to ask A.I.? Google told me :
“Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science focused on building systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human cognition. These tasks include learning, reasoning, problem-solving, understanding language, and recognizing patterns.”
That doesn't sound too threatening, does it?
The source went on to provide some common examples of usage including recognising images and speech patterns, learning from data and experiences, and also solving problems and making decisions.
The potential for improving productivity and efficiency, especially in complex areas like agriculture and animal health, where a wealth of often unanalysed data exists, is obvious but there are also areas of concerns, not least the privacy of that data and the potential for unseen bias affecting decisions. And that insidious fear remains; that A.I will go on to totally replace humans in the workforce and everyone, except for a few computer nerds, will become redundant.
Of course the Artificial intelligence avalanche is already sliding down the slope!
It is already being widely utilised in our everyday lives; for example do you employ fingerprint or facial recognition on your mobile phone? There is no doubt that dairy farming is undergoing an information revolution, with vast quantities of data from various sensors, drones and wearable devices providing individual animal, and plant, details with an accuracy and frequency that almost beggars belief. The use of A.I. to assemble this data into simple summaries, action lists, grazing plans etc. seems obvious. Surely there is nothing to fear here? Except that just sometimes A.I. will get it wrong. Experience has shown that A.I. algorithms can miss stuff, or provide solutions based on red herrings; and it has occasionally been known to invent stuff it cannot find.
And for the foreseeable future there will surely be a need for a human brain at the interface of summarised data and on farm decisions? In many cases, in the arena of animal health, that human will surely be a veterinarian?
A.I will get better at analysing this data; it will continue to learn and develop better solutions. We already have robot milking and new ‘hands on” tools based on the use of A.I. are being rapidly developed: manual pregnancy testing may soon be a thing of the past? But the need for a practical, problem solving brain in this "hands on” zone will, in my opinion, remain critical to the successful adoption of A.I. on farms. In animal health situations it might well be called “clinical acumen”; that ability of a suitably experienced eye, perhaps with a little intuition not generated by data, to spot that something isn’t quite right. For example, A.I may spot the fact the Cow 234 hasn’t eaten for 24 hours and note that she is due to calve; it will suggest that she be drafted for checking. But it is the stock person or farm manager who will ultimately decide to call in a vet. And I suspect, for some time to come difficult calvings, prolapsed uteri and other conditions that can often be treated with a reasonably high chance of success, will require skilled human intervention. A.I. will undoubtedly improve the quality of reproductive data but A.I. will not be calving the cow at 3am in the morning!
Veterinarians are increasingly involved in assisting dairy farmers to better utilise the wealth A.I. generated information but at the practical coalface of clinical medicine, there will also remain a hands-on, veterinary role and this will form an important part of the new landscape of A.I. utilisation.