Cargill
Inc. is investing in an Irish venture that uses facial recognition software for
dairy farming.
Cargill
has taken a minority stake in Cainthus, which harnesses machine-learning and
imaging techniques to identify cows and glean information on everything from
their behavior to appetite, David Hunt, president and co-founder of Cainthus,
said in a telephone interview with the Bloomberg news agency.
The new partners did not divulge any of the financial details.
They
have also not explained how this high-tech approach is better than transponders
currently work to identify cattle for feeding and robotic milking.
Cianthus
also uses drones and image-capturing technologies for precision crop farming.
Hunt
has also talked about cutting nitrogen use in half by applying it close to
plants and only as needed. He said a lot is wasted in broadcast application
because some feeds weeds and some is leached away.
