As new digital technologies are on the rise, it seems like almost every industry is profiting from it. You may have heard from automation in the farming industry, for example by machines that do the milking. However, two Icelandic farmer brothers named Aðalsteinn and Gardar Hallgrímsson took technology into their own hands and transformed their farm from basic to hypermodern: milking robots, automated feeding and cleaning and a massage machine are now found at the Hallgrímsson countryside. In this way, the cows can create their own schedule. They walk to the milking robot whenever they want to be milked, and while being milked they have an unlimited supply of cow candy providing the cow with extra vitamins and minerals. Furthermore, the stall door is always open, and cows have the ability to ‘relax’ on foam mattresses or get their backs scratched by the massage machine. How do you think this will work out?
Spoiler alert: very well!
Cows at the Hallgrímmson farm were producing 30% more milk after one year and wanted to be milked four times a day. In comparison, commercial farming firms make their cows milk two times a day. Moreover, the vet’s bills have decreased by 75%, because of less infections. According to the brothers, there was merely one reason for this: the cows are happier. And so are the farmers themselves, they may have to work more, but it’s easier and more fun. There is, however, a negative side on this as well, which is the one thing people have been complaining about since the industrial revolution. The number of employees at this farm dropped from six to only two, a decrease of 67%. If this is happening in all farms that improve automation, will there be enough jobs for farmers, or do they need to retrain? How do you think technology will disrupt the farming industry?
Oh, and before you go to sleep: don’t forget to count les vaches qui rient – the smiling cows.
Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/cows-are-happier-setting-their-own-schedules-too
This is how automation should shape the agricultural industry, yet positive examples are so rare. We should bear in mind that the robotization of farming isn’t always synonym of dehumanization: mass media and documentaries like Food, Inc have nurtured a fear for technology in the public eye by highlighting animal mistreatment and diseases issued from mass food production. Intensive agriculture can indeed appear against-nature, yet going back to traditional farming while feeding 7.2 billion people is unconceivable. We must accept the fact that the future of agriculture goes with the assistance of technology, and focus on the positive results that the two combined can offer for both animals and consumers.
Gwenn