Award-winning artificial intelligence technology recognising sheep's faces via cameras in the paddock could provide a transformational leap forward in the Australasian sheep industry.

“Of the majority of the 23 million lambs born from 17 million ewes each year we don't know which lamb comes from which ewe, so facial recognition in the paddock will unlock massive potential for the sheep industry,” explains Mark.

One of this week’s Sarah’s Country’s Change Maker is Dr Mark Ferguson from neXtgen Agri who recently won the 2021 ChristchurchNZ Supernode Food, Fibre & AgriTech Challenge and explains:

• A pilot project with Australian Wool Innovation and the University of Sydney three years ago proved in a trial in the yards that the technology works. Now Genesmith, , focuses on taking the cameras into the paddock to help match ewes with their lambs.
• The ultimate way to reduce methane released per unit is by optimizing production, selecting ewes based on their ability to have a number of healthy lambs and take the efficiency out of the animal system.
• Currently, farmer’s ability to identify sheep at the moment is manually by humans via visual sheep tags and matching the parentage of the lambs via DNA is too expensive to be viable for commercial sheep farmers.
• By June 2022 they endeavour to have a commercial product developed with the ability to capture data on farm.

For more information on the Genesmith artificial intelligence technology

To watch the show, visit www.sarahscountry.com

Subscribe to Sarah’s Country on the podcast and if you love us, please leave a review!

Contact the show: [email protected]

Follow Sarah’s Country on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahscountry 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahscountry