According to a study published by AllAbout Feed, to ensure the sustainability of animal farming in the future, animal feed must be precise and efficient. However, agriculture is the least digitized industry, but it has immense potential for improvement and an impact on the workforce. What will this look like?

New Technologies

The feed industry could learn from healthcare, which has rapidly adopted digital products that use a testing and adaptation approach to satisfy customers.

Hospitals, healthcare institutions, and even homes use robots, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) daily.

As agriculture undergoes its own technological transformation, the technological transformation of healthcare implies two trends for the feed industry: technology will not reduce the number of people working but will change the type of work and leadership.

Agricultural Robots

Robots carry up to 3,000 blood samples at a constant temperature at Aalborg University Hospital, ensuring precise analysis and improved patient care. Robots assist both low-skilled and highly skilled workers with tasks ranging from logistics to surgical assistance.

Similarly, agricultural robots from companies like Aigen and EcoRobotix handle various tasks such as planting, weeding, insect vacuuming, harvesting, and packaging.

These robots provide efficient, precise, and cost-effective solutions to crop management issues and labor shortages, and their use is likely to increase.

IoT (Internet of Things)

IoT technology, smart devices like Fitbits and Apple Watches, is transforming our hospitals. Wearable health devices provide doctors and consultants with real-time relevant data, freeing up staff from constant monitoring.

The feed industry also applies similar IoT uses. BinSentry, an agricultural IoT company, offers reliable monitoring of feed container inventory on farms using IoT sensors. This helps feed mills and vertical integrators reduce costs by improving operational efficiency.

Similarly, Distynct replaces traditional technology with versions that have more data and functional capabilities at a similar cost, bringing IoT to the farm in an affordable and manageable way.

IoT devices can quickly gather precise agronomic data in one place for easier monitoring, leading to accurate resource allocation and improved yield and sustainability.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The healthcare industry loses over $2 billion annually and over 200,000 lives due to medical errors. AI can help prevent this. Errors caused by fatigue, memory, lack of experience or training, and misunderstandings are significantly reduced when AI supports decision-making.

Agriculture has a wealth of data, so artificial intelligence can detect patterns in animal and crop production system performance. Companies like Ever.Ag provide farmers with real-time information and data-driven recommendations.

Companies like Partners for Production Agriculture help farmers make better real-time decisions based on market movements, with fewer mistakes. Using AI algorithms and big data enables farmers to tackle the complexities of weather, genetics, market turbulence, and the soil and animal microbiome they feed.

Impact on Employment

The animal feed industry is poised for transformation. Farmers often choose employees and suppliers with whom they have had personal relationships for many years. Agriculture has been slower than most industries in embracing diversity in the workforce (not only in terms of gender, race, and age but also in terms of hiring people without an agricultural background).

On the other hand, agriculture has always faced a "people problem," with job growth estimated to increase by only 1% due to low wages and harsh conditions.

But, as highlighted by Kincannon & Reed in their recent publications, if technology replaces jobs that workers do not want to do and agribusinesses open their doors to more diversity, the opportunity will be for more stimulating, better-paid work that attracts and retains a flexible workforce.

And as we've seen in hospitals, human work is not eliminated; the jobs people do have changed. In fact, healthcare jobs have a 19% job growth and will create over 2.3 million jobs in the next few years—the best job outlook in any field.

Now, more than 50% of large farms and nearly a quarter of small farms use (or plan to use) precision agriculture technology, according to a McKinsey survey. The demand for high-skilled jobs in the feed industry will only grow. Future workers should be recruited based on new skills such as data analysis, software engineering, and coding.

How to Prepare Farmers?

As mentioned in the book "The Future of Agriculture," education and training programs are effective ways to develop a workforce that evolves with each innovation. Companies like Ever.Ag and Partners for Production Agriculture empower agricultural businesses from top to bottom by offering innovative software solutions, assessing risks, and capitalizing on opportunities. Training and embracing diversity will create a more flexible workforce that can adapt to changes throughout the company.

The animal feed industry has faced many challenges since its inception almost 200 years ago, and they won't be solved using conventional thinking. We must embrace digital disruption.

Technology on the farm provides solutions to many of agriculture's most pressing issues, and those who prepare for disruptive innovation by investing in and retaining talent will enjoy new levels of productivity and wealth.

At the end of the day, businesses that will thrive in the technological transition are those that invest in and cultivate diversity and relevant skills now.