Meet the Team: Gillian Fullerton-Smith’s Mission to Solve Dairy’s Hidden Crisis

How a former New Zealand dairy farmer turned her firsthand experience with lameness into a passion for AI-powered livestock monitoring.

In a recent episode of GEA’s Dairy Farming Insights podcast, CattleEye Commercial Director Gillian Fullerton-Smith shared her unique perspective on one of the dairy industry’s most costly and persistent challenges – lameness detection. With over two decades of hands-on farming experience in New Zealand and extensive work across global dairy markets, Gillian brings a rare combination of practical knowledge and cutting-edge AI expertise to tackle a problem that affects up to 30% of all dairy herds worldwide.

“There were times in our herd when we would have had around 25-30% lame cows in the entire herd,” says Gillian, reflecting on her two decades of dairy farming in New Zealand. “It’s only now that I’m working with CattleEye and we’re working with industry specialists that, in fact, this is often the norm.”

That statistic – 30% of all dairy cows experiencing some form of lameness – represents far more than an animal welfare concern. It’s a silent profit killer that can cost farmers between $70-$550 per case, devastating both individual operations and the industry as a whole.

The Hidden Crisis in Plain Sight

Today, as Commercial Director at CattleEye, Gillian brings her unique perspective, shaped by years of hands-on farming experience across New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, and South America, to precision farming and herd welfare.

“What can happen with lameness is that you can spot a lame cow, she’s hobbling along on three legs. I can, anybody can,” she says. “But what about those early stages? Those early, early stages where she’s just on the cusp and her lameness is increasing, but it’s not that visible unless perhaps you’re a vet or someone really, really in tune with this.”

This detection challenge lies at the heart of why lameness has become such a pervasive problem. Unlike mastitis, which farmers can treat relatively easily with antibiotic tubes, lameness often goes unnoticed until it becomes chronic. And by then, recovery becomes exponentially more difficult and expensive.
The economics are stark. When Gillian discusses lameness costs with farmers, they typically think about immediate treatment expenses such as antibiotics, vet visits, bandages, and blocks. But the reality encompasses four devastating cost categories that compound over time.

“The first one’s very obvious, in that a lame cow’s production is going to drop. You get that she’s uncomfortable, she’s in pain, it’s going to drop,” she says. “The second one is her fertility is going to drop. Lame cows are not going to cycle, so she can miss that cycle. And if that lameness is not dealt with, she might miss the next one, and so on and so on.”

The third cost is treatment itself, which Gillian notes is often the smallest component. The fourth, and potentially most devastating, is culling.

“You can get a fantastic cow, fabulous genetics, super high production. And this cow can end up being culled because nobody picked her lameness on time,” she says.

From Personal Frustration to Industry Innovation

Gillian’s journey from struggling dairy farmer to AI technology advocate began with her own operational challenges in New Zealand. Running a pasture-based system, her cows covered significant distances daily, walking on tracks that looked adequate but contained hidden hazards.

“They weren’t strong. They were a different sort of material, often lime we used, so they looked okay, but nevertheless, there were actually sharp parts in the race where they were walking that they would stand on, they would get lame,” she says. “So that tended to be white line and bruising. And because the team that we had weren’t really experienced enough to be able to detect this… if she was super lame, they could pick it. But in those early stages, they couldn’t, they just couldn’t see this. So we could never get there on time.”

This frustration with detection timing proved universal when she transitioned into dairy technology. Whether visiting operations across the United States, Spain, South Africa, Australia, or Germany, the same pattern emergeds – farmers with the best intentions often lack the tools and expertise to catch lameness before it becomes chronic.

“One of the key things is they often don’t have the labour to be able to pick these cases,” she says. “And another thing that’s happening that we are seeing is that many of the milk processors now – they want to be very, very sure that the animal welfare meets their standards.”

The CattleEye Advantage

The breakthrough that transformed GIllian’s perspective on lameness management came through CattleEye’s AI-powered detection system. The technology’s capabilities extend far beyond human visual assessment, identifying mobility issues with a precision that seemed almost impossible.

The transformation this early detection creates on farms has been dramatic. Gillian cites a testimonial from a farmer in Arizona who manages 4,000 cows.

“[This farmer] was just chatting about this, and he declared to his vet that he probably had one of the worst lameness problems. He started using CattleEye, and he now says he’s one of the much better performers now.”

The operational efficiency gains prove equally compelling. This farmer had previously employed three staff members watching cows for eight hours daily, often identifying the wrong animals while missing cases that required intervention. “Now he knows he’s got the right cows every time, and it’s fantastic,” she says. “He’s reduced his labour requirement significantly, because now this has been picked for him.”

Universal Applications

While the Arizona example showcases CattleEye’s impact on large-scale operations, Gillian emphasises that the technology provides value across all farm sizes. “It’s not just the 4,000-cow farms either. Even your family farms that we see around the place, maybe the 300-cow farms and less, maybe 200-cow farms. Again, it’s making sure they’re identifying the right cows,” she says.

The technology’s simplicity proves crucial for this broad applicability. Unlike complex monitoring systems requiring wearables or extensive maintenance, CattleEye uses simple 2D cameras that integrate seamlessly with existing infrastructure.

“Being able to detect the correct cows at the correct time is critical,” Gillian says. “I mean, it’s wonderful that people can install new parlours and new yards and different backing systems, if they can change those hard turns that the cows have to do – they often can’t do that. Some of those things are beyond their budget, they’re not going to be able to manage that. But being able to detect the correct cows at the correct time is critical.”

The Misidentification Problem

On many large operations, well-intentioned staff attempt to spot lame cows but lack the expertise to distinguish between genuine mobility issues and normal gait variations.

“What often happens is they look at cows as they’re coming out, and they don’t know if they’re lame or not, because they’re using the human eye again,” she says. “The cows that are actually increasingly getting lame, they don’t see them. And then there’s other cows that maybe they’re older cows, and they have a different gait. That’s just how they walk. These cows are not lame, and what can happen is they’re misidentifying cows.”

This misidentification creates a cascade of problems, such as animals needing treatment that don’t receive it, while healthy cows endure unnecessary stress from trimming procedures. “So the cows that need to be trimmed don’t get trimmed. The cows that don’t need to get trimmed end up going to be trimmed. And it’s quite stressful… she’s taken away from the herd, and she’s having her feet trimmed. And this happens sometimes when they don’t need it,” says Gillian.

A Data-Driven Future

The constant monitoring and data collection that CattleEye provides enables farms to track improvement trends over time, validating management decisions and demonstrating progress to processors and retailers demanding higher welfare standards.

“The key point I would say for a farm with the limited resources that they have is identify the right cows, trim the right cows, and make sure that cows that don’t need to be trimmed – leave them alone, don’t put them through the stress,” she says. “And when people start putting those management systems in place, it’s very easy for us to monitor this, because we can see all the data coming through, we can see their lameness improving, their production increasing, and along with all those other things like fertility and reproduction.”

Her journey from frustrated farmer to industry innovator exemplifies how the best agricultural technology emerges from genuine operational challenges. By combining decades of hands-on experience with cutting-edge AI capabilities, Gillian Fullerton-Smith and CattleEye are addressing one of dairy farming’s most persistent and costly problems.

With lameness costing the global dairy industry billions annually and affecting up to 30% of all dairy cows, early detection technology like CattleEye represents more than operational efficiency – it’s a pathway to more profitable, sustainable, and humane farming practices that benefit animals, farmers, and consumers alike.

Listen to the full episode of the GEA Dairy Farming Insights here.