Interview: CTO Adam Askew discusses CattleEye’s mission & innovation in Agri Sector

In the run up to this year’s Big Data Belfast conference, CattleEye’s CTO Adam Askew spoke to tech media outlet Sync NI about how CattleEye’s AI-driven solutions are transforming dairy farming by improving herd health and productivity, reducing routine burdens on farmers, while also highlighting the region’s collaborative tech ecosystem and the promising future of AI applications in agriculture. Adam was appearing on the AgriTech panel session for the conference which is considered to be one of the island’s leading data conferences. The article below first appeared on Monday October 21 and is reproduced in full below.

CattleEye’s AI Solutions and the bright future for NI agritech set to be highlighted at Big Data Belfast

The agritech sector is a major force driving economic growth and innovation in Northern Ireland, and the opportunities for growth and innovation are immense. 

One KPMG report put local agri-tech and its sub sectors at around £7 billion in sales, with more than 25,000 people working in the sector. And with a global shift towards sustainable practices and the need for efficient food production systems, Northern Ireland’s agritech firms have ample opportunities to continue to innovate and export. 

On a world scale, agritech is expected to top $22.5 billion by 2025 with the AI element accounting for just over $2.6 billion. One company carving out their place within the AI and automation space is CattleEye, a pioneering AI firm founded in 2019 by tech entrepreneur Terry Canning and computer vision expert Adam Askew.

According to Adam, CattleEye’s CTO, the supportive environment in Northern Ireland for tech innovation has played a key role in their success and is already paying dividends for others. 

“The Belfast business and academic setup is there to make us succeed,” says Adam. “That’s why FDI companies come to Belfast. We have so many specialisms in AI now, and those skills are being deployed ever more effectively to solve real-world problems on a global stage and, in effect, are changing people’s lives.”

CattleEye will just be one of the 70+ speakers on stage at Big Data Belfast this year. Adam will be involved in the AgriTech panel session alongside QUB, Momentum One Zero, DAERA and Foods Connected. Presented by Analytics Engines, and celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, this milestone event is to be the most expansive and impactful yet. #BDB24 takes place on Wednesday October 23 2024 at the ICC Belfast; to view the full agenda click this link https://bigdatabelfast.com/index.php/agenda/ 

CattleEye will bring a technical AI perspective to the panel. The firm is utilising advanced video analytics to automate the detection of critical herd health issues, such as lameness and body condition. This technology is designed to enable farmers to enhance herd welfare, reduce operational costs, and boost productivity.

“Our mission is to revolutionise dairy farming by providing AI-powered, hardware-free monitoring solutions that empower farmers to improve herd health, increase productivity, and enhance profitability,” Adam says. 

As of 2024, CattleEye’s solutions are actively monitoring over 140,000 cows worldwide, positioning the company as a leader in AI-driven solutions for large-scale dairy operations. At a high level, the problems that CattleEye is solving are common across industry. Farm owners and herd managers face significant operational and regulatory pressures, grappling with day-to-day challenges while also focusing on long-term profitability of their businesses. 

“Farmers don’t have enough time and anything that can save time, frees up value,” says Adam. “When farmers get time released they can do something of greater value which then removes another layer of pressure. With new technology, jobs that would have taken 1 to 2 hours can be reduced to five minutes using technology – this transforms the entire routine around how a farm operates.”

A modern dairy farm is well served by tech and science. Automatic milking robots that arrive when the animal wants, and machines of this type need arms that can ‘see’ and dock onto the animal. Automatic feeding machines too move around a paddock collecting, mixing the food, and serving the animals. 

“We may get excited about self-driving cars and taxis,” says Adam. “But that’s already happening on a dairy farm. In farming, these innovations already exist, albeit with a different risk profile.”

When discussing future opportunities for the industry, Adam says there is a clear pathway for SMEs to connect and link in with the gamut of Belfast Regional City Deal projects, which are already boosting value, accelerating innovation and creating commercialisation opportunities.

“Taking new ideas and a hotpot of possibilities and being able to channel these into answers for customers is so rewarding. Fundamentally, we are driven to create the next wave of innovation that changes people’s lives,” he says.

To view the article on Sync NI, click this link https://syncni.com/article/12550/cattle-eye-s-ai-solutions-and-the-bright-future-for-ni-agritech-set-to-be-highlighted-at-big-data-belfast