George McMaster once relied on his eyes to spot illness in his eight cows. Now he watches his 300-head herd through an AI camera in the milking parlour near Islandmagee in County Antrim. The system assigns each animal an ID, records daily video and flags health changes often before they become visible to the farmer.
His son Jack, taking over the farm, credits the CattleEye app with detecting lameness earlier than manual observation. "There's cows there we would never have thought of as lame when we were just watching them every day, but whenever the camera's watching they're picking them up so much earlier," Jack McMaster said.
Three other farmers in County Antrim and County Tyrone demonstrate how technology is reshaping rural agricultural practice. Caleb Howard runs 90 Jersey cows on a robotic milking system in Coagh, County Tyrone, where animals enter machines at will rather than set times. High-speed broadband, delivered by Project Stratum via Fibrus, proved essential to his operation. "Ten years ago, in our area, phone signal was rubbish, the broadband wasn't great, it was just like a slightly faster dial-up," Howard said. Access enabled him to open a farm shop with electronic payment systems.
Robert Smyth manages 100 dairy cows near Randalstown using the FarmDrive app for four years. The platform consolidates animal records, medicine logs and meal data in one place. "Beforehand you're writing things down, bits of paperwork in the cattle house and writing them down in the office, whereas now you just do it at that time," Smyth said.
FarmDrive developer Gareth McDonald, who studied computer science after growing up on a farm, describes the platform as "Facebook for cows". Each animal receives a profile with photos and full records. McDonald emphasizes that AI remains advisory. "We're very much of the opinion we don't want the AI making the decision for the farmer," he said.
Ian Marshall, former president of the Ulster Farmers' Union, compares the shift to Harry Ferguson's tractor linkage system invented nearly a century ago. Marshall argues AI will enable farmers to balance the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and social outcomes. "Because we've got so much data and so much digitalisation in the industry, farmers will certainly use this to their advantage and can meet their targets, meet their objectives and meet the obligations whilst delivering good quality, sustainable food," Marshall said.