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The National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland
Cumbria benefits from having excellent rail links to Scotland, so I’d decided to take the train up to Glasgow rather than driving. As I stood at the station watching the sun rise over Kendal and the Lake District behind, I contemplated the day ahead and thought about all the careers there must be that are related to the dairy industry.
People on the platform setting off on their morning commute chatted enthusiastically about the Easter bank holiday just gone. ‘I’m exhausted, but it was so much fun!’ laughed one. ‘We must have walked 60 miles!’ I too was weary from a weekend well spent in the fells and my legs had not yet forgiven me!
As I boarded the train along with commuters ready for a day in the city, I wondered how I’d feel about the urban jungle. Glasgow is Scotland’s biggest city and offers quite a contrast to the open countryside I am used to living and working in, yet it’s entirely possible in today’s digital age that my city-bound fellow passengers could also work in the land and nature sector.
As the train sped up to Carlisle and over the border, I marvelled at the mountain views and smiled at the sight of cows and newborn lambs in the fields below. I counted farms and considered how this part of the world is dominated by national parks and farmland, and wondered how many jobs that equates to. Afterall, the UK is one of Europe’s biggest producers of dairy.
That’s a lot of cows and a lot of people employed in the industry, yet how many of us consider a career in dairy?
Over arrival tea and coffee at the Think Diary Careers Exhibition, this was a question I discussed with Digital Dairy Chain and their STEM Engagement team, who are working with young people to highlight the range of STEM jobs in the diary industry.
A misconception is that working in diary is just about being a farmer and milking cows, yet that couldn’t be further from the truth in today’s digital world, as I learned over the course of the day.
After an initial introduction, delegates were split into small groups and we enjoyed a walking tour of the building, stopping for interactive presentations along the way. This was an excellent format and the sessions were extremely informative, engaging and educational – and quite an eye-opener for me!
Whilst we’ve all heard about digital milking parlours and robotic milking machines, who knew that researchers were working on automated udder scoring technology using machine learning?
It was news to me that udders are ranked at all and that this is currently done manually, but poor udder traits can cause issues with health such as increased instances of mastitis, and the wrong udder shape causes difficulties for milking robots. This new technology could make identification much easier and if you were working for Dourie Farming Company in collaboration with SRUC, you too could be extracting phenotypes for genomic evaluations.
Next, we learned about quantifying methane emissions from cattle. This time, a research partnership between Albasence, University of Strathclyde, University of West Scotland and SRUC, the team is aiming to develop a cost effective retrofit sensor that can be deployed within robotic milking stations and the milking parlour. The prototype consisted of a modified oven from B&Q and a life-size model of a cow was on hand to demonstrate how the system worked!
Then we heard from CENCIS about their Milk Round Accelerator, which is a business and technology accelerator that works alongside individuals and SMEs to develop an idea into a new digital product or service that could improve efficiency in the dairy sector. CENCIS have worked with Appleby Creamery to develop a new system that allows the team to monitor conditions remotely every 15 minutes around the clock. The data is displayed on a dashboard developed by CENCIS and it sends real-time alerts if anomalies occur, allowing for a prompt response to prevent the risk of product spoilage, as the production of cheese requires consistent temperatures and humidity levels at different stages of the process.
The penultimate presentation was all about drone technology and how this is being used in agriculture.
Using drones the size of model airplanes and equipped with multispectral, thermal and high-resolution cameras, they can capture detailed data on crops, soil and pastures. AI models then process this data to detect early signs of stress, disease, nutrient deficiency and water imbalance, which can help farmers act before problems affect yield. The AI tools can also identify plant species such as clover, ryegrass, chicory and plantain across grazing areas, which supports better pasture management, biodiversity planning and resilience in forage systems.
This project is headed up by Drone Systems Lab at the University of West Scotland and they were excited to announce that they have launched a new MSc Advanced Drone Technology course starting in September. Click here to find out more and apply.
Lastly, we heard about the digital twin technology for agriculture taking place at SRUC, which was all very space-age! Essentially, a digital twin involves creating virtual replicas of real-world farming systems using data and models to predict behaviours.
SRUC is renowned for its Dairy Research and Innovation Centre. Established in 1973, their research performed with the Langhill pedigree herd, (selected since 1970 as a high genetic merit line and a control line for production of milk solids) is considered the longest running genetic selection trial worldwide. As such, the team working on the digital twin technology have a considerable amount of historical data to work with.
My final fun fact of the day was learning that cows are fed magnets. These sit in the stomach to attract metal objects accidentally swallowed such as nails and prevent a condition called ‘hardware disease’. Given the context of the presentation, this hit my funny bones as visions of cows with malfunctioning hardware sprung to mind! However, the practice of placing a magnet in the stomach to attract metal objects that could puncture the stomach lining and organs and cause problems is age-old and still practised today. Nowadays, the same method is also being used with sensors, which sit in the stomach of the cow and provide real-time data about things such as temperature and hydration levels.
The day finished off with a panel discussion and Q&A session followed by a networking lunch. All too soon, I was on the train back to Cumbria, but what a day it had been. I will never look at a cow the same again!
Find out more about Digital Dairy Chain and how they are transforming the diary supply chain through innovation, collaboration and growth.
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