Welcome to Barb Petersen!

The increasing amount of new cow and feed data helps us better understand and support the needs, health and wellbeing of the cow. For dairy veterinarian Barb Petersen this is music to her ears and the reason to join the Cainthus team. 5 questions on dairytech, cows and what wakes her up in the morning.

Barb grew up on a dairy farm in the US as the middle child in her family. Her parents are still running the farm, mainly keeping beef cattle at the moment. Her love for cows, the passion for farming and working with people made her decide to become a large animal practitioner. Over the years, Barb worked as an independent dairy veterinarian and at a large animal health/global pharmaceutical company. She joined the Cainthus team in December 2021 as new Technical Sales Manager for the Eastern USA.

What made you decide to join Cainthus?

I have been following Cainthus from a sideline over the last couple of years and also joined their informative webinars on current topics in dairy and the role of technology. Although there are several technology companies out there that I could have joined, I was particularly excited by the scalability of the Cainthus camera technology and the associated modules to improve the main costs drivers for diaries: feed, labor and herd productivity and welfare. My expertises on animal husbandry and veterinary science, coupled with my business and service approach towards farmers, seems the right mix for Cainthus. I was therefore excited that the job opportunity at Cainthus came on my career path. In my new role I will be responsible for sales and customer success, which means I will guide dairy producers to make the best possible decisions and arm them with data they need for their daily job. I will do this for both new and existing customers.

 

How can technology help dairy producers?

Animals have basic needs and we should support them in the environment we - humans - put them. This means that cows should be free of pain, have enough feed and water and enough space to be healthy, free of stress and able to reach their genetic potential. Technology can help with all of these things. If we can spot painful conditions such as lameness earlier, automatically monitor feed availability and stocking densities, we can make huge improvements in overall health, cow comfort and farm profitability. That doesn’t mean the technology will replace valuable staff members. Instead, I see technology as a way to support the team with new nuggets of data and heads up alerts on feed refusals, time spent at the feedbunk, lying time and more. This means more time can be spent on stewardship with the cows and improving health, and help the people caring for the cows to focus on both the big picture and the details needed to achieve farm goals.

Where does Cainthus make a difference over others?

It is exciting to offer a system that does not require extra jewelry/wearables on the cows themselves. The scalability of the Cainthus camera system is really important here, as dairies are getting  bigger, which means more cows will be kept under group care. Considering that feed costs are largely impacting total costs (next to labor), the unique feed action points that Cainthus provides are really going to radically change feed management on dairies. No other company is using camera vision and machine learning to measure feed availability, feed refusal rates and hence wrap this data into practical insights. Without asking the feed managers if there is enough feed for the cows, our cameras have already measured feed availability and have sent the farmer action item to his/her mobile phone. At the same time, we should not data dump on farmers. We work with on-farm teams who have their boots on the ground. Some technology companies might give you all the components to wrap the gift, but they don't wrap it. At Cainthus we are very much focused on both. On top of the daily action items the farmer receives, my role is to delve a bit deeper in the data to see possible patterns or anomalies and discuss. Every couple of weeks, I discuss this with them during a farm visit. I want to build the bridge between the objective data and what we see, and what is happening on the farm.

How do you convince farmers to invest in technology?

Dairy farmers are faced with a lot of decisions. And there are a lot of different technology solutions who all promise an extra 10 pounds of milk per day, which frankly has become a bit of a hollow and cliche promise. So, I understand the difficulty to feather through the options and determine their impact on each individual farm. I always think about my father and grandfather and how I would approach dairytech with them. It is not attacking their abilities or giving them more work and complicated spreadsheets. Instead, the application of technology is another way to help to identify things differently, and spot the things we cannot see with the human eye. Think of subtle changes in behavior or what is happening on a dairy farm at night. When I visit dairy farmers, I discuss case studies from other farms and  find out what the pain points and challenges are. It is all about understanding  what is really keeping them up at night. My father and my grandfather didn't grow up with the same levels of technology as young farmers do now. It is exciting to see the drive coming from the new generation to use technology to solve problems.

What’s next for Cainthus in the coming years?

In the coming years, dairy farmers will rely more on data and technology will become ‘the standard of care’. We are only reaching the surface on how we can use technology to help cows feel better, produce more milk and redefine benchmarks and protocols. At Cainthus we are constantly innovating in this field. At the same time, we also work on grasping more individual cow data, looking at other data to be able to detect certain diseases and integrating our system with more software platforms. This will make our system the number one system that farmers use in their daily work. Farmers have a million decisions to make. In only a few minutes, we provide dairy producers with action items on the most important issues on the farm and the pens to focus on. I am proud to be part of this tech revolution in dairy farming and transform feed, protocols, production, health and welfare. This is what drives me and makes me wake up every morning.