What can make Ontario a livestock ag tech leader?

There’s great potential to make Ontario a world-leading centre for livestock technology innovation.

Almost all the ingredients are here now. Top livestock farmers in most sectors run efficient, competitive operations. An executive for a livestock equipment company, who arrived in Canada to run operations here, once told me that farmers here are as demanding as anywhere else in the world.

Leading research facilities at the Elora Research Station. Once a new poultry barn is completed, there won’t be many clusters in the world where leading edge dairy, swine, beef and poultry research is done in one place.

The University of Guelph consistently polls as one of the top livestock research universities in the world.

Livestock organizations continue to fund research, as do provincial and national governments.

Ontario is a technology leader in other sectors, including artificial intelligence. There are more Ontario-based ag tech venture capital companies than ever.

What’s missing is a focused, livestock-specific technology hub that connects the livestock technology community, and more willingness by farmers to try experimental or burgeoning technology.

Shari van de Pol, a veterinarian and computer engineer, is the founder and CEO of Cattleytics, a dairy farm management software and data analytics company. She said at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show ag tech breakfast that there’s more potential in Ontario.

“I look around this room and the biggest message is that when we’re looking at making southern Ontario a centre for dairy tech … we need everybody here to be part of that journey.

“We want everybody to come along this journey and have ideas, bring ideas, bring that energy. And we can only do that as part of this network and this community we’re creating here. Let’s have people from across the world come here to see what we’re doing in tech, and we can only do that if everybody’s coming alongside, making that possible.”

Van de Pol was responding to questions posed to agriculture technology companies at the show. Other livestock technology companies on the stage included Cattle Scan, an Ontario company that provides bolus-based monitoring for cattle.

Denis Tokarev, founder and CEO of Cattle Scan, said a greater risk-taking mentality among farmers in Canada would help move technology quicker to the marketplace.

Many Canadian livestock ag tech startups have had to work in the United States to prove their products, including Cattle Scan, Cattleytics, Soma Detect and EIO Diagnostics. They have some cooperators in Canada, but not enough.

There is a bias in Canada to support European technologies versus those that are home grown. There are various reasons for that, including the fact that many livestock farmers come from Europe and there’s no doubt European technology is good.

However, working with smart local people can create products made here and tailored to farmers here. It can attract other leaders to Canada to work on those products and that will mean more opportunity and economic clout for the sector.

A livestock ag tech hub doesn’t have to be a new organization, but it must have people who know livestock, connect with farmers, connect with funders and can help build connections between startup companies.

It’s doable with some focus.

What are the missing ingredients to make Ontario a livestock ag tech powerhouse? Let me know what you think at [email protected].