Futurist on valuing dairy

That was the message from Paul Higgins, a dairy cattle veterinarian and pig farmer, who is now a futurist and strategist and the keynote speaker at Australian Dairy Industry Council's Australian Dairy Sustainability Framework Summit, on Friday May 26.

Mr Higgins was addressing the summit topic of 'How are mega trends changing the future for sustainable food?'

He sees a role for artificial intelligence (AI) in managing information that helps the farmer tell their food or fibre story, with data as proof.

Mr Higgins has identified this as a platform for farmers to improve their income - by selling that data.

He said farmers would be able to market individual cows to investors and those investors would be able to access data about the cow within the herd and the production system.

That data information system can be extrapolated into managing multiple herds and farms across regions, states and nations.

"It brings a new context into social sustainability in farming," Mr Higgins said.

This includes increased transparency and data availability to consumers and other interested parties.

"Technology enables more capacity to see things. The consumer has more capacity and desire to see those things."

This can be extended into creating opportunities for farmers to seek investment into biodiversity and ecosystem assets on the farm.

Of course, there are risks.

Mr Higgins said the data could be used by organised crime and other interested parties to produce disinformation that harms farming and food and fibre production.

Mr Higgins encouraged attendees to identify how to commercialise the data they already produce.