A New Lab Using AI to Better Understand Farm Animal Behavior and Aid Agriculture Opens at New Bolton Center

An innovative new initiative that aims to use the power of AI to crack the code of animal behavior and help Pennsylvania farmers and agriculture celebrated its official launch at University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s (Penn Vet) New Bolton Center last week.

DAT-AI-LAB, a collaboration between Penn Vet researchers and AgriGates, a Philadelphia-based agri-tech firm, has already begun working with animals from the Swine Teaching and Research Center and New Bolton Center’s dairy herd, collecting data that may one day better inform livestock care and management and advance animal husbandry in an agriculture-rich state.

“AI opportunities in animal agriculture are limited only by imagination and science-backed research and implementation,” said Andrew Hoffman, Penn Vet’s Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “We look forward to engaging stakeholders, connecting investors, founders, and innovators with the academic AI ecosystem at Penn and our partners, and meeting the grand challenges and opportunities for the future.”

At a roundtable discussion at New Bolton Center’s Allam House and the outdoor ribbon-cutting event that followed, university leaders, state officials and other stakeholders engaged in plans for the new center.

Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said the new center shows what can happen when people come together to collaborate for change.

“We can do it better together,” Redding said. “That’s why this day is an important day to celebrate. It’s a good reminder that innovation matters. It is because when we invest in innovation, we’re not just building technology. We’re building resilience. That resilience is critical. You help us find the disease earlier, help us resolve the problem faster. You help both the animals and the planet get better. Our food systems get better, and the families certainly are better off for Pennsylvania.”

Last year, AgriGates received a grant from the state’s first $10 million round of Agriculture Innovation Grants. Daniel Foy, co-founder of AgriGates and the new lab, said that the money helped kickstart DAT-AI-LAB, which stands for Data, Analysis, and Technology for Artificial Intelligence in Livestock Animal Behavior. In addition, Pennsylvania’s Center for Poultry Livestock Excellence contributed over $200,000 over the past three years to help develop the AI and machine-learning technology to study animal behavior and, most recently, to help create the lab.

“Animal behavior is an underappreciated, universal economic indicator for the identification of clinical problems and the early diagnosis of health and welfare in animals,” Foy said.

Human observation is still “the gold standard in large animal care,” but today’s farms often face labor limitations, he said. Technology like AI helps collect huge amounts of data humans alone cannot and turn it into information valuable to farmers.

“This is about giving us tools – the picks and the hard hats – to build a new foundation for animal agriculture and the ability to mine for new insights and values.”

Thomas D. Parsons, another chief collaborator in the lab, is director of both Penn Vet’s Swine Teaching and Research Center and the Center for Stewardship Agriculture and Food Security. His work in advancing electronic sow feeding stations and open pen housing rather than confining gestation stalls has changed the way many pigs are housed, especially in Pennsylvania, and resulted in more humane, more efficient feeding practices. And other research done through the center has had a large and beneficial impact on animal agriculture in Pennsylvania and beyond.

The “next chapter” for Penn Vet’s Swine Teaching and Research Center

Parsons, Marie A. Moore Professor of Animal Welfare and Ethics, said the new lab’s work will continue that mission.

 “This is actually our 25^th anniversary of the swine center. I see the DAT-AI-LAB as really the next chapter in the swine center’s journey,” he said.

He also said there is a significant potential benefit for animal experts like himself and fellow researchers to be working hand-in-hand with the AI and tech whizzes.

“We spend a lot of time studying animal behavior and trying to understand the implications for animal health, animal welfare, and animal productivity, but it turns out that’s an extremely labor-intensive task in terms of how we have to analyze the data. There’s a tremendous opportunity with this new technology to really allow us to become much more efficient in our work,”  he said, with animal experts working on-site with data experts.  

At last week’s event, the visitors got to tour the new lab and the swine barn and meet some of the animals that will lend their expertise to DAT-AI-LAB’s work.

Part of the lab’s task will be building databases of knowledge of species-specific animal behavior. Eventually, said Foy, the information will be used to make better and more timely decisions about important areas like animal health and welfare.

“We need to think about how we use the animals themselves to tell us how we should be better managing them,” Foy said. “Using technology to do that is going to give us these digital eyes and ears for diagnostic and predictive capabilities.”

This is particularly important at a time when fewer people are getting involved in agriculture, and farmers need added resources, he said.

Initially, Dat-AI-Lab will focus on New Bolton Center’s swine and dairy animals, but Foy said the center has received interest from other research institutions in the U.S. and Europe about studying other species as well.