Artificial intelligence the primary source of sheep counting at Bunbury’s V&V Walsh processing facility

AI has hit South West agriculture in a big way, with a major local processor emphasising the age-old adage “if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling backward”. Artificial intelligence has become the primary source in counting sheep at the V&V Walsh Bunbury processing facility in a bid to minimise frustrations between farmers, truckies, stock agents and meat processors. A camera is set up above the race where sheep move off the truck into the facility, which counts sheep passing a checkpoint. The AI knows how to account for sheep that go back and forth over the checkpoint. While the idea of similar technology has been raised in the industry, V&V Walsh have backed it in as their primary data source. V&V Walsh Bunbury plant manager Darren Brady said the new technology provided confidence in livestock inventory. “It just gives us confidence that accounts off the truck are correct,” he said. “If we are questioned in any way, shape or form, we can go back to the footage and we can review it and it will tell us exactly what was there.” General manager Brett Dancer said V&V Walsh was “steering into the skid” when it came to technological developments. “(Counting sheep is) something which has obviously been a pain point in the industry for some time,” he said. “We’re really trying to lean into AI technology now to help with that process both for our staff and also to give the producers that confidence that we’ve got something to back up the numbers that are really coming through the facility.” He said this would not be the only advancement for the Bunbury processing facility. “Technology is evolving at such a pace, and I think we’ve got to be open to be able to do things differently,” Mr Dancer said. Despite concerns linking AI development with growing unemployment rates, Mr Dancer insists that isn’t where V&V’s advancements are headed. “Counting sheep isn’t the most critical value-adding roles that they (employees) could be doing on site,” he said. “All we’re doing is freeing staff up to go and do more important roles. We are never going to get away from people on our site.” He hoped to see more artificial intelligence used at the facility. “To be able to get real time data on pricings in different markets so that we can be agile and move our product to different markets is another way where AI technology can assist,” he said. “As AI and technology evolves, our industry needs to follow, or look to adopt where it is feasible. So I think there’s opportunities right throughout our facility and our production plant to bring in that sort of technology.”