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The Small Inventions That Make a Huge Difference
October 5, 2025
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October 7, 2025
Like you and me, cows seem to like their wearables. However, in the bovine world, we are referring to the precision farming devices that monitor livestock and increase productivity.
Precision Farming
Milkers
Last May, Lely told us that each day, their equipment milks 2,500,000 cows in over 50 countries.
When econlife first looked at robot milkers in 2014, we explained how, rather than following a human schedule of pre-dawn mornings and late afternoons, the robots respond to what the cows want. Perhaps five or six times a day, the cows line up in front of the milker, waiting, as milk cups are attached and lasers do their job. Each cow is monitored with a transponder around her neck, lasers familiar with her underbelly and computers that know milking speed, quantity and even how many steps she takes. Most cows quickly figure out the equipment. And, they must like it because they keep returning.
You might enjoy (as did I) seeing how a milker works:
Collars
Through movement sensors on a cow’s collar, farmers monitor biometric data. As a result, according to the NY Times, when a farmer recognizes an anomaly, he can begin preventive medical care. Manufactured by Merck, the wearable devices use AI for processing the data.
These are the collars:
The robots and collars are only the beginning. High tech genetics let farmers produce cows with a milk-friendly body. You just have to find the right bull, artificially inseminate, and then hope for success. Feeding too, targeting the lactation cycle, is mechanized, .
Our Bottom Line: Productivity
Monitoring collars and milking robots free farmers to do more productive tasks and also cut labor costs. Transforming farmers’ factors of production, they return us to land, labor, and capital. Called total factor productivity, a boost in inputs brings even more out the other end.
Using Clem’s Bakery, we can better see the impact.
So yes, innovation certainly helps in our factories and also on the farm. It boosts the productivity that gets more output per unit of input and elevates our standard of living.
My sources and more: This NY Times article reminded me that we should return to farm productivity. Having first looked at dairy farming tech in 2014, we returned to the Lely update at their website.
Please note that several of today’s sentences were in a past econlife post.
