On RFD-TV: Travis Mulliniks

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11/09/2021 Added

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While precision agriculture has become commonplace on the farm, ranchers have been slower to adopt new tools. Travis Mulliniks, UNL associate professor of animal science, appears live on RFD-TV, Nov. 9, 2021, talking about efforts to change that with new tools that could make ranching more productive.

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[00:00:00.000]Unknown: While Precision Ag has become commonplace on the
[00:00:02.880]farm, it's been slower to come to the ranch. University
[00:00:05.460]Nebraska researchers are now working to harness the power of
[00:00:08.370]data to help livestock producers save time and increase
[00:00:11.580]profits. Associate professor of Animal Science Travis
[00:00:14.760]Mulliniks joins us now with the latest insight. And Travis
[00:00:17.670]thanks for your time here this morning as well. So why have
[00:00:20.850]precision techniques been a bit slower to adapt for ranchers
[00:00:24.360]or be adapted by the ranch community versus some of the
[00:00:27.570]other options that are out there in the ag sector?
[00:00:31.560]Yeah, thanks for having me. There's a lot of reasons why
[00:00:34.950]precision ranching hasn't taken off like precision farming.
[00:00:37.860]If you think about the environments, we have ranching
[00:00:41.310]operations are more extensive. You know, we don't have the
[00:00:44.670]connectivity that a lot of the farming or dairy operations
[00:00:48.360]have. And then a lot is the ability to capture that the the
[00:00:55.230]use of that technology capture a result an economic result
[00:00:59.040]that benefits from from having technology. And so we're kind
[00:01:02.460]of limited from that aspect. You know, University Nebraska
[00:01:06.420]or Nebraska is fortunate to have the Gundmundsen Sandhills
[00:01:08.670]Laboratory, about a 12,800 acre working ranch in the heart
[00:01:12.450]of the Sandhills. Along with Montana State and Oregon State,
[00:01:16.680]we were able to receive a $15 million, five-year grant to
[00:01:21.450]look at precision livestock management on rangelands. And so
[00:01:25.560]we're using this money as really this testbed of emerging
[00:01:28.950]technologies that can potentially make a big impact of
[00:01:33.600]increasing the efficiencies of ranching.
[00:01:36.630]So talk a bit about these technologies that you guys are
[00:01:39.270]testing out?
[00:01:42.120]So one thing we're looking at is some strategic pasture
[00:01:45.270]based feeding systems that allow a rancher to individually
[00:01:48.480]supplement a program rate to livestock on pastures. If you
[00:01:52.470]think about feeding cows on pasture basis, the variation
[00:01:56.100]intake is huge. And so you'll have some cows over eating,
[00:01:58.860]some cows under eating. And that can lead to a huge decrease
[00:02:03.090]in or huge increase in variation in responses. We're using
[00:02:08.370]3D images to to capture body weights and condition scores of
[00:02:12.840]cows so producers can be a little more proactive in their
[00:02:15.600]decision making from aspects that they couldn't capture
[00:02:18.450]before. We're using technologies like virtual fencing, to
[00:02:23.340]rotational or target grazed pastures. And then satellite
[00:02:27.660]imageries, and drones and other remote sensing that can
[00:02:30.450]really help from a resource management efficiency,
[00:02:34.920]Detail how these benefit producers in the short term and
[00:02:38.490]also as they plan for the long term.
[00:02:41.230]Yeah. So if you think about cost of production in the last
[00:02:44.560]20-30 years have continuously gone up. But our production
[00:02:48.430]output has been really steady in the last 30 years. So we
[00:02:52.660]haven't increased weaning weights, or pregnancy rates in the
[00:02:55.540]United States. And so, this is where precision tools can
[00:02:58.750]really come in and increase the resource efficiency of
[00:03:02.350]labor, our feed costs, etc. That can really help with that
[00:03:07.180]efficiencies. And our long term goal is how can we couple
[00:03:11.110]all of this together into one easy interface that can make
[00:03:15.490]decision making easier for producers to increase their
[00:03:19.360]efficiencies?
[00:03:20.800]Alright, well, Travis, thank you very much for your insight
[00:03:22.930]this morning. Travis Mulliniks. He's with the University of
[00:03:25.660]Nebraska-Lincoln, connecting with us today. Thank you again,
[00:03:28.960]Travis.

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On RFD-TV: Travis Mulliniks

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