Some in Nebraska’s agricultural industry are looking for ways to integrate AI into their operations as technology becomes more refined.
One company is planning to use $2 million in funding for AI integration.
Cattler is a cattle management software for ranchers and feedlot operators, and it’s expanding its use of artificial intelligence. Through the software, ranchers are able to feed their livestock, manage cattle, track animal health, and manage accounts and billings. It also allows users to manage their feedlots both online and offline.
Ignacio Albornoz, Cattler’s CEO, said it aims to make the life of producers easier.
“We just want to make their [farmers] life easier as producers and as businessmen, and try to help them run their operation smoothly with a companion that helps them collect their data as they do their chores and connect to anything they have without them having to buy new stuff,” Albornoz said.
The Lincoln-based company recently raised $2 million in funding led by Homegrown Capital.
Cattler plans to use that capital to make upgrades to its software, including integrating more AI. The company is already using AI for coding and internal organization purposes, and plans to expand its usage into data collection, suggestions and creating AI agents.
The company, which already manages a million head of cattle across the U.S., Argentina and six other countries, also plans to use the funding to expand features to include calf operations and pasture management.
Ablornoz estimates that about 180 farms in Nebraska are using Cattler technology in their operations
That includes McLean Feed Yards, where manager Chance McLean has been using Cattler since the start.
McLean said he's seen Cattler get built from the ground up. He became interested in the company after discovering its cloud-based feedlot system that would allow him to remotely fulfill his role from anywhere.
“I don't have to drive all the way back to the feed guard to make that fix, I can do it instantly on my phone,” McLean said.
As manager of the feedyard, McLean has come to embrace AI, using Chat GPT to do research and write emails. He feels that AI has the potential to create cost savings in the beef sector, although both he and Ablornoz note that AI usage in the agricultural world may take time due to generational differences.
Ablornoz said he believes that AI will help data collection in the agriculture world. And recent research shows the technology is growing increasingly reliable.
A University of Nebraska-Lincoln study tested whether generative AI, Chat GPT specifically, can help with farm-decisions making. The study’s goal was to test whether AI can be an accurate, comprehensive and adaptive decision-making tool in crop production. The AI software was fed real-life data in order to generate data-backed decisions throughout the crop cycle.
The researchers entered their work in this year’s Testing Agriculture Performance Solution (TAPS) competition at UNL. Their AI solution placed first in the grain yields category against human farmers. Last year, it placed eighth in the same category. This experiment has been tested since 2024, and they plan to continue testing next year.
AI is not perfect, however. While the UNL study did find success using AI, the software struggled the most with real-time weather forecast, irrigation cost and spatial field variability. The study also suggested that AI enablement will not be ready until accessible agricultural data and investments in rural data infrastructure are available. Human oversight was found to still be an important factor in AI enablement.
Christopher Procter, extension professor in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at UNL and a participant of the study, said that AI is nowhere close to running a farm on its own, but it could be a good enhancement for agricultural operations
“When you pair that type of technology with a farmer or an agronomist, somebody who has expertise in that field, it (AI) becomes really powerful,” Procter said.