In this month’s issue, we have chosen to focus on how AI has already started disrupting agriculture, ahead of AgTech Ireland’s forthcoming conference Transforming Agriculture with Artificial Intelligence. You can book your tickets right now!

Insemination and Intelligence – the I in AI now means both on Irish farms

As the hawthorn turns hedgerows to snow and silage harvesters hum across the countryside, May is one of the busiest times on Irish farms. This is a time when farmers plan ahead for fodder, and breeding for next year, of course, but also for the longer overall business outlook. Increasingly, this involves analysing production, financial, animal health, and other data collected on farms to make decisions for the months and years ahead. This decision-making process is now aided by digital tools on more and more farms, and so AI also means artificial intelligence for Irish farmers.

In anticipation of the upcoming AgTech Ireland Conference — Transforming Agriculture with Artificial Intelligence — we take a moment to explore how AI is not just reshaping the mechanics of farming, but redefining the role of the farmer, the food system, and the very business of agri-food.

AI is already here

Many Irish dairy farmers are already using predictive algorithms to balance feed, monitor health, and optimise breeding cycles. Precision tillage operators use real-time satellite imagery and machine learning to make sub-field level decisions on planting, fertiliser and herbicide use. Co-ops use AI-driven logistics to maximise efficiency across supply chains. Meat processors deploy computer vision and robotics to grade carcasses and ensure compliance. At a recent UCD event, Kerry Group presented how they leveraged nutrient and flavour databases, combined with consumer behaviour and preference data, to rapidly develop a new dairy-based beverage—along with its packaging and marketing campaign—in a fraction of the time required by traditional methods.

AI enables us to fully utilise the data we have been collecting. What was once a buzzword is now a pretty powerful tool, a process, and can even be a competitive advantage.

AI-augmented technologies offer something long sought by farmers and agribusinesses alike: the ability to anticipate and adapt on-farm action to weather events, economic conditions, potential animal disease and welfare issues, and even improve their social licence.

At farm level, the shift from reactive to predictive farming is game-changing. AI-enabled systems can now forecast disease outbreaks based on weather patterns and animal behaviour, minimising veterinary medicine use; optimise crop planting, precision fertiliser spreading and herbicide use decisions with sensor data and satellite mapping; and even alert farmers to animal welfare issues before clinical symptoms appear. In this sense, AI goes beyond automation: it empowers human decision making with digital insight.

In food processing and agribusiness, AI helps to reduce loss, optimise transport logistics, detect anomalies in processing, and fine-tune pricing strategies — especially in volatile global commodity markets.

The case for adoption is increasingly economic, environmental and social, not just technological. Efficiency gains are being measured in farmers’ margins — greater labour efficiency, better feed conversion, tighter resource management, and lower environmental footprint and compliance costs.

Barriers: real and perceived

There are some real obstacles to digitisation in Ireland. Our rural broadband infrastructure is patchy, though improving. Many farmers remain cautious about data-sharing and wary of opaque “black box” technologies. Labour shortages persist in parts of the food processing sector, even as new technologies arrive. And AI’s steep learning curve can be daunting — especially for SMEs.

But there are perceived barriers too. Not every solution needs to be a giant leap for mankind. Many of the best applications of AI in agriculture today are simple, accessible and inexpensive. One doesn’t need to install a fleet of robots to benefit from predictive analytics in grass growth, or use blockchain for livestock traceability. The core value of AI for farmers is that better information leads to better decisions.

What’s at stake for Ireland

Ireland’s export focused, grass-based agri-food punches above its weight globally, yet our food system is deeply tied to our land, our climate, and our story. In this, AI offers not just productivity gains, but narrative power.

Consumers and regulators increasingly want transparency, sustainability, traceability. Irish farms and food processors can use AI to tell these stories — stories of carbon sequestration, emission reductions, water quality and biodiversity action, animal welfare, circularity, and place-based food systems — with hard data to back them. Those are very much the principles which underpin Bord Bia’s Origin Green on-farm audits and the new AgNav joint initiative between Teagasc, ICBF and Bord Bia.

Moreover, Ireland’s growing agtech sector is becoming a source of both innovation and export. Startups and more mature companies like GlasPort Bio, Senus, TerraNutritech, Herdwatch, Micron Agritech and many others show what’s possible when research, venture capital, and farmer insight align. As these homegrown technologies mature, Ireland could become not just a site of AI application, but a global leader in agri-intelligence.

Transforming Agriculture with Artificial Intelligence

The upcoming AgTech Ireland Conference, hosted in partnership with the Farmers Journal, and sponsored by FBD Insurance and Enterprise Ireland, is not just another date in the diary. It is a turning point.

With sessions ranging from case studies in AI-powered on-farm solutions to corporate investment strategies, from European framework to support digitalisation and AI adoption to local deployment challenges, this is the moment to bring AI down to the ground: into the soil, the shed and the boardroom.

A few highlights include:

“Beyond the Hype” – Debunking the myths to cut through the noise on AI regulation, ethics and impact.
“What AI Can Do” – Case studies from Ireland and beyond.
“Redefining Irish Agriculture” – How AI can power resilience, productivity and sustainability on farms.
“Irish and Practical” – Tools and strategies available to Irish farming and agrifood businesses.

The conference features a stellar line-up of speakers, engaging expert MCs and will gather food sector decision makers, tech innovators, policymakers, investors, farming and food industry leaders to explore not just what AI is, but what it can do for Irish food and farming today and tomorrow.

What comes next?

A foundational shift is underway. The tools are new, but the purpose remains to build a smarter, fairer, more sustainable food system.

The AgTech Ireland Conference Transforming Agriculture with Artificial Intelligence is about bringing this global conversation closer to home, and to encourage collaboration in the Irish agrifood ecosystem to shape the next chapter — not just for Irish agriculture, but for those who depend on it.

Have you booked your tickets yet? https://agtechireland.ie/

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