Digital Agritechnology

Dr Toby Mottram FREng, FIAgrE, PhD, MSc., BA(Hons), BSc. began his career as a working herdsman and then retrained as an engineer, moving into research and teaching before going into digital agritechnology start-ups. During his academic career he co- invented robotic milking, developed cow breath sampling, in-line milk analysis and the rumen telemetry bolus. He has been active in policy discussions in Defra coordinating greenhouse gas research 2010-2013 and farm animal welfare. After Silsoe Research closed he focused on commercialising products from research particularly the pH bolus (eCow), antimicrobial monitoring (VirtualVet) and most significantly automated milk progesterone measurement by lateral flow test (Milkalyser). The products combine sensor technology with web enabled data management systems. He completed a BBSRC/Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship in 2016 to develop subsequently raised £1.6 m to develop and demonstrate the prototype LFA analyser. Milkalyser was acquired by Lely the market leader in robotic milking in 2020. eCow was acquired by Wolfhound Analytics in 2021. He is now looking for new challenges in agricultural engineering.

1. Introduction to digital agritechnology 2. From data to information 3. ISOBUS – Standards and uses for data from farm machinery 4. Field robotics for harvesting 5. Navigation and control in field crops 6. Health and welfare monitoring in Dairy Cows 7. Fertility Monitoring in Dairy Cattle 8. Resilient Food Infrastructure and Location-based Categorization of Urban Farms 9. Critical Review of Smart Agri-Technology Solutions for Urban Food Growing 10. Agriculture 4.0:Data platforms in food supply 11. Risk management in Digital Agritech