BESTMIX at the 87th Minnesota Nutrition Conference: AI gets practical

Lenny Dauw spoke in the swine session on the role of AI in diet formulation and feed mill management. His starting point was that feed companies face growing pressure to deliver precise nutrition at lower cost, with less waste and environmental impact. At the same time, decades of formulation and production data remain underused, often accessible only to experts with long experience. AI can open up that knowledge to nutritionists, formulators, advisors and operators at every level. He illustrated this with practical applications in compound feed manufacturing, including an extrusion case.  

The session was well attended, and two questions from the audience went straight to the heart of the topic: 

• Will AI fully replace formulators? No. AI is meant to make formulators more efficient and give them better insights. AI will remain an assistant whilst the formulator stays in control.
• Can the extrusion case be applied to other production processes? In principle, yes. Any process where multiple parameters affect the quality of the end product is a candidate for AI support. Each case does need to be approached as its own project, and success depends on having enough high-quality data. More specifically, it depends on having the right data: the parameters that actually influence the end product. 

1. AI is becoming reality in our industry. AI is moving beyond the buzzword toward practical solutions. We saw three directions: looking forward (developing nutrition models and formulating rations), looking backward (analyzing animal performance), and applying AI in manufacturing. The program reflected this, with talks on a machine-learning-based adaptive protein concept for amino acid requirements, combining microbiome data and machine learning to predict energy in swine diets, machine learning predictions of early reproductive success in dairy, using AI to understand pig performance and gut function, and how animal scientists can use large language models responsibly.  

2. Nutrition models remain the backbone, especially in dairy. Alongside the AI discussion, general nutrition and nutrition models got plenty of attention. The dairy session covered new insights into calf nutrition and improving herd profitability through nutritional interventions.  

3. Beef on dairy is a growing segment. Breeding dairy cows to beef sires is a newer, evolving part of the industry, and it is raising the value of dairy calves. The beef session included a talk on welfare standards for beef-on-dairy animals.  

4. Drought is weighing on US beef. Several consecutive years of drought are putting beef producers under pressure. 

5. Less focus on animal illness. Disease was much less of a talking point. The conversation centered on performance, efficiency and prediction. 

6. Politics remain a concern. Sessions addressed how recent political changes affect feed economics, and how Proposition 12 is changing the swine workplace for farm workers and managers.