New Zealand dairyman creates Tinder for cows

MATAMATA, Waikato, New Zealand — Making the most informed mating decisions for each cow was a task that took up too much of Matthew Zonderop’s days during the breeding season. To maximize his efforts, he has turned to technology.

Zonderop milks 400 KiwiCross cows as a 50-50 share milker on a farm near Matamata, Waikato, at the base of the Kaimai Range Mountains on New Zealand’s North Island.

Like many of his peers, Zonderop used spreadsheets to track data and mate his cows. One day, there was a spreadsheet error he could not locate. This problem led him to combine two different types of AI: artificial intelligence and artificial insemination.

“I’d heard of ChatGPT and that it could (find errors),” Zonderop said. “I loaded the spreadsheet and found the error to be a spelling mistake. During the process, ChatGPT actually analyzed all the data for me, without me prompting it.”

That experience was enlightening for Zonderop he said, as he discovered the program analyzed cow and genomic data.

“I wondered what would happen if I put the bull data in with it as well,” Zonderop said. “Then it asked me if I would like to cross-reference those and create a bull-dam match. It basically did the matings for me. Then I realized if it could do that on its own, we could do a lot more with it.”

Zonderop began to refine the process and created a custom-built app within ChatGPT, which he calls Perfect Cow and describes as Tinder for cows.

“I can drive a computer and I’m good with Excel and that sort of thing, but I’m not a coder by any means,” Zonderop said. “But you don’t need to write code with AI; it does that for you.”

That was two years ago, and Zonderop’s first calves produced using ChatGPT matings are on the ground. He is already seeing the benefits of those matings through genomic data.

“When we compare our herd to the national herd, and what our trajectory is like in terms of genomic indexing, we’re seeing the gains,” Zonderop said. “Next season we’ll calve those heifers in and hopefully reap the benefits of the increased genomic improvements.”

Using AI to create matings works well in New Zealand because of the availability of data through the national database, Zonderop said.

“Most of the herd records are in a product called Minda, which is a central cow database for all of your animals,” Zonderop said. “It records all your matings, animal health treatments, history of production and reproduction, and ancestry. All your genomic data is stored against the animals in there. You can just download a report into a comma-separated values file and away you go.”

Using that data, Zonderop’s program can find bulls that fit a farm’s goals

“You can analyze and find the bulls that have the traits you desire, and then you can start drawing on aspects of the animal you’re looking at mating,” Zonderop said.

Using the app to sort and analyze data to make those mating decisions allows farmers to consider data they would have never been able to take in on their own.

“If you were to try and go through a catalog to sort out the different traits, you could never do it at the scale, speed and accuracy needed,” Zonderop said. “If you have 400 cows and you try to do that yourself, you’re going to spend months figuring it out. And even then — are you really going to ever be completely satisfied with the answers you supply yourself during the mating process?”

After realizing how the app lightened his own load, Zonderop began thinking his fellow New Zealand dairy farmers might benefit from using the technology as well.

“They all face the (same) problems as I did,” Zonderop said. “I have a lot of cows and I want to increase productivity per animal. I was spending way too much time pouring over spreadsheets and it was never working out as well as I expected. I would get calves that were disappointments to me, and when I’d start looking deeper into the mating that created them, I would find that it was a mating that was never going to work for one reason or another.”

Zonderop said he designed the system to ensure continued genetic progress.

“Mating cows can go both ways,” Zonderop said. “You can repair the traits or you can enhance the traits, but we have designed the system so that you’re not going to go backwards.”

Through word of mouth and social media, Zonderop offered to use his Perfect Cow system to create matings for his peers. He charges a per-cow fee and consults with each farmer to determine their goals for their herd. Using a CSV they provide for their data, Zonderop uses Perfect Cow to create a mating report for the farmer.

Slowly the concept has gained some media recognition throughout New Zealand’s dairy community.

“It’s on the uptake, but it’s still very small,” Zonderop said. “I’ve done a few thousand cows, mostly in the South Island where the bigger herds are. People are still very cautious around AI and don’t trust it as such. But it’s your data and it’s the bull data. There’s not a lot that can go wrong.”

Zonderop said care has to be taken to ensure smart decisions are made, rather than just choosing a mating that would produce the most dramatic results.

“For example if you want to increase live weight by 35 kilos, we’ll do it over seasons, in increments,” Zonderop said. “Putting an American Holstein bull over KiwiCross cows is not going to end well. Instead, we’ll find a bull that matches that particular group of cows, and he’s got a positive live weight of 7 kilos, and we can build from there.”

With the continual improvement in both cows and the data provided, Zonderop said there is really no limit on potential genetic growth.

“Your imagination is your only limit, really,” Zonderop said. “We can address traits like liters of production, fat and protein production, average live weight, issues with mastitis, decreasing somatic cell count and increasing longevity.”

Zonderop said he hopes to continue to increase the reach of Perfect Cow, helping more of his fellow Kiwi dairymen improve profitability on their farms.

“I want to help farmers avoid breeding and putting money into duds,” Zonderop said. “If we can increase our productivity per animal, reduce our animal health costs and have longer-living cows, that will benefit all of New Zealand’s dairymen.”