I was first introduced to the possibilities of computer-generated data during high school in the 1980s. I later thought it was cutting edge to turn in my grad school homework on a 3 ½”, 1.44mb disc in the early 1990s. That felt like dizzying technological progress then. That’s nothing compared to now.

From easy-to-fake videos to massive energy sucking data centers on rural land, AI is changing everything from web searches to queries of massive databases to predicting your next purchase. AI technology has quickly permeated all aspects of our lives and is now learning more quickly than we know how to adapt.

Dairy farmers, cooperatives, and the broader industry can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. AI’s economic effects are simply too great, and its consequences too profound. Dairy economics are unforgiving, consumer expectations are accelerating, and labor — well, every producer knows that story. If we want a resilient, profitable dairy sector for the next generation, mastery and incorporation of AI isn’t optional. It’s essential.

Let’s start with the most basic reality: Margins in dairy remain tight, and volatility isn’t going anywhere. Feed costs spike, milk prices swing, and global markets move on a tweet or a weather event. Dairy farmers have always been among the most data‑savvy business owners in agriculture, but the sheer volume of information available today — from ration formulation and heat stress to milk yields and cattle health — has far outpaced what a human can digest alone.

That’s where AI earns its keep. We’re talking about tools that don’t just record data but interpret it, learn from it, and predict outcomes before a problem shows up in the bulk tank. It isn’t about replacing the producer’s judgment; it’s about equipping the farmer with massive amounts of data that can be used to calibrate a level of precision that can predict, and allow you to correct, a problem before it occurs.

Cow‑level precision aided by AI may be the biggest potential productivity leap dairy has seen since the rotary parlor. Cows respond to predictable routines, clean stalls, and precisely formulated rations. Modern sensors can track rumination, movement, temperature, and feed intake, building a behavioral fingerprint for every cow. AI systems can pick up early signs of ketosis, mastitis, lameness, or feed disruption days sooner than traditional observation. Now imagine using AI to integrate the weather forecast with a feed ration, optimizing nutrition before the sun comes up. (Actually, we’re already doing this.) That means healthier cows, lower feed costs and vet bills, and higher milk production. In a business where each additional pound of milk matters, such innovations aren’t a luxury — they’re a lifeline, and a competitive advantage for farmers who use AI effectively.

But perhaps the biggest long‑term value of AI in dairy isn’t inside the barn. Without question, the efficiencies AI creates in the dairy supply chain and logistics will be revolutionary and will certainly bring changes. But imagine a world that’s able to seamlessly connect producers to consumers in the marketplace, domestically and overseas. For instance, consumers, major dairy buyers and foreign trading partners increasingly want transparency: how the cow was treated, what it was fed, how the milk was produced, what a dairy’s environmental footprint looks like, etc.

This is the sort of information that seal deals, both with foreign buyers in an export market and with parents shopping at a grocery store. Dairy farmers with AI‑driven monitoring and recordkeeping can document sustainability and animal‑care metrics with a level of detail that wasn’t possible before — a potential advantage when selling to transparency-minded customers.

We already know that impressive performance on carbon intensity, water use, and soil health are competitive advantages. We’ll also soon be able to use AI to predict which investments will garner the best farm-level returns, if we have the right data sets.

None of this means AI is a silver bullet. Major questions and concerns remain on how this technology can be harnessed for the broadest benefit, where the energy to power it will come from, how thriving farms and AI data centers can best coexist, and what safeguards on data privacy and security are needed, with this last point being a serious and complex problem that requires viable, legally enforceable solutions. It’s also important to remember that, like everything else, AI isn’t always right — without human guidance, significant errors can occur, and in the end, the dairy farmer needs to stay in the driver’s seat.

But for dairy, the potential benefits are too great to shy away from the challenges, and we need the industry’s best minds focused on solutions, to get a sense of where AI is going and how dairy can benefit from that path.

That’s why next week, at NMPF’s Board of Directors meeting in Arlington, VA, we’re adding an AI workshop and presentations to our agenda. As the leading U.S. dairy-farmer organization, we want to use our power to convene the industry on a precompetitive basis to wrestle with the questions and challenges we all have in common, to seek common solutions that help all of us thrive, and work through the challenges widespread AI adoption are rapidly placing before us. We’re excited to see what our members come up with, and we’re looking forward to being a repository of knowledge of this critical, fast-changing topic.

The dairies that thrive in the next decade will be the ones that blend human intuition with the predictive power of AI.  We can treat AI as an outsider’s gadget, or as a threat with risks that don’t justify the rewards, or we can embrace it as the next evolution of the same ingenuity that has always defined American agriculture. At NMPF, we are firmly in the camp of AI embrace, knowing that there will be bumps on the road, kinks to work out, and challenging questions to answer along the way, because along with policy leadership, we also help our members seek innovative solutions that benefit the entire industry. Dairy has never been afraid of hard work or new tools. AI is simply the next one we will use to succeed.

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Gregg Doud

President & CEO, NMPF