Interview with John Best, beef farmer in Northern Ireland, tech pioneer

we connect everything - ubloquity

John Best is a pioneering farmer from Northern Ireland. He has been plying his trade for nearly 50 years, having graduated from university with a degree in agriculture.
Along with his two sons he is a mixed arable and beef farmer. His family has been working from this farm for more than 100 years.
He aims to keep his supply chains short and supply local markets with beans and oats. He also looks after a herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle.
He's seen a lot of changes in the last few decades across the farming sector - but less so in terms of beef.
But that's not stopping John from innovating. Most recently he has been trialling new technology such as RFID tags, DNA samples, together with traditional registration numbers for cattle that are collected at birth.
He's interested in finding innovative ways to reduce their carbon footprint, and put figures around the performance of their animals. Looking for easy calving, and premium cuts. To understand how to select for them, you have to know what you have.
You can't manage what you don't measure. It's about collating the data over a number of years, ease of calving, weight of the animal. Then spotting patterns and areas you can improve on, such as reducing feed.
In the past finding a prize bull was done visually by a judge at a show giving out awards.
Now it is about genotypes and smart tags. Being able to identify the animal for the whole of its life - using DNA samples in addition to the normal static tag in the ear. The other innovation is using smart tags on the animal to detect changes in its temperature. Which can act as an early warning light that something needs to change.
He says Northern Irish farmers can't easily compete with Argentinian or Brazilian beef, but they can create premium products, rising above the commodity market. You do that by giving customer assurance at every step of the way.
John is excited by the opportunity of harnessing the blockchain to capture and verify carbon sequestration on farm, and that selling carbon credits is a very real opportunity for progressive farmers.
Carbon sequestration is the long-term removal, capture, or sequestration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow or reverse atmospheric CO2 pollution helping to mitigate or reverse climate change.

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