SomaDetect raises $6m Series A from Merck, Ag Capital Canada

The bacterial infection of the udders leads to a loss of roughly $200 per cow, per year for US dairy farmers, according to the Louisiana State University Ag Center. When you look at a lot of technologies that are coming out, people don’t take that into account,” Ag Capital Canada general partner John Lasink told AFN. Based on the scatter pattern, the sensor can determine the somatic cell count in the milk, which is a direct indicator of whether the cow has mastitis or may soon develop clinical signs of the condition. Through the use of computer vision and deep neural networks, the sensor collects data to build algorithms that can predict the presence and concentrations of relevant compounds in raw milk. Through the beta trials, we will look at how our system performs against the status quo method of […] things like detecting pregnancy, measuring milk components, and working with our early adopters to really understand what problems they have on their farms,” Deshpande said.