Animal Tech: Why Medication Tracking And Data Is The Next Frontier

InnovationAnimal Tech: Why Medication Tracking And Data Is The Next FrontierByAidan Connolly,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)Jun 03, 2026, 08:30am EDTAidan Connolly, President, AgriTech Capital, is a food/feed/farm futurologist and author of the book The Future of Agriculture. getty​There is a quiet but critical gap in modern livestock production: medication. We can closely monitor feed intake, growth curves and environmental conditions and increasingly predict disease risk using artificial intelligence. Yet, medication, one of the most important interventions on any farm, remains poorly recorded. This gap reflects an underlying limitation in how livestock systems connect detection, decision-making and outcomes.​Without reliable treatment records, producers are left interpreting outcomes without knowing what actions were taken, when and why, creating a structural weakness in how decisions are made. That disconnect limits learning, reduces consistency and ultimately constrains both productivity and animal welfare improvements.​Across agriculture, working in over 100 countries for more than 30 years, I've heard a common principle: "You can only manage what you measure." That truth should apply to medication as well, but in practice, much of the industry still relies on handwritten logs, memory or disconnected systems, creating blind spots around traceability, efficacy and compliance.​Using What You See​The recent acceleration in precision livestock technologies has brought sensors, computer vision and advanced analytics into routine use. The ability to detect early signs of disease or stress has shifted the industry toward real-time, data-driven decision-making. Digital monitoring systems can combine behavioral, environmental and biological data to provide continuous insight into animal healt...