Building an Ecosystem to Valorize Dairy AI: A Public- Private Pathway to Sustain Ag-Tech Innovation

Moonshot Award

Hybrid Award (Proposal Development & Innovation Development)

Abstract

The U.S. dairy industry generates vast amounts of operational data, yet much of this information remains fragmented across incompatible systems and underutilized for decision-making. This project aims to advance commercialization of a Cornell-developed framework that enables secure, privacy-preserving integration of on-farm data and transforms agricultural research into practical AI-powered decision-support tools for dairy producers. Moonshot funding helps development of a working prototype, proposal development, and commercialization planning. 

To date, the team has submitted proposals to USDA-NIFA programs in 2025 and 2026 to scale the technology and collaborative ecosystem, completed the NSF I-Corps Regional Program in May 2026, participated in the Grow-NY startup competition and STRIDE Ventures AI Efficiency Challenge, and incorporated Agentix Inc. as a New York corporation. The team has also initiated the licensing process with Cornell University. The project will help farmers turn fragmented data into actionable insights to improve productivity and resource efficiency, while establishing a scalable pathway for translating Cornell research into commercial technologies. 

The venture will further strengthen Cornell’s leadership in digital agriculture, expand university-industry partnerships, and create high-skilled jobs in New York.