The Livestack Podcast

🇺🇸 Happy Fourth of July, and here's to the next 250 years!
As we celebrate Independence Day, we're reminded why we do what we do: supporting farmers, advancing animal welfare, and helping build a stronger future for agriculture.
Our new AgriGates song captures that purpose perfectly:
"With innovation, care, and heart... AgriGates, we're opening the way, for healthier herds and brighter days."
Here's to the farmers, researchers, veterinarians, and innovators who work every day to strengthen American agriculture and help feed the world.
From everyone at AgriGates, we wish you a safe, happy, and memorable Independence Day.
🇺🇸 Happy Fourth of July!

In this episode, Daniel Foy and Dr. Jim Reynolds are joined by Dr. Michelle Schack, Dairy Veterinarian and Co-Founder of DairyKind, to explore how structured, consistent training on farms directly shapes animal welfare, team performance, and culture.
Dr. Schack shares how her platform has delivered over 76,000 on-farm training sessions across the U.S., helping teams not only meet audit standards but understand the why behind every action. Together, the trio dives into the role of the veterinarian as an educator and culture-builder, the importance of timely and language-accessible training, and how digital learning tools can transform onboarding, retention, and long-term animal care.
From castration and colostrum to carbon emissions and compassion, this conversation shows how a training-first approach can elevate animal welfare, boost job satisfaction, and create lasting value across the dairy supply chain.
Guest: Dr. Michelle Schack, Co-Founder of DairyKindHosts: Daniel Foy (AgriGates) & Dr. Jim Reynolds
You can listen on Spotify and Apple Podcast

Exploring the Hidden Forces Behind Animal Welfare Decisions
In this thought-provoking episode of the LiveStack Podcast, Daniel Foy and Dr. Jim Reynolds explore the foundational, but often overlooked, forces that shape how we treat animals in agriculture. From the mysteries of consciousness to the evolution of ethical frameworks and the undeniable influence of money, this episode invites listeners to rethink how decisions get made on farms and in science.
Jim reflects on the elusive nature of consciousness, how we still don’t fully understand it, yet it underpins everything we do, from human perception to animal behavior. He explains how sentience, the ability to feel, anticipate, and remember, applies not just to people but to cows, pigs, birds, and beyond.
Daniel and Jim challenge the industry to recognize that animals aren’t machines reacting to stimuli but beings with emotional landscapes and expectations. They caution against building AI and precision livestock tools that ignore these deeper dimensions.
Ethics is unpacked as the application of welfare knowledge, how individual, cultural, and societal values inform decisions about pain, comfort, and care. The conversation confronts the influence of short-term economics and production pressures that can lead to suffering, especially in heat stress, calf separation, and workforce challenges.
With examples from swine housing, dairy operations, and the historical evolution of welfare practices, the episode underscores the need for new metrics, ones that measure consciousness and emotion, not just productivity.
The conversation ends with a call to action: to rethink standards, train with intention, and build systems (including AI) that genuinely reflect what animals feel, not just what they produce.
Make sure to also take a read of the associated blog on the AgriGates Website>News.
Listen on Spotify | Apple Podcast

In this episode, Daniel Foy is joined by Dr. Jim Reynolds for a deep dive into the evolving understanding of animal welfare. The conversation starts with Jim’s recent trip to Africa, where he reflects on the profound respect he observed for animals and ecosystems, setting the tone for a discussion about the historical, ethical, and scientific shifts in animal welfare.
The discussion centers around the 1965 Brambell Report, which laid the groundwork for the now-classic Five Freedoms of animal welfare. These freedoms, initially designed to frame the physical and mental needs of animals, are unpacked in the context of changing societal values and emerging science on animal consciousness. Jim explains how the language used then was intentionally broad to foster social change without triggering immediate backlash, and how the term “freedoms” subtly stood in for “rights.”
The episode progresses to explore sentience as the cornerstone of modern welfare thinking: animals as beings with emotions, expectations, and inner lives. Jim and Daniel trace this paradigm shift through philosophy, neuroscience, and practical farming, highlighting how pain, fear, and contentment are not just physical responses but deeply emotional states.
As the conversation turns to the future, Daniel and Jim emphasize the urgent need for better measurement tools in animal welfare, especially as farms move toward precision livestock systems. They call for metrics that go beyond visual audits and instead tap into the behavioral and emotional realities of animals, enabled by machine learning, AI, and sensor technology.
The episode closes on a hopeful note: with respect for animals, smarter tools, and a new definition of welfare based on positive experiences, animal agriculture can align better with ethics, sustainability, and productivity.
To learn more or share feedback, reach out at info@agrigates.io
 

In the evolving landscape of food animal agriculture, measuring behavior is no longer just about observation, it’s about precision, scale, and measurable impact. In this episode, Daniel Foy and Dr. Jim Reynolds examine how behavior data has progressed from handwritten field notes to high-frequency, sensor-driven systems powered by machine learning. This transformation has redefined how we understand welfare, manage animals, and measure sustainability on farms.
Jim and Daniel reflect on the early days of behavior measurement, where simple metrics like lying and standing time were manually recorded and used to make management decisions. Today, those same behaviors are captured by wearable IMU sensors, interpreted through automated video systems, and enriched with environmental and health data to provide a clearer picture of animal welfare. They discuss how behavior has become the most sensitive indicator of welfare, often signaling issues before they become visible, and how these insights are becoming increasingly vital as farms contend with heat stress, lameness, and other welfare risks under changing climate and production pressures.
At the same time, the episode underscores the importance of ethics and human interpretation, even in a world of automation. Behavior doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and Jim emphasizes that good data still requires good questions and context. The conversation also explores how behavior metrics are now being tied to sustainability reporting, providing the kind of transparent, animal-centered evidence that supply chains and consumers increasingly expect.
Whether you work in research, animal health, precision technology, or farm management, this episode offers an in-depth look at why behavioral sensing is becoming a central pillar of modern livestock care and food system sustainability.
To learn more or share feedback, reach out at info@agrigates.ioListen now on Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Before welfare became a scientific field and audit programs became standard, there was a time when farm assessments were built on instinct and good intentions rather than research and rigor. In this episode, Daniel Foy and Dr. Jim Reynolds return to the early 2000s to unpack the formation of the first on-farm food animal welfare audits in the United States.
They revisit how environmental failures in the swine industry unexpectedly laid the groundwork for audit systems, and how the National Pork Board pioneered one of the first welfare audit frameworks, later known as Validus. Jim reflects on joining the audit development team as the lone veterinarian with a conscience many called controversial but whose insistence on standards like shade access reshaped the dairy industry’s approach to welfare.
The conversation traces how these early audits evolved from a simple “walk-around and thumbs-up” into multi-metric systems with standards on shelter, water, space, and even animal behavior. Listeners will hear how progressive farms helped trial the early models, and how assessments transitioned into audits, with long-term impacts on today’s third-party welfare systems.
The episode also looks ahead, with Jim highlighting the need for AI, video, and biometric monitoring to close the gap between annual inspections and real-time welfare risks especially during weather extremes.
Whether you’re in animal health, ag-tech, or auditing, this episode offers critical insights into the roots of food animal welfare monitoring and what’s next.
Topics covered include:
The surprising role of the National Pork Board in welfare audit development
Why early audits lacked science but sparked major shifts in practice
How shade, shelter, and calf housing became welfare flashpoints
Friction and collaboration in defining welfare metrics pre-2010
The rise of Validus and the evolution into industry-wide programs
Why real-time data from AI tools is the future of meaningful audits
What Jim wishes he could go back and change in early programs
To learn more or share feedback, reach out at info@agrigates.io.
You can listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Episode 24: The History of Contemporary Welfare – 30 Years of ChangeLiveStack Podcast with Daniel Foy and Dr. Jim Reynolds
Over the past three decades, food animal welfare has undergone a profound transformation. In this episode, Daniel Foy and Dr. Jim Reynolds trace the arc of this shift, beginning with the industry’s earliest confrontations with welfare, from undercover videos in U.S. slaughterhouses in the late 1980s, to pivotal moments like McDonald's engagement with Temple Grandin, to the global emergence of welfare science as a formal discipline.
Listeners will hear about the pivotal role of early academic figures like David Fraser and Dan Weary, the rise of university-based research groups, and how targeted legislation in places like California challenged entrenched practices such as tail docking and dragging downer cows. Jim and Daniel explore how these ethical pressures evolved into measurable welfare outcomes, backed by peer-reviewed science.
This episode also delves into the role of agri-tech, sensor data, and precision livestock tools in building a future where welfare is no longer subjective. As welfare metrics have become more rigorous, the industry now faces the challenge of integrating accurate digital systems to meet both farm-level realities and growing consumer expectations.
Whether you're new to welfare science or have followed its evolution, this episode connects the past to the present, and outlines the next chapter for how technology, ethics, and data science will shape the way we care for livestock.
Topics covered include:
The 1989 slaughterhouse footage that catalyzed U.S. welfare reform
Temple Grandin’s early audits and influence on corporate practices
Tail docking, downer cow legislation, and early welfare policy wins
Emergence of leading research centers (UBC, UPenn, WAFL)
The scientific shift from anecdote to measurable welfare indicators
Current challenges with wearables, black-box algorithms, and scaling behavioral measurements
How precision welfare data will define the future of food animal management
To learn more or share feedback, reach out at info@agrigates.io
You can listen on Apple Podcast | Spotify

In this new format for the LiveStack Podcast, co-hosts Daniel Foy (Co-Founder & CEO of AgriGates) and Dr. Jim Reynolds (Veterinarian and Professor Emeritus in Livestock Welfare) kick off by introducing themselves and laying the foundation for a thoughtful, ongoing discussion on food animal welfare and the transformative role of technology.
Jim shares his personal journey from practicing dairy and beef medicine in California to becoming a board-certified expert in animal welfare, emphasizing that good veterinary care is inseparable from understanding animals’ physical and mental well-being. Daniel reflects on how early work in food tech and livestock wearables sparked his interest in the power of behavioral metrics for deeper insight into welfare and individual animal care.
Together, they explore:
The evolution of animal welfare as a scientific and ethical discipline
Definitions of welfare, including the shift from avoiding harm (Five Freedoms) to promoting positive states (Five Domains)
How sensor systems and AI can improve the consistency and objectivity of welfare assessments on farms
Why consumer demand and ethical expectations are shaping the future of livestock production
The challenges of translating human observation into digital systems that are scalable, reliable, and actionable
Opportunities for producers to adopt tech-enabled welfare systems as a pathway to healthier animals, better sustainability, and greater market trust
The episode sets the tone for future conversations on welfare metrics, behavioral modeling, sensor standardization, and how the agri-tech ecosystem can align with the growing demand for transparency and ethical assurance in food systems.
🔊 Tune in to hear how “happy animals” could be the key to a healthier food system, better farm management, and stronger consumer confidence.
Listeners are encouraged to send questions or topic suggestions to info@agrigates.io for future episodes.

In this episode, Daniel Foy and Jim Reynolds sit down with Matt Dobbs, CEO of AgSense, to explore the intersection of animal welfare, production efficiency, and agricultural technology. Matt, a veterinary surgeon and lawyer by training, shares his journey from clinical practice to leading AgSense, a UK-based AgriTech company focused on enhancing dairy cow welfare and sustainability. 
The discussion begins with Matt’s background in veterinary care and his transition from treating individual animals to herd-level welfare strategies. He emphasizes how proactive health planning, rather than reactive treatments, has been a guiding principle in his career. The conversation then delves into how AgSense’s technology.  
Jim and Daniel highlight the importance of moving beyond traditional metrics and incorporating the Five Domains Model, which evaluates an animal’s physical and emotional well-being. They discuss the need for standardized data collection, AI-driven insights, and cost-effective sensor technology to scale welfare monitoring across diverse farming systems. 
Matt also addresses broader industry challenges, including labor shortages, farm consolidation, and the ethical responsibility of improving animal welfare while maintaining productivity. The conversation underscores how technology, when combined with strong ethical values, can drive sustainable improvements in livestock management. Matt shares AgSense’s global expansion, upcoming innovations in AI and environmental monitoring, and the importance of industry-wide collaboration.  
Bio: Matthew Dobbs BVM&S, Cert CHP, DipLaw, ARAgS, MRCVS 
A vet and lawyer, Matt has spent time in academia (University of Sydney and Royal Veterinary College) before founding Westpoint Veterinary Group. He is a Nuffield Scholar, recipient of the Bullock Award and the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in Agriculture, and an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Societies. 
Matt is the founder & CEO of vision-based livestock monitoring AgTech business AgSense, chair of the MWI Clinical Advisory Board, and the Digital Practice Lead for Stonehaven Consultancy. He also founded and chairs multiple digital businesses, including FarmLaw.co.uk, HeckinGood, VetYou, and Animal Health Angels. 

Welcome to Episode 21 of the LiveStack Podcast! In this episode, we dive into insights from three pivotal conferences held in Italy this summer: the Welfare Assessment of Animals at the Farm Level (WAFL), the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), and the EU Precision Livestock Farming (EU-PLF) conference. The discussion centers around advancements in agritech, the development of data standards, and how these innovations are driving improvements in food animal welfare.
Joining Daniel Foy, Co-Founder and CEO of AgriGates, are three incredible guests with diverse backgrounds and expertise in animal welfare and precision livestock farming (PLF):
Sky (Kehan) Sheng: A PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia’s Animal Welfare Program, Sky’s research intersects animal welfare science and data science within PLF. Her work focuses on advancing automated methods for dairy cow behavior assessment, developing systems for lameness detection, and establishing behavioral baselines using sensor data to enhance animal care and monitoring.
Adrien Lebreton: Adrien’s passion for livestock farming stems from his upbringing in Normandy, France. With a background as an agricultural engineer specializing in Animal Science, Adrien has explored cutting-edge technologies such as 3D imaging for phenotyping and AI models for grazing traceability. Now at the French Livestock Institute (Idele), he continues to push the boundaries of PLF for outdoor ruminants, integrating technologies like GNSS collars, virtual fencing, and drones.
Michael Odintsov Vaintrub: Michael combines his veterinary training and expertise in preventive medicine with a passion for integrating PLF technologies into small-scale and extensive farming systems. As co-founder of the start-up Regrowth, he develops modular PLF systems tailored for farms in marginal areas. Michael’s interdisciplinary approach spans animal health, welfare, soil science, and agroecology, which he implements at “The Green Pearl,” his agroecological demo farm in Teramo, Italy.
This episode is packed with thoughtful discussion on how cutting-edge research and technology are shaping the future of animal welfare and sustainable farming practices.
Stay informed and inspired—tune in to Episode 21 of the LiveStack Podcast, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!