Hatsun Agro Product Ltd has an asset which you could by no means discover in its stability sheet, nor does it discover a point out in any of its annual experiences. The corporate has simply begun to make use of it.
“Information is Hatsun’s hidden asset,” says R G Chandramogan, Chairman of the ₹6,500-crore dairy merchandise firm, the largest in south India.
About 4 years in the past, Hatsun Agro determined to ear-tag all of the cows owned by farmers supplying milk to the corporate. Ever since, each single element of every animal has been recorded—yield of every cow, insemination, being pregnant and calving. So, “as we speak, we all know our six lakh animals,” Chandramogan advised businessline as we speak.
Synthetic intelligence
What does one do with information? ‘Synthetic intelligence’ in fact! Chandramogan mentioned that after 3-4 months, the corporate would take a name on operating synthetic intelligence. “We’re contemplating it,” he mentioned.
In earlier conversations, firm insiders had advised businessline that milk high quality and yields would solely go up once they run synthetic intelligence on the information. For instance, one would know which semen yields one of the best offspring.
Synthetic insemination
Each time Hatsun chooses to run synthetic intelligence on its information, it might then be the second time it makes use of an AI in its operations. For a few years now, the corporate has been utilizing the opposite AI – synthetic insemination. Hatsun, which has made it its enterprise to help the 4-lakh farmers who provide milk to it, of their animal husbandry, intervenes in a number of methods—getting the animals’ well being checked and artificially inseminating the cows with one of the best semen.
On this once more, information is proving to be useful. Now the corporate “is aware of the daddy and mom” of every calf. So, when the calf attains puberty and is prepared for synthetic insemination, Hatsun is aware of which semen to not give, in order to keep away from in-breeding. “Earlier, we didn’t know, however now we do,” Chandramogan mentioned.
Animal’s well being
Likewise, information additionally helps in predicting illness. If you recognize the father or mother had a illness, you recognize the offspring is liable to it.
Requested if the corporate is seeing the advantages of in-breeding avoidance and illness prediction, notably by way of milk yield, Chandramogan mentioned that such a dedication would take some extra time, however “we all know we’re heading in the right direction.” He noticed that the final three years had been “unstable” and most farmers, notably throughout the Covid-19 instances, couldn’t preserve their animals correctly. Tight now’s the “stabilisation interval” when the animals are regaining their well being.
Rights concern
Hatsun Agro has simply raised ₹300 crore by means of a rights concern, which might be utilised to pay-off high-cost debt. Chandramogan mentioned that the corporate has simply accomplished its ₹1,400-crore capex program, through which it constructed new milk, ice-cream and curd. “Future investments can be much less, the main focus can be extra on growing markets and rising capability utilisation of our crops,” Chandramogan mentioned.
On the NSE as we speak, the shares of Hatsun Agro closed at ₹905.05, up 1.75 per cent .
