Animal AgTech Fort Worth 2027 Agenda

Four parallel tracks cover beef, dairy, poultry and eggs, and swine. Each sector runs on different economics, infrastructure, and biology, yet is often offered one-size-fits-all solutions. Each track starts with a producer’s view of where value is being lost, then moves into working groups to agree which problems deserve investment and what it will take to solve them.

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Four parallel tracks cover beef, dairy, poultry and eggs, and swine. Each sector runs on different economics, infrastructure, and biology, yet is often offered one-size-fits-all solutions. Each track starts with a producer’s view of where value is being lost, then moves into working groups to agree which problems deserve investment and what it will take to solve them.

Find out more →

Elevate your knowledge and engage in meaningful conversations with industry experts. Join focused, interactive discussion groups to explore the industry-critical topics most relevant to you and your business. Each roundtable is led by an expert on a specific theme, providing valuable opportunities to network, brainstorm solutions, and exchange ideas with peers who share your interests.

Biological products, physical technology, and software platforms cannot be judged against the same timelines, evidence, or routes to return. Which innovations are investable, what capital fits, and where is weak commercial readiness mistaken for a funding gap? Specialist investors, strategic corporates, and alternative capital providers debate where capital should go, which milestones make a business investable, and whether recent raises and acquisitions signal a maturing market or isolated successes.

Water scarcity, energy costs, and pressure on manure and processing by-products are creating operating risks, but also opportunities to cut costs and generate income. Regenerative grazing, better water management, and resource recovery could strengthen production, lower costs, and create new income, but only where the gains justify the transition, measurement, and infrastructure required. Which circular models pay without incentives or favorable prices? Three cases on water management, energy and nutrients from manure, and processing by-products test whether savings or revenue outweigh the full cost of infrastructure, transport, operation, and market development.

1. Regenerative grazing and water resilience: did the transition strengthen production?
Did changes in grazing, forage, soil, or water management improve carrying capacity, drought resilience, input efficiency, or animal performance enough to justify the transition, measurement, and management required?

2. From manure to value: do energy, nutrient and emissions returns cover the cost?
Did renewable energy, recovered nutrients, and lower emissions create enough value to justify the infrastructure, specialist operation, and performance risk, with or without credits and incentives?

3. Processing by-products: when does recovery pay?
or a food or meat processor, did turning water, fats, residuals, or surplus food into feed, fertilizer, or fuel beat the simplest existing use once quality, logistics, and processing costs were counted?

Disease can spread faster than systems can contain it, causing animal losses, movement restrictions, and market disruption. Prevention, diagnostics, and disease-resistant technologies are advancing, but approval processes, fragmented surveillance, and difficult deployment can delay action until losses have already begun. From farm-level prevention to new world screwworm, where can industry and regulators move faster, and which investments should producers fund and which should be funded collectively across the wider system?

1. Prevention: Did earlier investment reduce the cost of disease?
Did vaccination, genetics, nutrition, biosecurity, or antimicrobial stewardship prevent enough loss to justify acting before clinical problems emerged?

2. Detection: Did earlier warning change the outcome?
Did point-of-care diagnostics, sensors, or digital surveillance identify a threat early enough to improve health, performance, or containment, or did false alerts, slow results, and weak workflows undermine the return?

3. Response: Can new world screwworm be contained at scale?
Can surveillance, sterile-insect capacity, animal-movement data, and cross-border coordination hold the line, and can producers report suspected cases without carrying disproportionate financial risk?

Build valuable connections through structured networking with peers across animal agriculture, welcoming women and allies committed to supporting female leadership.

Capital can extend the runway, but it cannot fix weak product-market fit, an unscalable sales model, or a business customers will not buy repeatedly. Founders who have scaled, sold, or stalled share what turned early traction into repeatable revenue, the commercial and leadership capabilities that mattered most, and the warning signs that should trigger a pivot, sale, or stop.

Unwind with fellow delegates over drinks, continue the day's conversations, and make new connections in a relaxed setting.

Livestock businesses collect vast amounts of data, but much remains disconnected. Can AI turn these signals into trusted decisions, not just another dashboard, and overcome barriers around integration, data ownership, privacy, and workflows? Cases from farms, automated workflows, and integrated supply chains test whether better decisions reduce losses enough to justify integration costs and workforce change, without adding complexity or vendor dependency. Who should fund and control this operating layer, and what must be proven before ai can direct action?

1. AI in practice: Did connected data improve the decision?
Did combining animal, feed, health, environmental, labor, or financial data change a specific operating decision early enough to improve performance, cut cost, or lower risk, or simply add another recommendation for staff to interpret?

2. Automation and computer vision: Did detection lead to action?
Did computer vision, robotics, or automation reduce labor or production loss in real operating conditions, and did reliability, staff adoption, and performance justify continued use?

3. From farm data to supply-chain decision: Who captured the value?
Did farm-level data improve an integrator’s or processor’s production, logistics, or processing decisions, and were the cost, risk, and value shared fairly with the operation generating the data?

Hear from start-ups tackling critical challenges across the livestock industry. Each will be questioned by a farmer and an investor to test the producer problem, strength of the solution, evidence, implementation, economics, and route to scale. The audience will then vote for the innovation with the greatest potential to deliver practical commercial value.

Genetic progress can improve productivity, health, and product value, but every breeding decision locks in cost and trade-offs for years. Which traits and technologies will create measurable livestock value, and which risk leaving producers behind?

Cattle and poultry or swine cases compare promising traits with the evidence, time, and market access needed to turn genetic gain into producer return: which traits pay back over an animal’s lifetime, what poor selection really costs, and whether data and market access support the investment?

1. From genomic insight to breeding decision: Did better selection create more value?
Did combining genomic and performance data improve cattle retention and culling decisions, and did the gain justify the cost and breeding trade-offs?

2. Breeding for resilience: Is disease resistance worth the trade-off?
Did gains in disease resistance, livability, or robustness in poultry or swine outweigh compromises in growth, fertility, feed efficiency, or other breeding priorities?

Consumer demand for animal protein remains resilient, but the outlook differs sharply across beef, dairy, pork, poultry, and eggs. Which sectors have room to grow, where will supply or processing constraints limit the opportunity, and what will changing feed costs, consumer spending, and export demand mean for investment in 2027?

Feed is the largest recurring cost, but better performance does not always deliver stronger margins. Which nutrition interventions can produce consistent gains in feed efficiency and health, and measurable returns for producers?

Ruminant and monogastric cases compare promising claims with the cost and consistency of results in commercial production: which gains created enough margin to keep investing, why strong trials failed on the farm, and who should pay when the value lands elsewhere in the supply chain?

1. Rumen innovation: Did lower methane improve the margin?
Did lower methane, better efficiency, or stronger performance outweigh the recurring cost and delivery demands, and who paid when the value sat elsewhere?

2. The monogastric microbiome: Did gut-health gains justify wider use?
Did improvements in gut health, feed efficiency, or pathogen control in poultry or swine outweigh the product, administration, and implementation costs?

Too many livestock technology pilots fail to become repeat purchases. Tools must cover installation, integration, labor, training, and disruption—and keep delivering after initial support ends. Producers from extensive ranching, data-rich dairy, and integrated poultry or swine operations compare the original business case with on-farm results. What earned renewal or expansion, which hidden costs eroded returns, and why were solutions renegotiated or abandoned? What must providers prove to win the next order?

1. Virtual fencing: Did the operational return justify expansion?
Did savings in labor, better grazing management, and greater herd visibility outweigh the demands of connectivity, animal training, and ongoing system management?

2. Dairy data: Did better integration lead to better decisions?
Did connecting existing data and automation improve decisions and cut avoidable costs, or simply add another system for staff to manage?

3. Integrated production: What did it take to scale beyond the pilot?
What evidence, integration, and operational consistency were needed to take a successful poultry or swine deployment across multiple facilities and production teams?

Consumer demand is moving faster than R&D priorities, leaving capital tied up in innovations customers may not reward, while critical supply constraints go unsolved. Where should the industry focus resources to protect supply, strengthen margins, and create products the market will pay for?

With nutrient-dense food rising up the federal agenda, and US calorie consumption plateauing, protein policy is reshaping the outlook for livestock, food manufacturing, and public health. Which policy direction will improve nutrition, unlock investable growth, and ensure more of the return reaches farms and ranches?

BUILDING THE NEXT PROTEIN OPPORTUNITY | US calorie consumption may be plateauing, but protein demand remains resilient. Future growth depends on adding value through nutrition, quality, and differentiated products while easing the disease, labor, resource, and processing constraints on supply. Where can protein businesses grow profitably, and is innovation focused on the problems most likely to hold them back?