You don’t need technology to milk cows. But it sure makes it a lot easier. In the past few decades, many dairies have switched from physical cow cards to computerized herd management systems.

I grew up in a village of 14,000 people in the southwest of England. It was a community surrounded by dairy farms, sheep and pig farms, and rapeseed crops; it also had a slaughterhouse in the centre of the town. My family was involved in many aspects of the livestock and dairy industry, and I even delivered milk to the residents as my first job.