When my co-founders and I first started our beef supply chain software company five years ago, we heard the same phrase over and over again: “They’ll never use it.”

I have no doubt that farming will look very different in 20 years than it does now. Whether the blockchain will be a part of agriculture’s future or not is something I can’t say. Whatever technology is implemented in the future, my only hope is that it benefits the farmer the most, instead of companies and middlemen making money off the farmer.

Just as the steam engine and mechanization revolutionized agriculture during the first and second industrial revolutions, today's digital technologies are ushering in what some call the third industrial revolution.

The usage of technology has also been utilized in the beef industry, such as with RFID tags, genomic testing and robotics. The newest technology to enter the ring is artificial intelligence (AI), which is continuing to develop for the use of facial recognition in cattle, which is being implemented, and which can contribute to a national disease animal traceability program with a developing app called CattleTracs.