Using Bespoke AI Bots to Transform Beef Enterprise Decisions

Client Profile:

A leading Queensland beef producer running ~1,000 breeders across 100,000 acres and a 5,250-head feedlot supplying 70% of its beef to a national supermarket and 30% to export markets.

Challenge:

Managing such a complex, vertically integrated operation leaves little time to step back and run structured procurement, capital feasibility processes or to innovate in other operational areas that can drive cost out or improve productivity.

Despite having data systems (StockAid, FY3000, Xero, etc.), much of the decision burden still fell on gut feel, fragmented spreadsheets, and trader relationships.

The family saw an opportunity: could AI tools act like a decision assistant-to save time, reduce hidden cost leakage, and bring more rigour to high-stakes decisions?

Too often, major input buys (feed, cottonseed, fuel, straw) or capital decisions (yards, sheds, bulls) are made quickly, under pressure of time and other priorities, and without the luxury of deep analysis or structured comparisons.

The client wanted to trial AI tools to test whether these decisions could be improved - both in terms of speed, quality and financial outcomes.

Business Challenges

1. High-frequency decisions under pressure
   Regular purchases of fuel, grain, cottonseed, and feeder cattle demand constant attention. Mistakes, sub-optimal or slow decisions cost margin.
2. Overlooked overheads
   Inputs like electricity, fuel, freight, and yard maintenance sometimes “slip through the cracks” in the rush to meet other demands.
3. Capital investments with uncertain returns
   Projects like cattle yard upgrades or feedlot roofing require deep feasibility analysis and confidence before spending.

Solution:

Two custom-built AI bots were deployed by Factum AI:

• Procurement Bot: built to compare landed costs across grain, cottonseed, straw, diesel, live stock and fertilisers, translating market and climate data into clear buy-now vs hold-off signals (and giving valuable negotiation input).
• Operations Bot: designed to support capital and operational feasibility work - testing scenarios like whether to build new infrastructure or adjust feedlot workflows.

The Bots were trained on farmer input, market cost frameworks, freight assumptions, and climate-to-action rules, as well as deep market intelligence sources and case studies.

Solution: How the Bots Were Applied

Procurement Bot

• Standardised supplier quotes into a delivered cost to farm using built-in freight assumptions.
• Fed in climate outlooks (BOM + analogs) to convert forecasts into buy/hold triggers for grain, cottonseed, and protein.
• Monitored market listings to cross-validate quotes (including public sales by grain houses).

Operations Bot

• Ran feasibility models on cattle yard upgrades, projecting capital cost, throughput gains, welfare benefits, and payback timelines.
• Drafted tender documents and generated shortlists of local builders (shifting the planning burden off the family).
• Assisted in bull auction preparation: cross-matching catalogue EBVs to herd goals and modelling ROI for prospective sires.
• Built structured negotiation “plays” and price-floor evidence packs for supermarket contract discussions using internal performance, feed, and carcass data.

Results to Date:

Early use has been highly promising.

The Bots have augmented the owner’s decision-making - and added quality, speed, rigour, and confidence to the process. Supporting decisions with fresh and practical ideas, and saving huge amounts of time (and money).

• Time Saved: Instead of hours planning, researching and chasing quotes, the Bots now surface detailed insights, plans and financial projections in seconds.
• Money Saved: By helping the owner go from concepts to detailed plans in minutes - without the need for deep consultation with advisors - much time and money has been saved. in one example alone, by following the guidance of the Bot, $1,200 was saved on a bulk fuel purchase (expected savings pa of ~$20k on fuel alone).
• Better Decisions:
• On a cattle yard upgrade feasibility, not only did the Bot generate a plan and cost estimates in just seconds, it suggested going to tender - a step the owner admitted he “wouldn’t have thought to do.” It even drafted a detailed tender document and identified a shortlist of builders.
• When considering whether to cover part of a feedlot, the operations Bot ran a feasibility analysis, pulling in capital cost, feed conversion benefits, global learnings and weather risk - in seconds. This gave the owner a clear sense of feasibility and payback period before speaking to builders.
• Ahead of a bull auction, the AI surfaced relevant Lots and their pros and cons, and prepared structured valuation scenarios that flagged likely top-end bidding limits, ensuring discipline on the day.

As the owner put it:

“I wouldn’t have thought to go to tender on the cattle yard. The AI suggested it, drafted a tender doc, and gave me a shortlist of builders. Remarkable. Saved weeks of time.”

Summary:
The Bots have proven valuable and effective, with plenty of upside ahead.

They're not flashy gadgets - just practical, trusted tools that help make everyday real-world decisions faster, cheaper, and better - and will likely help save hundreds of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

 

- anonymised for client privacy -

 

No matter the organisation, the approach is the same. Understand the strategic & operational needs. Apply intelligent AI solutions. Augment and amplify the efforts of the humans. 

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