Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

"Finally, moo!" — said all 650 cows at Major Farming after reading the latest update from ‪@Innovateuk‬ (Innovate UK) about the Women in Innovation winners 🎉

This time, apart from the 100 women who reached the top recognition of this prestigious competition, dairy cows are the real winners. Because at ‪@MooMoreCows‬ (Moo More) we are doing something for them: bringing AI and thermal imaging to help dairy farmers detect lameness earlier.

𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀?

It's such a pain! 😭
Literally — for the cows.
And the same scale of pain for dairy businesses: lost milk yield, treatment costs, extra labour.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴?
Because it's expensive.
Lameness costs UK dairy farms an estimated £330 per case in lost milk yield, treatment and labour (AHDB).
Cows instinctively hide pain. It's their nature.
By the time the limp is visible, the damage inside the foot is often already done.
Every day you spot a problem earlier is a day of discomfort saved for the cow — and money saved for the farm.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴?
Something different from the leaf area measurements this time :)

-> MooMore is a visual AI system designed to detect the early signs of lameness in dairy cows using thermal (infrared) imaging — before visible symptoms appear. Inflammation shows up as heat. Heat comes before the limp.
-> The output is deliberately simple: NORMAL / WATCH / CHECK, for farm staff to act on.
It is a screening aid, not a diagnosis. We are not replacing the vet, the mobility scorer or the hoof trimmer.
-> Final point: MooMore is an experimental direction for ‪@petiolepro‬ (Petiole Pro)
Now we combine not only computer vision and deep learning, but also physical AI 🤩

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄?
Not yet there 😉
I mean our 12-month pilot is underway.
Huge thank you to Will Sanders and his brilliant team at Major Farming 🙏
I will share more details on our partnership soon.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗨𝗞 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻?
Perhaps you've seen my purple-style posts... But if not: Women in Innovation is an ecosystem programme at Innovate UK that supports women founders (the prize is big: an extra £250bn for the UK economy if women will be supported at the same rate as men). This year, the programme marks its 10th anniversary with its largest ever cohort.
100 women founders, from a record 1,590 applications 🚀

Sincere congratulations to every female founder in this cohort.

I am so honoured to be part of it — and to represent the interests of 650 dairy cows in Staffordshire, and a few million more across the UK and worldwide.

I believe NOW is the right time to bring some AI to cows :)

Thank you for the opportunity to
🙏 Innovate UK
🙏 Emily Nott
🙏 Karen Souza
🙏 Ashley Petrons
🙏 Alex Taylor
🙏 Maria Basilisco
🙏 Gaia Hudson - MCIM
🙏 Richard Roberts

Moo! 🐮🚀🌍

#WomenInnovate #drmarynakuzmenko #DairyFarming

2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 6

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

To announce something business-serious in early August?
Yes, I'm joking - I won't do this 😂.

I just decided to show a bit of our current direction at Petiole Pro (‪@petiolepro‬ )

So it won't be a huge surprise for you in September, and so on.

That's why it's not really an announcement.
I wanted only to say that we are testing our desktop version of Petiole Pro 🤩.

For the last 11 years, growers and agronomists have told us the same thing. Particularly if the farm is mid-size (more than a few people but still SME-size).

The phone is great in the field
But the real work piles up back at the desk.
A folder of hundreds of leaf photos — or photos of fruit flowers, fruits on the trees, etc. — assessed one tap at a time: it's just not working.
The day is full of so many things.
This "one tap" approach should be automated.

We absolutely understood this pain and kept saying "someday".
So finally, this someday is almost done :).

Over the last month, we finally put the Petiole Pro desktop platform in front of a few growers and researchers. They shared some positive feedback 🙂.

Why did it happen?
Obviously not because our team worked hard but because:
-> Drop in a whole folder,
-> Assess every image the same way,
-> Export results you can actually use.

This sounds like a simple, clear plan — and it works.
And the accuracy?
You know we love attention to detail, and for us, numbers matter 😍

Plus, one more size aspect.
The number of users is unlimited, so you can have your whole lab working in the same workspace — measuring, converting to CSV, and sharing insights to move on.

So the only question now is: why didn't we do this years ago? :)

If you'd like to try Petiole Pro desktop for leaf area measurement, greenness assessment, object counting, object measuring and everything else — please, let me know: right here, right now 👍

Or let us know at support@petioleapp.com.

What a lovely mid-summer day :)

What do you think? 🌿

#petiolepro #AIinAgriculture #drmarynakuzmenko

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 6

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

08 July 2026, Fruit Focus 🍇🍓🫐

1. AI for yield counting

Counting fruit for money —
each vendor names its own price.
Walk on. Compare. Choose.

-

2. Integrated Pest Management

Small wasps, hoverflies —
but know your pest curve first,
then trust the natural enemy you buy.

-

3. AI for fruit disease detection

Late detection is a verdict—
proof of what's already lost.
Find it early: a drone, or the phone in your hand.

-

4. Postharvest AI

Gate to shelf, wrapped in paperwork—
computer vision checks the boxes today.
Tomorrow, its view reaches the field.

-

5. Packaging & circularity

Recycle is good,
but "biodegradable" sells.
Look past the bright words.

-

6. No moat but trust

The AI black box turns clear—
anyone can build the tool now.
The moat is price and trust: read the small print.

-

7. Data lock-in / Sovereign AI

You bought the machine.
Now ask: can you walk away,
with your harvest in hand?

-

8. UK self-sufficiency

UK fields, UK glasshouses —
we could grow more than we do.
So what stops us? Or... who?

-

9. British wine & digital viticulture

A cold island grows good grapes.
Britain uncorks a surprise:
vineyards run on data now.

-

10. Scottish berries

New signature of the North region —
Not the biggest crop, but the finest:
a jewel in the UK fruit kingdom's crown 🫐🇬🇧🚀

-

Petiole Pro (‪@petiolepro‬ )

#softfruit #berryindustry #drmarynakuzmenko

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1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 15

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

Investing in Women Code report 2026 — with... hidden agriculture 🌱
And I'm saying this without looking through pink glasses (no traditional pinkish light detected 😉).
Just the real numbers, heard at the launch event kindly hosted by BGF.

So I went looking for agriculture in the UK's most comprehensive gender-and-finance dataset.
337 signatories.
Six years of reporting.

Here's what I found in the Report.

1. No agriculture line in the sector table.
Angel groups made 224 investments in 2025. Technology and IP — 158 deals. Industrials — 23. Retail — 21. Business & professional services — 12. Leisure, media, personal services — two each. Other — four.
That's the whole taxonomy.

2. Farming, food production, agritech, agri-food, land use aren't a category (I checked every variation). Agrifood is probably folded into "industrials," "retail" or "other"

3. Where women-led agrifood does surface, it's on the debt side 🤝
The case studies show where capital actually lands: exclusive cake production, craft beer, bakery, plant supply and floristry.
All financed largely by loans, not equity.

4. One genuine bright spot: CDFIs 🌸
Community Development Financial Institutions — mission-driven lenders serving people and businesses that traditional banks turn away.
37% of CDFI business loans and 45% of microenterprise loans went to women-led businesses in 2025 — more than double women's share of small business leadership. 88% of those borrowers had already been declined elsewhere. Average loan: £97,694 over 4.5 years.

Having spoken with a few dozen female founders in agrifood this year, I can say that's a workable shape for a food producer or a rural business. Relationship-based and flexible.

5. Grants? Grants! 🤩
Innovate UK ‪@Innovateuk‬ joined this year as the first grant-giving Code Partner.
Grants from them as well as financial support from DEFRA including the ADOPT scheme — are how a great deal of agritech actually starts.

6. So, the honest read.
Agriculture isn't underrepresented here.
I suggest it's unmeasured.

But it's not the first time.
Agriculture is usually counted by direct GVA alone - just around 0.6–0.8% of the UK economy.

That badly understates it.

7. Farming underpins food processing, transport and logistics, wholesale and retail, hospitality, machinery & inputs, rural tourism.

Include the whole chain and agrifood is roughly 6% of UK GVA and more than 4 million jobs (check Farming Profitability Review from Baroness Batters for more details 👍).
This means one in ten UK workers is linked to agriculture.

8. So women in agriculture are still fighting for their sector to be visible at all.
The Investing in Women Code is a brilliant initiative and building an industry data dashboard for 2027.
They are actively reviewing what it collects.
That makes this the moment to re-think which UK industries get a line of their own.

Agriculture should be there.
What do you think?

‪@petiolepro‬ Petiole Pro 🌱
‪@MooMoreCows‬ Moo More 🐮

#InvestingInWomenCode #Agrifood #Agritech

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1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 11

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

In AI we have a movement called vibecoding.
So now I can tell you in one word what Groundswell is?
It's vibe-farming 💚

Officially, this is the festival of regenerative agriculture. 10 years old this year, held at the Cherry family's Lannock Farm in Hertfordshire.
Thousands of visitors, hundreds of exhibitors.
But one of the main reasons Groundswell exists is a spirit of freedom and love for our planet 💚

My takeaways from a one-day visit:

1. Technology is definitely on the way, because productivity is not optional. Regen farms must be profitable, and one route there is efficiency in the daily grind — precision ag, autonomous machinery, controlled-traffic farming and variable-rate application. Resilience is fertile, but only if it pays.

2. Soil.
Fewer synthetic fertilisers thanks to nitrogen-fixing legumes like vetch, field beans, peas and alfalfa. They partner with rhizobia bacteria to pull nitrogen from the air. Clover? Yes, it's definitely five-stars from the planet and a big thumbs-up from farm animals.

3. Soil. Better fertility with biochar.
Across the events I've been to this year, I see a small but interesting biochar cluster forming in the UK. I had also a live debate on biochar and carbon credits (money from air :) — but please check Verra's VM0044 methodology and the European Biochar Certificate C-sink approach before counting the profits).

4. Water retention is the heart of regenag. In numbers? 1% more soil organic matter stores approximately 25,000 L of water/ha.

5. Crops — rotations, intercropping, and underutilised or neglected crops: heritage grains like spelt, emmer and einkorn, plus amazing buckwheat, millet and lentils.

6. Crops like maize in regen ag?
Yes, please (think no-till and companion cropping). And hazelnuts? Also big YES — perennial nuts are a solid profit stream in a silvoarable system.

7. The Agroforestry tent as the heart of it all (and in my heart 💚) — silvopasture, alley cropping, trees & crops growing together. Plus some animals to add dynamics and manure feeds organic matter.

8. Agroforestry as specific action — hedging.
Native hedgerows for biodiversity, windbreaks, carbon and living field margins.

9. Livestock in the loop — mob and rotational grazing and holistic management. I publicly asked a question on forage crop monitoring with remote sensing — definitely an area of interest for farmers with large acres and herds.

10. In my conversations I was so glad to talk not only about Petiole Pro but also about Moo More (not on the stage yet, but moving in the right direction). It's visual AI for cows — more details soon 💚

At the end of the day, resting on the clover after 10,000+ steps around Groundswell, I thought about the inspiring spirit of this event and the amazing people around...

And then I heard the sound of a drone.
Yes, real one with camera right above me! Last photo is a proof.
Did I tell you that technology and regenerative ag walk hand-in-hand? 💚

#regenerativeag

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1 month ago | [YT] | 10

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

Bittersweet news, or perhaps it is more reasonable to say: salty news 🥺

The good thing is that the ‪@petiolepro‬ - Petiole Pro app was trusted once again to measure leaf area in an international consortium project in the largest continuous mangrove forest on Earth - Sundarbans 🌏

The bad news: we are losing the diversity of this priceless ecosystem.

Regarding salt.
In mangrove forests, salinity is silently but confidently reshaping the whole ecosystem.

The question is: what happens to mangrove functional diversity when salinity increases?

Not only “which species are present” but a bit deeper:

→ What traits do the leaves have?
→ How do plants adjust to salt stress?
→ Does the ecosystem become more functionally rich — or more similar, narrow, and vulnerable?

The researchers from Bangladesh, Canada, China, USA, UK, and Australia, measured eight foliar traits across mangrove plots, including
-> leaf area
-> specific leaf area
-> leaf dry matter content
-> chlorophyll
-> stomatal density
-> leaf shape
-> succulence
-> leaf carbon content.
-> and they also analysed functional diversity indicators.

The main message is serious: higher salinity reduced functional diversity, especially trait dissimilarity.

In simpler words it means that as the environment became saltier, mangrove communities became more similar in the way they function.

This is called trait convergence.

Under stress, nature starts to “select” species and traits that can survive. Plants with similar salt-tolerant strategies dominate. The community may still look like a forest, but functionally it becomes narrower.

The leaves also changed in predictable ways.

With higher salinity, the study found reductions in leaf area, leaf dry matter content, stomatal density, chlorophyll, and leaf carbon content.

And increases in:

→ leaf succulence
→ specific leaf area

This tells a story of adaptation. Plants shifting toward water storage, osmotic balance, and survival under salt stress.

But survival is not the same as resilience.

When many species begin to rely on similar strategies, the ecosystem may lose functional “options”.

And fewer functional options can mean lower capacity to adapt to future stress — especially under sea-level rise, freshwater reduction, and climate-driven salinisation.

___

One more important detail: species abundance also mattered.

High abundance of a few stress-tolerant species reduced trait dissimilarity and evenness. So the problem is not only salt itself, but also how salt reshapes dominance inside the plant community.

This is why trait-based ecology is so powerful and here is where technology can help.

👉 Remote sensing, computer vision, spectral imaging, and AI-assisted trait monitoring could support future mangrove conservation by detecting changes in canopy traits, greenness, chlorophyll, and stress signals at larger scales.

Not as a replacement for field ecology.
But as a way to scale it.
What do you think?

#Mangroves #ClimateChange #Biodiversity

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2 months ago | [YT] | 9

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

“There is no rain in the morning. The probability of rain at 12:00 PM is 75%.”

I asked two AI assistants and checked BBC Weather.
In one voice, all resources confirmed: cloudy, dry morning for Day 2 at @CerealsOfficial 2026.

“Perfect,” I thought. “I have at least three hours to do everything important before the heavy rain…”

-

However, at our final destination — Diddly Squat Farm, the weather was obvious.
The bus driver joked that I would probably need wellies 😂

“Absolutely agree,” I answered, while opening my umbrella and stepping into fresh mud created by thousands of legs and hundreds of tyres.

“But I will survive,” I said, navigating directly to the heart of cereal innovations 😉

_

And in this short muddy story, there is so much truth about AI weather forecasting in a changing climate.

And about AI coming to farms.
So, a few key thoughts from Cereals 2026.


1. Money-driven agriculture.
Subsidies are uncertain. Farming still needs to work and stay profitable.
That is why regenerative agriculture is now a strong background topic.
It is no longer only an ethical or environmental story.


2. Nitrogen-fixing crops are becoming more important
I liked seeing so many nitrogen-fixing crops.
Legumes, beans, peas, clover-type systems — not just “additional plants,” but part of the bigger conversation from Point 1.



3. Alternative crops are becoming more visible
It was good to see pseudocereals and beyond - buckwheat, linseed, sunflowers and lots options for companion cropping and soil-building systems

This matters because cereals are no longer only about dominating in the UK wheat, barley, rapeseed and oats.



4. Precision farming is becoming very practical
Because of Point 1, everyone is trying to optimise inputs and get not only yield, but better soils too.

So this is where drones, satellite imagery, sensors, variable-rate application, camera-guided sprayers, soil maps, and AI decision support start to make sense.

But... Point 5


5. Technology must survive real farm conditions
Most of what I saw was machinery.
Probably because walking between giant tractors and equipment was less muddy for me :)

Drones were not flying because of the weather.
I heard there was a robodog — not by its barking, but through crowd rumours.

There were also animal-tech innovations for herd management and animal health, which is a really good trend.

Many arable farmers also keep animals as a second revenue stream when cereal production is not as profitable as we wish.

Farmers are getting used to technology on farms.
But the real pain is bringing a working demo into real life — where wellies are needed.

_

PS: At 12:00 PM, there was NO rain at Diddly Squat Farm & a big crowd was listening to Britain’s Got Talent finalists, The Hawkstone Farmers’ Choir.

PS-2: The biggest losers of this story are my pink wellies.
Such a missed opportunity.

But it brings me to one clear idea: I need to come back to Cereals 2027.
Preparation has started :)

#cereals2026

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2 months ago | [YT] | 30

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

I'm terrible at football.
I don't even properly know the rules 😂

But there is something in this game that makes it an interesting thing.

It's the spirit.
The feeling of belonging to some team — even if I don't know their names and numbers, not even speaking about their roles in the game 😁

But to me it's an amazing feeling.
Particularly once every four years, when it's the World Cup.

--

That's why I just cannot figure out when to have my YouTube livestreams now.

They coincide with so many matches, and I understand that I should not disturb this natural life flow of events.

My AI jokes about Old MacDonald’s farm and technologies simply do not fit into the football calendar right now.

I hope the very smart YouTube algo-rithms will forgive me for my bad behaviour, particularly, when I will come back :).

--

Hence, as of today — full CANCELLATION.

But if you have already purchased the ticket for my Saturday livestream, please keep it.
I will come back.
Promise 💯👌🤝

2 months ago | [YT] | 19

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

Apologies, my dear friends and YouTube algorithms. I’m not sure about today’s Livestream 🫣

I’m currently lost in the clouds and navigating only by the summerish mood. Not sure if I have a chance to escape back to my traditional routine today.

But we can try to do the Cross-Border synchronization even without Livestream.

Brief instruction:

1. Go outside.
2. Lift your head.
3. Look up into your clouds 🤩
4. I’m also checking the clouds right now.
5. Is your sky the same as mine?
Any abnormally looking clouds?
Any misshapen pieces?
Any discoloration?

Please, let me know in the comments 🤗
I'll come with AI and we'll double check 🤝

___

PS: according to my hyper local weather forecast, tomorrow I will have a rainy evening. What a perfect time to discuss old McDonald's transition from traditional farming to his vertical farm facilities 😂

2 months ago | [YT] | 10

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko

Necrotic leaf area damage needs to be measured.
This was the topic of our latest LinkedIn Live on Friday, 22 May.

So let's sum up the practical side of the discoveries.

1. On production level, assessment in percentage is OK.
At least two indices can be enough to understand the dynamics.
Then it is possible to get a combined index of healthy / damaged leaf area and use it as a practical indicator for decision-making.

2. But these indices must be calculated within a specific timeframe.
For example, every 5–7 days, depending on the crop, disease pressure and environmental conditions.
In any case, one number is not enough.
To get real insight, there is a need for two or more measurements in a row.
Only then can you compare.
Only then can you see the direction.

3. For science, there is a need to use both relative and absolute measurements.
Relative measurement tells us percentage.
For example: 32% or 49% of the leaf area is damaged.
Absolute measurement tells us the real area.
For example: how many cm² of the leaf are necrotic.
And this is a completely different level of data quality.

4. To get absolute measurements, calibration is not optional.
Calibration is must have.
Our standard practice in Petiole Pro is to use a calibration plate.
However, if you work with ImageJ, MATLAB or any other tool, you still need some calibration object present.
Without calibration, you can rely only on percentages & relative measurements.
You can say “this leaf is 40% damaged”.
But you cannot correctly say how many cm² are damaged.

5. Necrotic leaf damage must be clearly decided and explained.
This is the part where human knowledge is still very valuable.
Some lesions introduce discoloration, but they are not necrotic areas yet.
So, if we care about precision of terminology, we cannot call every yellow, pale or brownish area necrosis.
Before measuring necrosis, we need to define what exactly we call necrotic tissue.

6. RGB indices do not diagnose disease. They classify colour patterns.
This is important.
AGRI, NGRDI or similar colour-based indices do not “see” the biology directly.
They analyse the image colour signal.
Healthy green tissue usually behaves differently from yellow, brown, dark or dry tissue.
So the algorithm separates pixels according to colour characteristics.
This is powerful.
But it is not magic.

7. Different indices may give different necrosis estimates.
In our report, AGRI estimated a higher damaged area than NGRDI.
This is not a mistake by default.
It means that each index is sensitive to slightly different colour behaviour.
One method may be stricter.
Another may be more conservative.
That is why the combined result can be very useful: it reduces dependence on one single index.

8. The most practical result is not just a number, but a repeatable workflow.
What does this mean?
Same crop + lighting logic + calibration approach + timeframe.
And the SAME definition of necrosis.
Only then the numbers become useful.

What do you think?
#necrosis

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2 months ago | [YT] | 21