A Data Revolution That Begins with a Single Cow

By 2050, the global population is projected to reach 9.7 billion, raising concerns about a severe food shortage. At the same time, Japan’s primary industries—particularly the dairy and livestock sector—face a range of challenges, including a lack of successors, rising feed prices, and long-standing industry structures. Fragmented data, siloed expertise, and a significant time lag between production and consumption all remain obstacles. Addressing these issues is essential not only for the industry itself, but also for building a more sustainable society.

Against this backdrop, Marubeni launched BeecoProgram, a data platform designed for the dairy and livestock industry. Dairy and livestock farming is one of the world’s largest industries. Yet even though each cow is assigned an individual identification number, data utilization across the sector has remained limited. Collecting data from diverse stakeholders—including farms—is far from straightforward. However, establishing a data platform that has not previously existed in the industry has the potential to support transformation across the dairy and livestock value chain.

BeecoProgram is built on a versatile database foundation designed to accommodate a wide range of data types with minimal friction. It aggregates information from multiple sources—such as farm management data, IoT sensors, and paper-based management records—covering areas ranging from herd dynamics and feed inventories to financial statements. The platform supports producers’ operations while also enabling data utilization by a broad range of stakeholders, including financial institutions and feed companies. In addition to integrating previously scattered industry data, it provides tools for visualization and data sharing, strengthening the overall user experience.

Putting Research into Practice Through Generative AI

One of BeecoProgram’s distinctive features lies in its database design philosophy. Whereas conventional systems manage data with the “farm” as the primary unit, BeecoProgram places the “cow” at the center. This shift enables production data for individual animals to be organically linked with farm- and company-level financial data. By connecting diverse datasets, the platform can address questions such as correlations between feed usage and revenue.

Another notable aspect is the development structure, which combines external vendors with in-house engineers. By adopting a serverless architecture based on fully managed cloud services, the team was able to move quickly—advancing development in close collaboration between engineers and Marubeni’s Digital Innovation Department while continuously incorporating user feedback.

As a result, BeecoProgram has expanded its range of capabilities. These include proprietary AI agent functions that combine collected data with multiple generative AI models and industry expertise, as well as AI-powered OCR and automated analytics reporting. Rather than stopping at data aggregation and visualization, the platform offers functions designed to support producers in day-to-day operations.

Among these, a feature that exemplifies BeecoProgram’s advancement and originality is the BeecoProgram 3D Scanner, an application capable of estimating a cow’s body weight. Announced in September 2025, the app brings recent academic research into practical use. By leveraging AI-based image recognition and machine learning models, it enables highly accurate weight estimation. Traditionally, cows weighing up to around 900 kilograms had to be placed on a scale one by one—a labor-intensive process that often limited measurement frequency. With this application, weight can be estimated in as fast as 0.2 seconds by capturing a single side-view image of the animal. Accumulating and utilizing weight data helps visualize growth patterns that were previously assessed largely through intuition and experience, and can support more efficient breeding and shipment decisions.

Rethinking the Link Between Production and Consumption

BeecoProgram is designed not only to improve productivity, but also to help elevate Japan’s dairy and livestock industry to a level where it can compete globally. To that end, the initiative is now focused on addressing the time lag that exists between production and consumption.

In the dairy and livestock industry, products such as milk often require production planning years in advance, making it difficult to respond to subtle shifts in consumer demand. BeecoProgram aims to bridge this structural gap through digital technology by feeding real-time consumer demand signals back into production planning. For producers, this approach can help reduce risks related to food loss and price volatility. For consumers, it can contribute to a more stable food supply—together forming the foundation of a sustainable food supply chain.

BeecoProgram has been made possible by the extensive networks and long-standing trust that the Marubeni Group has built across Japan and globally. Moreover, by using data obtained through BeecoProgram to quantitatively assess the value of feed handled by the group, the platform has the potential to contribute to higher feed sales and generate synergies with existing businesses. Such an approach reflects strengths unique to the Marubeni Group, which has long been engaged in the dairy and livestock industry. That said, networks and trust alone are not sufficient to build a truly effective data platform. Only by combining the foundational strengths of a general trading company with startup-level speed and execution can an innovative platform capable of digitizing the entire dairy and livestock industry emerge. By leveraging data as a strategic resource and engaging a wide range of stakeholders, BeecoProgram is positioned to reshape the future of the dairy and livestock sector.