Six years after digitize dairy transportation, Canadian ag tech company Milk Moovement is using artificial intelligence to optimize milk destinations, transport and its value.
The Halifax-based Milk Moovement is developing artificial intelligence tools to help dairy co-operatives and processors match milk supplies with processing needs while reducing transportation costs.
WHY IT MATTERS: Milk transportation is expensive. Different dairy products require different milk components; matching milk supplies more closely with processing needs could reduce hauling costs, improve efficiency and ultimately increase returns to dairy farmers.
When Farmtario first profiled Milk Moovement in 2020, the startup was focused on replacing paperwork and disconnected information systems with a single digital platform connecting dairy farmers, haulers and processors.
Milk Moovement’s technology replaces paperwork, utilizing a single digital platform to connect farmers to distribution channels. Photo: Getty Images
“That was one of our core solutions from day one…getting the information they needed at the right time,” says Jon King, co-founder and CEO of Halifax-based Milk Moovement. “At that point, our biggest customer was doing 30 loads of product a day, and pretty soon thereafter, we got the third largest customer in the U.S. at more than 1,000 loads per day and we started scaling our system.”
Milk Moovement now serves customers across Canada, the United States and Australia, primarily dairy co-operatives and processors. Although optimization was always part of the company’s plan, King says it took four years to get customers’ data sufficiently connected to make that possible.
“Nobody was really effectively digitized enough to be optimized; data was still siloed,” he says.
Today, Milk Moovement offers three products.
Supply chain data
Its core system manages supply chain data, while Moo Intel analyzes farm production, milk composition, transportation routes and sales contracts to identify opportunities to cut costs or boost revenue.
MooMax, the newest product, is an optimization engine that uses those insights to recommend operational decisions based on priorities such as reducing transportation distances, lowering costs or maximizing revenue.
The technology comes as changing consumer demand is reshaping dairy processing and growing demand for high-protein dairy products, including yogurt and protein powders, is driving more than US$15 billion in planned dairy processing investment in the U.S. alone through 2030.
Unlike fluid milk production, where volume is a primary consideration, manufacturing these products places greater emphasis on specific milk components, particularly protein. That makes decisions about which farms supply which processing plants increasingly important.
Consumers are looking for protein-rich options in the dairy aisle. Photo: Janelle Rudolph
Milk characteristics
Milk from different farms can vary in protein content, somatic cell counts and other characteristics. MooMax aims to account for those differences while also considering transportation routes, equipment compatibility and processing requirements.
A project supported by the Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) is helping Milk Moovement develop this capability.
Working with dairy farmers in Newfoundland and Labrador, the company is building tools to predict farm milk volumes and components, then identify which farms could be grouped to create loads that best meet processing requirements.
The system must also consider practical constraints, including whether farms can accommodate the same type of transport trailer. The goal is to replace complex, time-consuming planning decisions with optimized recommendations that account for both milk value and transportation costs.
“Our goal is for dairy farmers to be paid five per cent more per litre of milk in all markets where we work,” says King. “That’s the analysis we have as our target of what getting the right components to the right plant should be worth. It’s reasonable and achievable.”
Canadian ag tech company Milk Moovement is using artificial intelligence to improve dairy logistics and maximize value. Photo: Alexis Stockford
Milk Moovement set a 2026 transportation savings target of 3.5 per cent but achieved nine per cent by the end of September, excluding fuel price increases, according to King.
Innovation support
He credits CAAIN and other Canadian innovation supporters, including the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and National Research Council, with helping the company advance its technology.
“We are excited that the Canadian government continues to make investments into agriculture and technology; it’s an important point for our country and sovereignty,” he says.
Milk Moovement is concentrating its investment on optimization rather than geographic expansion; for King, the immediate priority is proving that better use of dairy supply chain data can deliver measurable financial returns.
