Barnyard biotech: commercialized research helps farmers, including detecting and treating an infection that stifles milk production in dairy cows.

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North Carolina agriculture is strong. The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services says it contributes $78 million to the states economy and employs 16% of its workforce. It also is diverse. Tar Heel farmers cultivate more than 80 commodities, and many agencies and businesses, from the N.C. Ports moving products around the world to Statesville-based Carolina Farm Credit helping farmers invest in their businesses, are involved. But most of all, the industry isn't static. This section explores evolutions underway for farmers, processors, scientists and consumers.

North Carolina is home to more than 46,000 dairy cows. Ben Shelton's Rock Creek Dairy in Olin, about 10 miles north of Statesville, is where 2,700 of them live. The 58-year-old father of three tends to the- herd, farms 1,250 acres of corn and 400 acres of soybeans, and oversees 500 more that's leased to other farmers, all while running a veterinary service. "Our cows are milking about 95 pounds of milk per cow a day, so we ship about two tanker loads a day, about 110,000 pounds of milk," he says. "We've been at this level for the last five years." With that much work, he can't afford to have sick cows.

Mastitis is a bacterial infection that attacks a cow's udder. In severe cases, permanent damage can affect lactation, even halting it. It's a complex disease that shows subtle, if any, symptoms in its early stages. "Mastitis is the most costly disease for dairy producers, robbing about $2 billion in the United States annually' says Joy Parr Drach, president and CEO of Advanced Animal Diagnostics Inc. The Morrisville-based company develops technology that detects diseases in livestock. For farmers such as Shelton, it can mean losing $300 per cow per milk-producing cycle. "Prevailing wisdom was you just have to live with it, because cure rates are low in its subclinical state, where you can't visually detect it, and it doesn't pay to treat subclinical mastitis," Drach says. "But we've learned that precise diagnosis to catch it early improves returns. And the dairy industry has doubled a cow's annual production from the 1970s through improved genetics and technology."

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AAD has made early detection of mastitis in dairy cows easier. Its QScout MLD is a self-contained lab that sits on a desk or table. It identifies and differentiates white blood cells in milk, alerting farmers to elevated cell types and ratios, which point to an infection. "Samples are...