Pádraig Lucey

Veterinarian and dairy nutrition researcher. MVB, MPVM, Ph.D., DACVPM, DACVPM-Epi

I am a veterinarian from Ireland living and working in the dairy industry of California.

I am building integrated data layers and agent loops for dairy consulting.

My work and research interests include population health, nutrition modeling, machine learning and data science.

Writing and talks

AI agents and mining dairy dataTalk · California ARPAS CEC 2026 Oct 2026
Precision feeding dairy cow pens with machine learningTalk · California ARPAS 2024, Coalinga Oct 2024
Predicting dairy pen DMI with machine learningTalk · California ARPAS 2023 (student) Oct 2023
Predicting dairy pen dry matter intake distribution using machine learningTalk · ModNut 2022 Sep 2022
Generate tabsets in a for loop with R Markdown Aug 2022
ANOVA comparison of datasets Aug 2022
Overlaid plots in ggplot2 Aug 2022

Tools for AI agents

Agents can't do this arithmetic reliably in their heads. These give them the methods that can.

BESTPRED2026

USDA's best prediction of dairy lactation records, as tools any AI agent can call: 305-day and mature-equivalent milk, fat and protein, reliability and persistency from a herd's or a cow's test days. A Python port checked against USDA's own program.

Claude: In Claude's plugin directory: BESTPRED
Any agent: https://bestpred.dairydatascience.com/mcp
Codex: codex plugin marketplace add padge01/bestpred-python
On your computer: uvx bestpred-mcp

Papers

Predicting the distribution and dry matter intake of cow pens with machine learning New Lucey, Lean, Stepanchenko, Martins, Hristov, Rossow · Animals, 2026

Feeding preweaning Holstein calves a synbiotic supplement increases their energy-corrected milk yield as lactating cows Journal of Dairy Science, 2026

Describing the distribution type of DM intake for dairy cow pens based on pen characteristics animal, 2023

Evaluation of cow-side meters to determine somatic cell count in individual cow quarter and bulk-tank milk samples Animals, 2023

Effects of mannan-oligosaccharide and Bacillus subtilis supplementation to preweaning Holstein dairy heifers on body weight gain, diarrhea, and shedding of fecal pathogens Journal of Dairy Science, 2021

Projects

EKS calculators for UpLookBuilt the Bovaer and Rumensin calculators for Elanco; advised on the cow-day and manure calculators.2026

Code

14,627 contributions in the last yearLess More

Commits: 12,826
Pull requests: 1,736
Reviews: 3
Issues: 28

bestpred-pythonPython translation of USDA's BESTPRED lactation records (305-day yields, persistency, daily curve). Same numbers as the original. · PythonOct 2026
dairy-data-toolsSkills for dairy nutritionists and their AI agents: read a farm's DairyComp and EZfeed exports. From Dairy Data Science. · PythonOct 2026
xteink-pokemon-gameAn unofficial reading-powered Pokemon companion game for the Xteink X3, built on CrossInk. · CSep 2026
homelabA battery-powered, terminal-only wedge computer for teaching kids to code at home: Raspberry Pi 5, mechanical keyboard, thermal printer. · HTMLApr 2026