UPDATES FROM THE WGCIT The Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology was created to link Western Growers members with innovators in the agtech space. Below are news updates from the Center’s startups.
Agrology, a Public Benefit Corporation, has joined forces with three premier produce growers–Bowles Farming Company, Braga Fresh Family Farms and Taylor Farms. This groundbreaking collaboration underscores a commitment to building soil health as a cornerstone for the future of farming. Each grower now utilizes the Agrology Arbiter System to monitor and measure the impact of their regenerative programs on soil health, microbial function, soil carbon stocks and water conservation. By championing the critical role of soil biology in regenerative agriculture, each grower commits to agricultural practices that increase microbial biomass and biodiversity, placing their operations on a path towards carbon neutrality. This commitment is deeply rooted in each grower’s long-standing tradition of stewardship and responsible agriculture. Agrology’s cutting-edge technology facilitates real-time monitoring of soil biological activity and carbon flux and offers insights into microbial biomass, soil moisture, nutrient cycling, water holding capacity and climate data. These insights aid growers in precisely understanding soil and field conditions. Agrology built upon the scientific lineages of soil chambers and gas flux analysis to create the Arbiter System, which is affordable, scalable and rugged enough to survive even the toughest of agricultural environments. Agtools was selected TOP 10 companies out of hundreds of worldwide applicants for the Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) Climate Resilience Prize 2024 as a later-stage startup. LDC, one of the four major global commodity trading companies (the “ABCD companies”), is renowned for driving sustainable change throughout their value chain. Agtools went through AI Innovation Lab at 817 in Chicago, focusing on Efficient & Scalable Data Infrastructure, Efficient & Scalable AI Infrastructure, MLOps & ML Workflow, AI Governance & Compliance, Grounded & Trustworthy AI, and Multimodal & Generative AI. Agtools now has specialty crop data of more than 194 countries in real time that are impacting USA farmers and supply chain stakeholders. www.agtools.ai The FarmWise Vulcan AI weeder is now offering precision cultivation capabilities. Using its unique computer vision system, the implement tracks the plant lines and adjusts by laterally shifting to enable weeding within 1” precision in high-density crops, such as cilantro and basil. With this precision cultivation mode, speed can be pushed north of 3 mph. Lighting conditions, wavy plant lines and plant size do not impact the machine’s performance. This new feature will increase customers’ usage of their Vulcan in 3-line 40” bunched programs (cilantro, parsley, baby kale and bok choy). When intra- row weeding isn’t possible due to tighter spacing, and yet cultivation is part of the grower’s program, Vulcan precision weeder is the number one automated weeding solution. FarmX is launching an orchard autosteer retrofit kit for mature orchards and seeks almond and pistachio growers for a pilot starting this fall. Perceptive Navigation™ tackles the shortcomings of traditional GPS-RTK systems by navigating tractors and implements under dense canopies without GPS. This is the first release in our autonomy product line, expanding to full autonomy in 2027. Visit farmx.ag/autosteer. Our newly released Osmo soil moisture sensor offers advanced accuracy, durability and ease-of-use across all soil types and varying depths. Patented technology measures 200x volume of other probes and reports real-time data and recommendations for precise irrigation. More at farmx.ag/osmo.
Agrology
Agtools
FarmWise
FarmX
36 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com September | October 2024
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