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.
Recent milestones for Agtools include: • Agtools’ feedback on language for the “Agriculture Data and Science Act” is set to be part of the Farm Bill – the result of two years’ of ongoing work by the team in D.C. • Existing customer USDAID received a White Paper regarding data provided to processing plants about the 76 variables and phenological weather conditions worldwide for plant operators in order to ensure efficiency and profitability for them and farmers in their communities. • Agtools’ team was invited to present for a second year in a row during Fruit Logistica, Europe’s largest tradeshow for Food and Agriculture, in Berlin. The 2023 presentation was State of the Mangoes, and 2024’s was State of the Avocado Market and Data for Optimized Marketing. • Agtools newly industry track – banking – has opened to real-time data, and invited to present with a live demo to over 1,500 bankers in New York at Finovate. The presentation addressed the $321 billion lending gap between the U.S. farmers’ financial needs and the money lent to them by financial institutions in 2022. Carbon Robotics introduced enhancements to its Carbon Ops Center, which provides growers running LaserWeeder(TM) with visualizations and actionable metrics on crops and weeds in their fields. This includes crop stand count, crop plant density, crop average size, weed pressure, weeds by type, and average weed size. Heat maps and visual spatial data alert growers to potential problems, trends, and insights early in the growing cycle. Automated reports now available in Carbon Ops Center enable growers to select which LaserWeeder performance, usage, and efficacy metrics to include in a customized report that is automatically generated and sent to them weekly. Carbon Robotics also released a new mobile phone app called Carbon Companion. The app provides real-time GPS location and metrics on each LaserWeeder operated by growers and supports real-time chat with operators and Carbon Support. Alerts and notifications will be added soon. The Carbon Companion mobile app is available for free download now in the Apple App Store for iPhone users and Google Play Store for Android phone users. FarmWise successfully sold and deployed all Vulcan precision weeding and cultivation implements produced by the company in late 2023 - early 2024. Only after a few months of implementation, exciting productivity metrics are being recorded daily with the Triple-Bed model: 15-acre days in one single shift at the 1.5-2 acres/hour rate for common leafy green and brassica commodities. FarmWise is excited to continue to push the limits of precision weeding and cultivation performance using state-of-the-art engineering practices and tools while staying true to the core design principle of its Vulcan weeder: simplicity of the architecture and straightforward maintenance and servicing. After a successful exhibit at World Ag Expo, FarmX has been riding high. For the first time, visitors saw live demos of FarmX’s dynamic farm management and automation in action. FarmX empowers data-driven decisions by connecting imagery, in-field sensing, irrigation control, and task automation to a single software interface that analyzes and provides actionable recommendations. Visitors praised FarmX’s industry-leading soil moisture probe as well as their fruit quality analyzer, which provides in-field, geo-referenced measurement of Brix, pH, and acidity without damaging fruit. Increased demand for FarmX’s soil moisture probes is now supported by a new manufacturing partnership and release of advanced features. FarmX’s new vehicle autonomy kits for tractors, rovers, and drones brought the most attention, showcasing autonomous navigation that doesn’t depend on GPS or connectivity.
AgTools
Carbon Robotics
FarmWise
FarmX
33 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com May | June 2024
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