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, as well as updates on activities at the center and its popular podcast!
Agrology
Braga Fresh and Agrology hosted a webinar this fall titled “The ROI of Regenerative Agriculture,” which covered the topic of how growers can monitor, measure, and report on the ROIs of regenerative agriculture. Eric Morgan of Braga Fresh talked about increasing crop yields, pest and disease resistance, lowered input costs, and is using less water, all while being more regenerative. He also covered the importance of quantifying and demonstrating the impact of regen practices, and how Braga Fresh has moved beyond vague claims to science-based quantification methods (ground-truth data vs other methods). Growers interested in this content can access the webinar at youtube.com/@agrology-ag. Agtools keeps innovating and has launched several new features such as Quality Analyzer attached to Phenological Science across all commodities and all varieties of Specialty Crops. AgTools now includes a Sustainability Analyzer to understand the impact at Farm level when markets shift and contracts are adjusted. New customers and funding has allowed the company to hire more rural data scientists and engineers across the United States. Foodbytes by Rabobank has named Agtools Inc. as one of 10 startups innovating in Data Sharing & Transparency in their latest Industry Outlook. Their full time DC team has delivered comments to several legislators and regulators on how to ensure access to data on a timely basis through the next Farm Bill, which is crucial to staying competitive worldwide. AliBio is a pioneering biotechnology company reshaping the agriculture sector. With a strong focus on innovation, AliBio leads the way in developing the most capable microbe systems for agricultural enhancement. Explore their commitment to advancing into profitable and sustainable agriculture by using soil’s most trusted sidekick: microbes. Carbon Robotics’ LaserWeeder™deployments by growers accelerated in 2023, with the company building and shipping six units a month during the peak season. Many growers increased their LaserWeeder fleet sizes to owning and operating two, four, and six total units based on strong economic results, efficacy of weed control, thinning capability, and increased health of crops and soil. Carbon Robotics rolled out major new software advancements to the entire fleet in September, with growers reporting a doubling in speed and acres covered from algorithm optimizations. Other new software features included a new jobs feature to organize and track weeding by date/field/task, a quick tuning feature to increase or decrease laser shoot times by type and size of weed, and enhancements in the remote management and reporting of fleet results. Growers have now shot over three billion weeds using LaserWeeder in North America, and the first European and Australian units began arriving this fall.
AgTools
AliBio
Carbon Robotics
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NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2023
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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