TECHNOLOGY Sensors feed soil and climate data into the cloud to help manage 18,000 hectares, giving farmers advice on when to irrigate. They can even be used in greenhouses for plants.
Data is the new oil By Tony Benny
In the fast moving world of technology, changes and advancement are continually happening in the agritech space, which is helping farmers in ways their ancestors couldn’t have imagined.
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he Internet of Things (IoT) is facilitating enormous change in agriculture, even though most farmers barely know what it is or how it can affect their operation by increasing efficiencies and, in turn, boost their bottom line. New Zealand company Regen, established 10 years ago, uses a network of on-farm sensors that feed soil and climate data into the cloud to help manage 18,000ha, giving farmers advice on when to irrigate, but chief executive Bridgit Hawkins says most clients don’t realise IoT is at the heart of the platform. “Although IoT is incredibly important for us and our customers, they still don’t actually know what it means, so it’s really important we don’t talk about having an IoT solution, because they’re not 100% sure what it is,” she says. “As a result, they’re pretty certain they don’t need one of those.” But IoT is actually already part of many farmers’ businesses, Hawkins says. One of Regen’s customers, a Canterbury-based dairy farm, has 18 separate sensors, or data sources, on
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Regen chief executive Bridgit Hawkins, with farm worker Rahui Save, says the Internet of Things is a big part of farmers’ businesses.
the farm, as well as using two external sources, to inform decisions about irrigation. “So for that single farm, that’s over
2000 data points every single day that is brought together through IoT connectivity, our platform and the algorithms that underpin it to give to
DAIRY FARMER
December 2020
