Agtech - So What?

Will MacSmith is a farmer from Manildra in Central West New South Wales.

Will and his business partner Hamish are trying to develop a system to realise profit margins for sheep through the collection of real time data of feed efficiency and conversion for individuals rather than the mob.

They're doing this through trial and error in confinement and feedlotting on Will's family farm where he's been living and working for the last 10 years. Over a period of two years they have been building a facility, using microcontrollers, that measures individual feed intake and live weight at the same time, in real time.

"Every time the animal leaves the stall where they feed from that piece of information gets sent to the cloud and allocated against that individual animal's tag number," says Will.

"We had sheep in the feedlot and we would have varying levels of performance and we found that using growth rates as an indicator for performance was a bit flawed, and doesn't really tell you much about feeding efficiency and cost efficiency."

It's about finding better ways to feed, and better varieties of feed and also looking at the effects of environmental factors such as shearing or heat or lack of water and measuring that against cost benefits and of course they also consider genetics. Will also says similar systems that are already available on the market are cost prohibitive for most farmers.

"At this stage in Australia we can't really get around the cost of labour for the construction of individual stalls on a large scale. At the moment the question probably is, 'would it be cheaper to build it overseas."

Will is working with feed companies interested in comparing and monitoring their feed products and he says there is a lot of interesting coming for sire evaluation and the genetics side of the industry as well.

In this podcast, will also speaks about pushing the Ag industry in Australia forward, and the challenges of ageing demographic in farming.

Will is new to Twitter and so the best place to contact him or his business partner Hamish is via email

[email protected]

[email protected]

Topics: livestock-dairy, ag-data, farm-economics

As a child Mark Mortimer didn't like computers. It's a different story now - Mark has evolved to become an early adopter of technology in the field of sheep genetics and stud breeding in Australia. Computers have changed his livelihood.

Mark speaks with Sarah Nolet from his farm office at Albert near Tullamore in Central West New South Wales, Australia. It's a family farming partnership with his father and brother and it's Mark's job to look after the businesses genetics, so sheep genetics, embryo's and semen for clients. He see's it as his responsibility to stay at the cutting edge of the industry, genetically.

You can find Mark on Twitter @sheepGeekCP

Topics: livestock-dairy, genetics-breeding, ag-data

Carl Lippert is a American dairy farmer and AgTech developer. He's one of the only people I know who has qualifications in dairy science and computer science.

Right now Carl is busy as the co-founder of new Ag Tech company FeedX which will become an app for US dairy farmers. It will be a one-stop shop where farmers can calculate, source and deliver feed from paddock to farm.

The platform is a partnership of 2 startup's in the animal feed space, Carl's FeedMNGR app and e-commerce marketplace feedforless.com and will include additional aspects to help farmer and suppliers source and buy feed.

They describe it as, 'a holistic set of solutions designed to increase efficiencies in how farmers and feed manufacturers interact to create a win-win scenario'.

Carl will be pitching their work at the US based Farmers Business Network Farmer2Farmer conference.

Find Carl on Twitter @CarlLippert and @feed_mngr

Learn more about Carl on LinkedIn

Companies: FeedX • Topics: livestock-dairy, ag-data, venture-startups

Chris McLoughlin, organic mushroom farmer, Mycelia Organics

Chris McLoughlin's forae into farming is a great example of a new generation of investor backed agricultural innovation.

Chris has always had a fascination with soil, dirt and technology and his organic mushroom operation, Mycelia Organics is a mixed of all these things. With a whole lot of self education on the internet, including some online courses he has taught himself how to operate an organic farm that answers what supermarkets and consumers want.

Chris tells Sarah Nolet he didn't necessarily have a specific hankering to buy a mushroom farm but when the opportunity presented itself, with investor backing, Chris jumped at it. In the space of three years since the inception of his company, Mycelia Organics has become the largest organic mushroom farming company in Australia and Chris supplies 90% of the market and sells to more than 600 retailers as well as major supermarkets.

Chris on Twitter

Mycelia Organics website

Chris on LinkedIn

Companies: Mycelia Organics • Topics: crops-horticulture, soil-health, agtech-ecosystem

Topics: agtech-ecosystem

Just a quick note to say we will be back soon with more great episodes and amazing guests

Topics: agtech-ecosystem, people-culture

Dr Jaci Brown is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO, and an expert in weather and climate science.

Companies: CSIRO • Topics: climate-risk, ag-data, government-policy, research

Brooke Sauer is on a mission to close the gap between growers, agronomists, and technologies. Brooke is a digital agriculture manager at McGregor Goulay, an agricultural services company that offers cropping inputs, agronomic services and, increasingly, digital ag solutions. Although Brooke's background is in agricultural genetics, she is rapidly becoming an expert in precision agriculture, as she supports farmers to explore and adopt precision agriculture tools.

In talking to Brooke on this episode, it's clear that she cares a lot about her farmers. She knows just how important it is to build personal relationships in the world of AgTech. In this episode, we explore the significance of people skills in an industry that can sometimes be too focused on flashy technologies. We also talk a lot about adoption precision ag technologies, Brooke's journey with drones, and her experience of working with startups, including:

an honest story about drone usage, and how Brooke encourages startups and farmers to be more focused on the data, rather than the machines

how important farmers' confidence is in the adoption and success of precision ag technology

the ups and downs of working with fast-paced, high-energy startups

how Brooke exercises interpersonal skills on a daily basis to build trust with growers

Companies: McGregor Goulay • Topics: ag-data, ag-retail, crops-horticulture

Episode 23 - Allison Kopf on redefining what it means to farm

Companies: Artemis • Topics: crops-horticulture, venture-startups, agtech-ecosystem, women-agtech

Kevin Heikes was part of agtech before it was agtech. He's been involved in four different agtech startups, including his latest venture, In10t.

In this episode, we dig into his perspectives on agtech from over 20 years in the space, including:

Companies: In10t • Topics: venture-startups, agtech-ecosystem, ag-data