Australian
agtech company, The Yield Technology Solutions allows farmers to predict their
berry yield up to seven days in advance using their Sensing+ technology.
Earlier
this year, The Yield Technology Solutions partnered with Australia’s leading
grower, packer and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables, Costa Group.
Since
their partnership, Costa has rolled out The Yield’s Sensing+ solution across
eight berry farms in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania with the company
hopeful that they will gain a better understanding of specific growing
conditions.
The
Yield’s Sensing+ technology combines sensors and analytics to provide
information and predictions that is contained in an easy to use app.
The
technology is expected to go a long way in helping farmers and commercial
growers make important on farm decisions such as when to irrigate, feed, plant,
protect and harvest.
Costa Group Chief Executive Harry Debney said he was hopeful that the technology would go a long way in improving the quantity and quality of their yields.
We’re busy this month rolling out Sensing+ @ one of Costa Group’s berry farms near Coffs Harbour. Costa Group users will be able to access microclimate data & weather predictions in our easy to use Sensing+ web & mobile apps. #manageyourmicroclimate #taketheguessworkoutofgrowing pic.twitter.com/HKSUeCi4CV
— The Yield Technology Solutions (@theyield) March 6, 2020
“Our
berries are grown in tunnels and Sensing+ measures the growing conditions in
our microclimates and uses AI to give us in-tunnel weather predictions,” Mr
Debney said.
“We
are also rolling out the Sensing+ Yield Predictions module which predicts our
berry yields using AI and data from both our harvest management systems and the
microclimate weather.
“We
have been impressed with the accuracy achieved to date compared with our
current manual approach.
“Accurate
yield prediction allows us to optimise our costs and achieve better prices when
negotiating with our customers.”
Founder
and Managing Director of The Yield, Ros Harvey, said she was delighted to be
working with the Costa Group on a commercial rollout of the product.
“Using
Costa’s extensive data sets, our platform enables us to quickly and efficiently
combine data to create AI models for things like Yield Predictions that will
drive significant commercial benefit for Costa Group,” Ms Harvey said.
The
Yield Prediction module was developed in collaboration with the Food Agility
Cooperative Research Centre, Costa Group and the University of Technology
Sydney (UTS) and was recently selected in the 2020 THRIVE TOP 50 scaling and
visionary AgTech companies.
Having
been shortlisted from 3000 global technology companies, Ros said that being she
was delighted to have been included in the prestigious list of companies which
featured several other Australian agtech start-ups.
“This
is a great honour for us. It is recognition of our efforts in delivering a
world-class solution in weather predictions and yield predictions for our
customers,” Ms Harvey said.
