Pairtree Pipes launched to streamline data flow

Pairtree Pipes Application Programming Interface (API) is designed to streamline access to large groups of similar device types, so that farmers can better use and share their data without the frustrations of having to re-enter or double handle information. It enables access to the data of 90+ agtech companies in raw or normalised form or as a function-based output, and Mr Munro says this two-way flow enables agribusinesses and software developers to access their clients’ on-farm data with permission, more easily and in a user-friendly format.

“Pairtree Pipes is not in the business of selling data on behalf of the farmer, nor providing public data about farms. We simply connect farm data to services that focus on saving time or increasing their productivity and stewardship,” said Mr Munro.

“We’ve been able to cover off on a number of major pain points with lots of different use cases – agtech companies who want to connect, corporates who have data coming in across various properties, researchers who need data for research or algorithm tools or insights.

“We provide the integrations so agtech services can deliver the insights they specialise in, and we aim to collaborate, rather than compete, with others in the agriculture IoT space.”

Pairtree Pipes currently offers access to more than 90 digital device and service suppliers, including 16 different weather station suppliers, 15 soil probe suppliers, 15 tank sensor suppliers and 17 farm management programs.

Mr Munro founded the award-winning Pairtree Intelligence with partners Micky Young and Robbie Scott five years ago, combining their respective experience in agriculture, business intelligence, data management and software development.

Their goal was to become the ‘Zapier’ of Australia’s agtech world. US-based Zapier is a no-code automation platform across 5000+ apps, employing 500 people in 38 countries to automate workflows and integrate decision making, with a book value of USD $5 billion.

In late 2022, Pairtree finalised a project with Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) which focused on using the principle of ‘Business-as-Usual’ data collection to populate an industry compliance tool and the Sheep & Beef Greenhouse Accounting Framework (SB-GAF) emissions tool, in conjunction with Farmlab, Cibolabs, Maiagrazing, Farmbot and Wilmot Cattle Company.

“To achieve this, Pairtree created a central portal which presents and stores data collected from multiple devices on farm into a single dashboard. The project delivered a prototype where producers can also opt-in to activate a pre-fill function to satisfy the majority of their compliance documentation,” Mr Munro explained.

“Collating data from numerous sources into an easily digestible format gives producer access to new insights. The capabilities not only improve productivity and management decisions, but also remove a layer of work with regard to compliance requirements.”

The portal gives producers a snapshot of their Livestock Production Assurance compliance to help identify areas for improvement, which has flow-on effects to improved food safety, biosecurity and product integrity.

Mr Munro says Pairtree Pipes enables users to minimise the overall cost of each integration and multiplies the value of the farmer’s agtech.

“My hope for Pairtree Pipes is that farmers will get more value out of their choice of agtech solutions, by choosing platforms that collaborate. But just as importantly, I hope that there is a new era of agtech that can be built on top of good quality solutions and hardware.

“These new services can fill niche gaps and focus on groups or categories of agtech, rather than having to traditionally compete within the category,” he said.

The launch of Pairtree Pipes at the evoke^AG. 2023 event in Adelaide went ‘fantastically well’, Mr Munro said, with delegates very excited about the new service.

“The easier we make on-farm data to collect, comprehend and utilise, the greater the chance more producers will embrace it,” he said.

Pairtree are seeking interest from developers to beta test and experience the benefits of Pipes. If you are interested or want to know what’s now possible please reach out to Hamish and the team.