The farmer tech-stack*
* “tech-stack” a set of technologies used to deliver a digital solution. The ‘farmer tech-stack’ consists of the multiple technologies used to manage a farm – including accounting and financial planning, animal and cropping management, markets and forecasts, sustainability, logistics and transport, and biosecurity – ideally, in one place.
evokeAG. 2020 Startup Alley
Are you steadily accumulating multiple apps and software platforms for every piece of new tech you bring on-farm? New water monitor, new app to download, new accounting system – another log in.
Not for much longer.
The phrase ‘integration partners’ is becoming more common across agritech developer websites and as more of these tech developers continue to collaborate, farmers will be the ultimate beneficiaries. Australian agritech developers are looking at how they can make it easier for their customers – farmers – to use and benefit from their products.
In-home and in-office tech leaders – including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Netflix – all roll dozens (if not hundreds) of different technologies (software, data, plug-ins) into the back of their platforms in order to deliver an easy and simple interface for their users.
Imagine the frustration if we couldn’t get emails on our phone, or couldn’t stream Netflix from a Samsung tablet? That’s what farmers are being asked to do if they want to be the ‘early adopters’ of agritech, tools and software designed to increase on-farm efficiency, sustainability and profitability.
As the Australian agritech industry begins to mature, so do the relationships and systems that have the potential to deliver exponential benefits to farmers. When speaking to Agronomeye co-founder, Stu Adam, it was clear that how farmers are using technology is front of mind.
“For us it is about creating tools for the landowner to do better with their asset, whether that be related to productivity, sustainability or ultimately both, at the same time… but always farmer first,” said Stu.
Two-years ago it was hard to find examples of farm management platforms integrating with hardware (water monitors, smart tags). Now, there are products being launched in tandem from different tech developers, which we saw at Beef Week 2021 with the long-anticipated launch of Ceres Tag and CiboLabs’ MyFarmKey – so you can now track your livestock and their feed simultaneously.
At evokeAG. we’re working with dozens of tech developers that are placing the farmer at the centre of the equation. Platforms like Pairtree and Agronomeye are making it easier to integrate different data through sophisticated dashboards and three-dimensional digital ‘farm twins’, farm management platforms like AgriWebb and AgWorld, are accumulating ‘integration partners’, and hardware developers like Ceres Tag, Smart Paddock and Farmbot Monitoring Solutions are able to send data straight through to the farm management platform that a farmer is already using.
It is challenging for agritech developers, a relatively young industry, to be driving the technology integrations while refining their own products and services for farmers. But with technology being pegged as the key driver in reaching sustainable supply-chains and $100billion targets, the investment of time and money won’t be in vain.
If you would like to learn more about the technologies creating on-farm impact, visit evokeag.com/farmers
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