Welcome to iGrow News, Your Source for the World of Indoor Vertical Farming
Automation Is Coming…And 9 Other Things You Need To Know About Indoor Farming
The Intelligence Platform For Indoor Farms
Jan 8
Automation Is Coming…And 9 Other Things You Need To Know About Indoor Farming
Curious about indoor farming? You’ve come to the right place.
Last year, we set out to provide detailed insight about the state of the indoor farming industry today — what growers are doing, their challenges, and how they see their field changing over the next few years. With that, the State of Indoor Farming was created.
This year, our report provides not only an outlook of the industry, but also an updated analysis of the industry following our 2016 report. We received over 150 responses from 8 countries, with 81% coming from the United States, 12% coming from Canada, and the remainder coming from other countries.
You can check out the full State of Indoor Farming report here.
If you don’t have time to dig deep, don’t worry. Here are the 10 things you need to know:
1. Automation is exciting.
Labor makes up a huge portion of an indoor farmer’s budget (49% of a hydroponic operation), so finding ways to cut down on those costs is important. As a result, automation topped the list of technologies farmers are most excited about.
2. On the flip side, farmers think container farms are overhyped.
Regardless of its recent growth in the last few years, container farms came in at number one on the list of technologies responding farmers thought were overhyped. LEDs came in both second on the list of things growers think are overhyped as well as tied for third on the list of technologies farmers were most excited about.
3. Indoor agriculture isn’t the same as urban farming.
This is a big misconception. Indoor farms typically locate close to the point of sale or where efficiency can be maximized, which is not just in urban areas. This is one of the major benefits of indoor farming. Because the farmer has more control over climate, they can choose to locate a farm wherever it makes the most sense.
4. Most indoor farms are producing 2 or more crops in their space.
80% of respondents to our latest SOIF survey grow at least two crops. Because growers have the ability to create microclimates within the growing area, they can optimize for more than one type of crop. Below are the five most common crops grown by the responding farmers.
5. Indoor agriculture produces higher yields compared to conventional farming.
Enclosing facilities gives farmers the ability to create ideal growing environments. As a result, farmers can grow a crop from seed to harvest in less time and produce higher yields.
6. Leafy greens and microgreens have the highest profit margin.
On average, leafy greens and microgreens had the highest profit margin for responding farmers in 2017, at 40% across various facility and system types.
7. Vertical farms use a lot of energy.
Artificial lighting is a key component to vertical farming operations. Growers run their lights approximately 16 hours per day, every day, all year round. As a result, expect energy to account for a large percentage of your operating costs. Greenhouses use energy too. Most of the energy consumption in a greenhouse comes from heating and cooling costs.
8. Growers are innovative.
We asked growers if they would buy technology from a startup and 78% indicated they would. Most growers specified they don’t want to be “beta testers” but they recognize the need to innovate. The key for farmers is trusting technology and not buying new technologies that don’t directly benefit their farm.
9. 2018 will be the year of data and analytics.
When asked about the technologies growers are looking to invest in this year, most farmers selected data and analytics; climate control systems ranked second. If you are going to run a profitable farm in 2018, investing in a technology stack is a must.
10. Profitability is the number one goal for growers in 2018.
When asked about their number one goal for 2018, 46% of farmers indicated either increasing profitability or revenue. For an additional 7%, the primary goal is decreasing costs, which takes financial-related goals to 53%.
Special thanks to our survey partners: Urban Ag News, State of the Soil, and Cornell University.
Want more? Check out the full State of Indoor Farming report here.
Agrilyst
The intelligence platform for indoor farms
Stories about agriculture and agtech from the team at Agrilyst.
Tags: 2017 2018 Agriculture Indoor Farming Data
Q&A: Driscoll’s Head of Emerging Technology On Harvesting Robotics and Open Innovation
Q&A: Driscoll’s Head of Emerging Technology On Harvesting Robotics and Open Innovation
FEBRUARY 7, 2018 EMMA COSGROVE
As head of R&D strategy and emerging technology at Driscoll’s, Nolan Paul has a unique view of the agtech startups in the specialty crop space.
The global berry seller has become known for its technological innovation in breeding and genetics, but the company’s focus on robotics is less well-known. Paul told AgFunderNews that Driscoll’s wants to support the development of automated strawberry harvest and is in contact with many if not all of the startups working in this area of robotics. That interest has led to investments in Harvest CROO and Agrobot and field trials with more.
Strawberry growing is long overdue for a shake-up and stakeholders know it. Robotic harvesting technologies are not quite ready for wide use. Labor is becoming more scarce as immigration uncertainty in the US continues and also because strawberry picking at ground level is a particularly grueling task. Some growers, inside and out, are raising up growing surfaces to waist-height to mitigate these issues and Driscoll’s is in the position to help and encourage its growers to keep up with the times.
We caught up with Paul ahead of the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit, where he’ll play the shark in several startup pitch presentations, to discuss how Driscoll’s works with startups and lessons learned while trying to determine the future of strawberry growing.
Driscoll’s is constantly testing and verifying technologies, but can growers afford to make major investments in technology right now?
Nolan Paul
It depends on what we’re talking about. The startups are recognizing that this is an issue and moving to a service model where you de-risk the technology for the grower base. They’re not going to have to pay a half a million dollars for a piece of equipment. But at some point, we come in. I think it’s not going to be as simple as just the robotics, let’s say, for harvest. It’s a combination of the robotics and the growing system and actually the genetics too. In that combination of all three is where you’ll really see the success. So Driscoll’s will come in, certainly on the breeding, on the genetics side, we’ll optimize for traits like mechanization. But on the growing system too, we’re supporting our growers with that, we help them out. And of course, we’re dedicated to investing in the development of ag technologies on behalf of our growers.
What is your assessment of the harvesting robotics field? Are outdoor growers transitioning to waist-height tables as well as indoor growers? And does that mean that harvesting machinery could work indoors and outdoors?
The good news is that the last couple years have seen a crop of harvesting startups pop up. Honestly, I doubted that would happen so quickly but I’m glad I was wrong. So today Driscoll’s is currently in active conversations with six automated strawberry harvesting startups. And they’re all taking a unique approach, which is great.
The challenges are certainly different. I think when you look at the visioning systems, that will be the same, but the robustness, the durability, and the scale will be different. And I think that’s what we’re seeing — some startups perhaps don’t appreciate the scale that will be required for outdoor farms in the US. If you’re growing in a greenhouse or a glasshouse, you know that’s one thing. But when you need to be out on a 100-acre ranch, those robots, those harvesters need to cover a lot of space and it’s probably not a reasonable thing to assume that you can just have a bunch of these robots going through a field. It’s hard for a grower to manage that. So I think there is a certain fleet size that can only be so big.
I think that’s something we’ve found that perhaps some of the startups haven’t looked at. And I don’t think you’ll just see one winner, I think you’ll see different solutions going into indoor farming whether that’s greenhouse or glasshouse or vertical farm and solutions for outdoors. I think the ones that are successful have the vision to scale from strawberries to other crops and perhaps indoors that’s easier to do. I think that’s a big deal. I’m still skeptical that harvesting robots are going to be successful if you just focus on one crop. And that’s really where we want to work with the startups, to help them understand that narrative, so they’re able to raise VC money.
That’s fascinating coming from you. It seems like Driscoll’s has done a pretty good job of making a big market for strawberry technology.
Yeah, it’s an interesting space. We’ve certainly recognized in the last three years how we engage with startups has to change because there are a lot of people who give them lip service. But what we’ve realized is you have to really be structured the right way. It’s not even about the money — there’s plenty of money. You need people who can work alongside these startups and move at the same speed.
It’s easy to go pitch ideas to a CEO, but to actually execute on them is really tough. And certainly we’re learning and getting better at it. Some of these large companies almost want to own what the startup is doing – to have a competitive edge. A lot of times, unless you’re really big, it just doesn’t work and you almost end up killing the startup.
Why doesn’t it work?
Well, I think most of the companies aren’t big enough to justify exclusivity — certainly not in the specialty crop space. It’s a very high, high-value space, but we’re fragmented. There are a lot of one to five billion dollar crops in the US across grapes, strawberries, nuts, and vegetables. But in and of itself it’s not big enough for a startup to scale. It’s important for folks to focus. But you have to have the vision of how you’re going to scale. The right strategic corporate can be a good partner for startups. But they need to recognize that, if you’re working with a startup it’s great that you’re an anchor customer, but you want the startup to be around in two, four, six, 10 years. And the only way they’re going to be around in six to 10 years is if they’ve been able to scale up and either be acquired or maybe, they have to create that scale themselves. I think people are too short-term when they interact with startups.
North American Freight Farms Acquires Cabbige
Freight Farms—manufacturer of smart hydroponic container farms and developer of the farmhand® automation and remote control suite—today announced the acquisition of Boston-based Cabbige, an online business management application for small-scale farmers.
North American Freight Farms Acquires Cabbige
Online business management application for small-scale farmers
Freight Farms—manufacturer of smart hydroponic container farms and developer of the farmhand® automation and remote control suite—today announced the acquisition of Boston-based Cabbige, an online business management application for small-scale farmers. Cabbige’s inventory, crop, and financial management software will be integrated into farmhand®.
Freight Farms is as much a software developer as a hardware manufacturer. Today, farmhand® supports farms in over 35 states and 10 countries. Growers using farmhand® can already monitor their operations, control environment settings, track production, and replenish supplies using the mobile or web app. With upcoming Cabbige software integration, farmhand® users will have greater business management capabilities and the tools to run both their farm and business from a single application.
Freight Farms and Cabbige both have roots in the Boston AgTech scene. CEOs Brad McNamara (Freight Farms) and Jessica Angell (Cabbige) have always shared the goal of creating a more distributed, sustainable food system.
“Brad and I came to realize that our two technologies would do more for small business farmers together than independently. Cabbige has been acquired by Freight Farms to expand its impact to indoor growers and to give small-scale farmers an end-to-end solution for growing and
selling fresh, local produce,” says Jessica Angell, CEO of Cabbige.
“Cabbige’s pricing algorithms and farm management software are powerful tools for any grower seeking to optimize their business. We saw a clear opportunity to bring that power onto the farmhand® platform to make managing farm operations, production, inventory, and pricing data easier. Our farmhand® users will now get full seed-to-sale visibility and value optimization,” says Brad McNamara, CEO of Freight Farms.
With the integration of Cabbige’s business technology, Freight Farms plans to release a paid version of farmhand® to a broader farming audience in 2018. For more information about the Cabbige acquisition, please visit the Freight Farms blog.
For more information:
Natasha Fee
Freight Farms
Tel: +1 781 966 4145
Mob: +1 978 460 4449
Automation Is Coming…And 9 Other Things You Need to Know About Indoor Farming
This year, our report provides not only an outlook of the industry, but also an updated analysis of the industry following our 2016 report. We received over 150 responses from 8 countries, with 81% coming from the United States, 12% coming from Canada, and the remainder coming from other countries.
Agrilyst
The intelligence platform for indoor farms
January 8, 2018
Automation Is Coming…And 9 Other Things You Need to Know About Indoor Farming
Curious about indoor farming? You’ve come to the right place.
Last year, we set out to provide detailed insight about the state of the indoor farming industry today — what growers are doing, their challenges, and how they see their field changing over the next few years. With that, the State of Indoor Farming was created.
This year, our report provides not only an outlook of the industry but also an updated analysis of the industry following our 2016 report. We received over 150 responses from 8 countries, with 81% coming from the United States, 12% coming from Canada, and the remainder coming from other countries.
You can check out the full State of Indoor Farming report here.
If you don’t have time to dig deep, don’t worry. Here are the 10 things you need to know:
1. Automation is exciting.
Labor makes up a huge portion of an indoor farmer’s budget (49% of a hydroponic operation), so finding ways to cut down on those cost is important. As a result, automation topped the list of technologies farmers are most excited about.
2. On the flip side, farmers think container farms are overhyped.
Regardless of its recent growth in the last few years, container farms came in at number one on the list of technologies responding farmers thought were overhyped. LEDs came in both second on the list of things growers think are overhyped as well as tied for third on the list of technologies farmers were most excited about.
3. Indoor agriculture isn’t the same as urban farming.
This is a big misconception. Indoor farms typically locate close to the point of sale or where efficiency can be maximized, which is not just in urban areas. This is one of the major benefits of indoor farming. Because the farmer has more control over climate, they can choose to locate a farm wherever it makes the most sense.
4. Most indoor farms are producing 2 or more crops in their space.
80% of respondents to our latest SOIF survey grow at least two crops. Because growers have the ability to create microclimates within the growing area, they can optimize for more than one type of crop. Below are the five most common crops grown by the responding farmers.
5. Indoor agriculture produces higher yields compared to conventional farming.
Enclosing facilities gives farmers the ability to create ideal growing environments. As a result, farmers can grow a crop from seed to harvest in less time and produce higher yields.
6. Leafy greens and microgreens have the highest profit margin.
On average, leafy greens and microgreens had the highest profit margin for responding farmers in 2017, at 40% across various facility and system types.
7. Vertical farms use a lot of energy.
Artificial lighting is a key component to vertical farming operations. Growers run their lights approximately 16 hours per day, every day, all year round. As a result, expect energy to account for a large percentage of your operating costs. Greenhouses use energy too. Most of the energy consumption in a greenhouse comes from heating and cooling costs.
8. Growers are innovative.
We asked growers if they would buy technology from a startup and 78% indicated they would. Most growers specified they don’t want to be “beta testers” but they recognize the need to innovate. The key for farmers is trusting technology and not buying new technologies that don’t directly benefit their farm.
9. 2018 will be the year of data and analytics.
When asked about the technologies growers are looking to invest in this year, most farmers selected data and analytics; climate control systems ranked second. If you are going to run a profitable farm in 2018, investing in a technology stack is a must.
10. Profitability is the number one goal for growers in 2018.
When asked about their number one goal for 2018, 46% of farmers indicated either increasing profitability or revenue. For an additional 7%, the primary goal is decreasing costs, which takes financial-related goals to 53%.
Special thanks to our survey partners: Urban Ag News, State of the Soil, and Cornell University.
Want more? Check out the full State of Indoor Farming report here.
Second Generation Growlink Environment Controllers Introduce New Remote Sensor Module with Additional Light and VPD Readings
Growlink, architect of Smart Farm technology, today announced the second generation Growlink Environment Controllers. In addition to the new remote sensor module, they introduced three new controllers to support any size grow operation.
Second Generation Growlink Environment Controllers Introduce New Remote Sensor Module with Additional Light and VPD Readings
Growlink Second Generation Controllers provide a complete hardware and software solution for monitoring and equipment automation.
DENVER (PRWEB) December 08, 2017
Environment Sensor Module
Our mission is to help growers reduce costs, maximize yields and eliminate crop loss while helping them save energy.
Growlink, architect of Smart Farm technology, today announced the second generation Growlink Environment Controllers. In addition to the new remote sensor module, they introduced three new controllers to support any size grow operation. New features include VPD and light readings, improved rules engine, rule groups, direct controller access, local data storage, expanded I/O options, improved Wi-Fi compatibility and proprietary mesh RF network.
“In the past year, we’ve accomplished many notable milestones, from having Growlink Controllers connected – and improving operations and yields – in licensed grows in every U.S. state and across Canada where cannabis production is legal, to supporting some of the largest food production vertical farms, to adding over 100 dealers and installers” said Ted Tanner, Growlink founder and chief executive officer.
“Our mission is to help growers reduce costs, maximize yields and eliminate crop loss while helping them save energy, and with the next-generation Growlink Environment Controllers, we’re able to spread that saving and predictability to even more farms of any size – and to help all the equipment in a farm perform the way they were meant to.”
All three models include the new Wireless ESM1 Environment Sensor Module, a shielded device designed to hang in the canopy that measures temperature, humidity, VPD, light and CO2.
The Growlink EC-1 Environment Controller is designed for small room operation. It includes a compact base controller, the Wireless Environment Sensor Module and two Remote Power Links that allow users to control any equipment. The system can be expanded by adding additional Remote Power Links.
The Growlink EC-3 Environment Controller is designed for commercial grow rooms and container farms. The base controller includes eight solid state relays with manual override switches for controlling external devices. Users can switch any low-voltage equipment or use UL listed contactors for line voltage interfacing equipment. It includes the ESM1 Wireless Sensor Module and supports the addition of a second ESM1 to monitor a second room. All components are matched to the controlled loads and panels arrive fully pre-wired and tested.
The Growlink EC-6 Environment Controller is designed to deliver the ultimate smart farm experience, featuring the highest-quality components and processing power to coordinate hundreds of smart devices throughout the entire farm. The EC-6 can automate sophisticated indoor farms and complex greenhouses with controls for climate, irrigation and nutrient systems. Each controller is custom programmed to manage the customer’s specific applications. They can also be easily networked together for seamless control of any sized facility. The base controller includes sixteen solid state relays with manual override switches for controlling external devices. Users can switch any low-voltage equipment or use UL listed contactors for line voltage interfacing equipment. It includes the ESM1 Wireless Sensor Module and supports the addition of a second ESM1 to monitor a second room. All components are matched to the controlled loads and panels arrive fully pre-wired and tested.
Growlink’s connected Environment, Nutrient and Irrigation Controllers allow users to see, monitor, and control a farm from anywhere using their smartphone or tablet. These Internet of Things devices are designed for indoor and greenhouse grow operations, and their modular design allows them to scale from single rooms to large greenhouses and everything in between. They are part of Growlink’s complete cloud-based platform and are capable of predictive analytics.
The Growlink App, available in the Apple App Store and Google Play, connects to the Growlink Controllers directly when onsite or through the cloud when away and allows users to monitor sensor data in real time, view real-time video, and control any connected devices. Users can set up rules including sensor triggers, timers, and schedules to automate the grow process.
The Growlink EC-1 Environment Controller retails for $1299. It is available now direct from Growlink at http://www.growlink.com and hydroponic stores everywhere starting January 2018. The EC-3 and EC-6 are available by custom quote only.
About Growlink
Growlink’s mission is to create smart farms that reduce costs, maximize yields and eliminate crop loss by leveraging the power of big data, the cloud and IoT devices. The company focuses on simple, beautiful hardware, software and services. The Growlink Platform controls and automates lighting, climate, fertigation and irrigation systems.
Visit http://www.growlink.com for more information and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For media inquiries:
Please contact press@growlink.com
Green Automation Americas LLC Expands Markets in North America
Green Automation Americas LLC Expands Markets in North America
The company claims its hydroponic systems use little water and create large yields.
October 10, 2017
Wellington, Florida – The average American consumes 27.2 lbs. of leafy greens per year – a staggering number when you multiply that figure with the latest US census figures. The Green Automationhydroponic greenhouse systems were developed over ten years ago in Helsinki, Finland and are now producing fresh, pesticide-free leafy greens and herbs here in North America.
“With feet on the ground now here in the U.S. where more than ever the end customer seeks nutritious, locally-produced fresh food, the timing is perfect. Consumers are more exacting about consuming food that is produced naturally, without pesticides and on a year-round basis. Our fully automated and inclusive seed-to-harvest system not only uses 95 percent less water than traditional field farming, but can achieve tremendous product yield for a fraction of the labor costs,” says Tero Rapila, co-Founder and CEO of Green Automation Export in Finland.
Over 70 percent of the lettuce sold in the U.S. grows in California, an area of the country plagued with water-shortage issues. With traditional farming methods, over 15 gallons of water is required to grow one pound of lettuce. The labor force required to harvest, package and ship lettuce throughout the country has become more and more cost prohibitive. The Green Automation system tackles all these issues, and provides an extremely efficient and profitable solution for the investor and greenhouse growers.
Green Automation systems are up and running in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Illinois. The size of these vary from 1-3 acres, producing more than one ton lettuce per acre each day and can provide the local grocery stores with fresh lettuce within twelve hours of harvest.
Here are a few examples of our reference projects:
Florida, USA
Massachusetts USA, 2016
New Hampshire USA, 2016
Illinois USA, 2014
New York, USA, 2014
Bulgaria, Europe 2017
Russia, Europe 2015
Finland, Europe 2016
Beyond the Hype: AI in Agtech
Beyond the Hype: AI in Agtech
Google “AI in agriculture” right now and you’ll see tons of articles about startups raising money, established big players wading into the space, and the occasional bovine artificial insemination article (we’re in ag after all).
AI is hot. And rightfully so. Agriculture is a low-margin, labor intensive industry. Technology can help farmers increase margins and decrease operational risk (crop loss, disease, food safety, pests, etc.). AI becomes increasingly exciting as we think about feeding our growing global population in more sustainable ways.
With a lot of attention, comes a lot of hype. We’ve been focused on using data to automate farming workflow since early 2015. Building good algorithms isn’t easy. You have to collect the right data points, reach data saturation, understand how the past influences the future, and know what your user’s primary objectives are throughout their workflow.
The stages of AI from least automated to fully automated.
Agrilyst has always been focused on one thing: helping growers increase profits significantly.
To do this, we have a few theses:
Data related to one function alone isn’t going to move the needle. I think it’s great that there are companies improving sensing technologies for smarter climate control. But better climate control isn’t going to push farms past profitability. I think it’s great that companies are creating algorithms to predict disease in crops using imaging. But imaging without climate and nutrient data isn’t going to be the most accurate predictor.
Indoor farming is the best application for AI in ag. There are over 6 million greenhouse growers around the world growing shorter cycle crops than commodity crops. That’s a massive data set. If a corn farmer has 40 chances in their lifetime to apply data to increase yields, an indoor lettuce grower might have 40 chances in 40 days if they’re planting and harvesting on a daily basis. It’s a faster and more consistent data set. Plus because growers are controlling their environment the controllable inputs are variables in an equation as opposed to uncontrollable factors.
Always build value. Our customers are farmers. They’re not cheap. They’re not tech-averse. They’re building a business on incredibly low margins. So technology has to work for them. No exceptions. AI for AI’s sake is not going to work in agriculture. Everything we build serves a specific value-added purpose for our customers — always.
How does Agrilyst collect data?
Agrilyst is a workflow management system. We’re focused on using data to automate the non-mechanical processes on a farm. Processes like production planning, crop scheduling, quality optimization, risk management (disease, pest, crop success), labor planning, sales, and inventory management all fall into our domain. We don’t make hardware and we’re not focused on automating processes that can be replaced by machines, like seeding, harvesting, processing, and packaging.
Our software is a critical part of running daily operations on a farm. Growers use Agrilyst to track crops from seed to harvest, store yield data, track pests, record nutrient metrics, and more. All of this user-generated data makes up the core of our data set.
Agrilyst’s data flywheel
We also have an open API to connect to any device a grower has on their farm. Growers who have sensors, climate control systems, nutrient dosing systems, or connected lighting can connect to Agrilyst through the API for real-time data collection.
All of this data combines to build a proprietary network of data that strengthens as it interacts.
Descriptive Analytics — What happened?
The first step in building an AI-driven workflow is digitizing all of the manual data collection processes our users used to write down on paper (thesis point: data related to one function alone isn’t going to move the needle).
That all starts with growth cycles in Agrilyst. Production planning used to take hours out of a grower’s day. Now growers drag and drop stages of a plant’s lifecycle into a template and then tell the system how often the template should repeat. This saves growers an average of 1 hour and 15 mins per week in manual work (thesis point: always build value).
We use this data as the foundation for showing growers what’s going on in their farm. In Agrilyst’s dashboard and with reporting tools, growers can drill down into their operational data to understand what is going on at all times.
Visual of a grower’s water metrics.
Diagnostic Analytics — Why did it happen?
The next step is using the foundational data to understand why something happened. This is what drives the training for algorithms and helps us get to the next step: predicting what’s going to happen.
Let’s say a grower sees a decrease in yield. We want to know why that happened. If the pH for a lettuce crop falls beyond the accepted range of 6–6.5, certain nutrients become unavailable to the plants. A common thing for our growers to analyze is pH trends against yield to see if this is the root cause for changes in yield.
Predictive Analytics — What could happen?
Now comes the fun stuff. At data saturation, roughly a few million harvest data points for us, our algorithms start to look forward to the future. How are crops going to perform? What factors are going to impact performance the most? How is space going to be utilized months out in the future? Do we have enough space to meet sales demands in the winter and summer? All of these questions are able to be answered once a system understands how the plants grow and all of the variables that affect that growth. Our most utilized algorithm is our yield forecast, which helps growers understand their expected harvest yield 30-days in advance at 90% accuracy.
Prescriptive Analytics — What should happen?
All of this leads to providing growers with recommendations. If I break down production planning into it’s variable inputs, you have:
- Crop selection (what crops are you growing?)
- Crop growth rate (how fast does it grow?)
- Growing area (how much space do I allocate to my crop?)
- Climate
- Nutrients
- Customer needs (how much am I selling, to whom, when?)
Once you have those pieces, you can create a production plan pretty easily. If I know Whole Foods needs 100 pounds of kale in 30 days and that kale in my system takes about 30 days to grow at roughly 1 pound per square foot, I’ll seed enough to fill 100 square feet of space today. And that’s how production planning happens today (without tech).
With Agrilyst, growers can understand which of their crops are the highest performers based on yield, growth rate, or both and run production scenarios with higher performers having more space allocation. These recommendations help growers optimize the space on their farm and drive significantly higher revenues.
Cognitive Analytics — Make it happen.
Here’s where the real magic happens. Because Agrilyst is focused on automating all processes that rely on human decision-making and are non-mechanical, we’re primarily focused on three operational areas: production management, inventory supply, and marketplaces.
Over the next few months, we’re going to be introducing the next component of our production management tool, moving from prescription to automation. We’re using machine vision to determine actual growth rates and germination rates. By feeding these rates into the production planning, growers won’t have to create growth cycles manually. The production plans will adjust based on seasonality and climate conditions on their own, with a focus on optimizing yields among crop selection. That means we can fully automate the planning component of farming.
What’s Next?
One of the biggest struggles for indoor farm operators is ensuring stable sales supply. We’re building a data set of market demand by primary buyers to help growers understand real-time demand. We’re focused on creating the marketplace for stable local purchasing.
We’re also focused on automating inventory control. Using AI, we can predict when growers are running low on various consumables and automate purchasing processes.
Agrilyst is the virtual agronomist powering the horticulture industry. We invite you to join the #DigitalHorticulture movement on social media and share your stories of farm innovation.
If you enjoyed this story, tune in for more here and be sure to check out our website: www.agrilyst.com.
Growlink Announces Strategic Partnership With Modular Farms
Growlink Announces Strategic Partnership With Modular Farms
Growlink Grow Controllers to be used in Modular Farms Container Farms
DENVER, CO (PRWEB) AUGUST 16, 2017
Modular Farms
We wanted a strong technology partner that would meet our needs for a reliable, easy-to-use farm, and Growlink provides that.
Growlink, a Denver-based technology company, announced today that it has formed a strategic partnership with Brampton, Ontario-based Modular Farms, to integrate its cloud-based grow controllers into their modular farm systems.
“We’re excited for this partnership with Modular Farms,” said Ted Tanner, CEO of Growlink. “Modular Farms has the potential to lengthen growing seasons, reduce local food insecurity, and stabilize a farmer’s income stream. We share their goals of bringing smart, fresh, local food to communities worldwide.”
Modular Farms began selling its farm systems in November 2016. Instead of repurposing shipping containers, Modular Farm Systems are built from the ground up from composite, rust-resistant panels and are larger than traditional shipping containers at 40’ x 10’ x 10’. The larger size allows for better spacing between plans and lights and greater airflow. Every unit comes with two intensive days of training and 24/7 support.
After initially building the container farms using other control systems, Modular Farms soon realized they would not fit the needs of their customers. “We were disappointed by the performance and limited functionality of other systems,” said Eric Amyot, CEO of Modular Farms. “We needed a new solution.” After reviewing all of the options available, Modular Farms selected Growlink to be its technology partner. The Growlink modular platform uses a variety of sensors and switching modules to monitor and control the environment and nutrient system, which growers can access from their smartphones using the Modular Farms App.
The App, available in the Apple App store and Google Play, connects to the Growlink Grow Controllers and allows users to monitor sensor data in real time, view real-time video, and control any connected devices. Users can set up rules including sensor triggers, timers, and schedules to automate the grow process.
“We wanted a strong technology partner that would meet our needs for a reliable, easy-to-use farm, and Growlink provides that,” said Amyot. “Our Modular Farms Systems ship with the Growlink technology fully installed, customized for our customers’ planting needs.”
About Growlink
Growlink’s mission is to deliver an elegant and affordable way to control and automate lighting, climate, fertigation and irrigation systems. The Denver-based company focuses on creating well-designed, tightly integrated hardware and software that allow users to see, monitor and control their farm from anywhere. Visit http://www.growlink.com for more information and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About Modular Farms
Launched in 2015, Modular Farms Co. is a Canadian agriculture company that provides first-of-its-kind engineered farming units designed for multiple terrains, weather conditions and a focus on plant health. Each Modular Farms unit is fully-manufactured in Brampton, Ontario and is capable of producing fresh, healthy produce virtually anywhere in the world and in any climate, exceeding the qualities and quantities of those grown in shipping containers. Current modules include Primary, Macro, and Vestibule, with Water, Storage, Energy and Sprout modules in development. The Modular Farms App allows users to monitor sensor data in real time, view real-time video and control any connected devices. Users can set up sensor triggers, timers, and schedules to automate the grow process directly from their smartphones. By partnering with world-leading experts in LED lighting, plant health sciences and indoor agriculture, Modular Farms brings unprecedented opportunity for expansion and growth in the agricultural industry. Visit http://www.modularfarms.co for more information and follow Modular Farms on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Shaping Smarter Cities: Urban Farming in Tokyo Japan
Shaping Smarter Cities: Urban Farming in Tokyo Japan
14 August 2017
With the next evolution of Mouser Electronics’ Empowering Innovative Together™ series, Mouser and Grant Imahara team up with the creative minds at WIRED Brand Lab to take a look at the modern city. Sponsored this year by our technology partners Analog Devices, Intel, Microchip a,nd Molex, we’re traveling the world to see and learn from the innovators and progressive companies creating a more livable future for our cities. We’re asking insightful questions: How can technology make our hectic lives better, and what solutions will it provide to the everyday problems today’s ever-growing cities face? Across the globe, there are many innovators hard at work already employing technology to create smarter cities that are more efficient, less polluted and more sustainable.
In the third episode of our 5-part video series, Grant heads to Tokyo, Japan to speak with engineers at a company called Mirai. Mirai is investigating how urban farming could enhance food production for ever growing populations in smart cities. Almost three-quarters of the landmass in Japan is mountainous. This leaves only a relatively small area for the entire population to live work and grow food. As the population increases, the strain on food production expands exponentially.
That is where Mirai comes in. They have converted a former Sony semiconductor factory into the world’s largest indoor farm. It ships out 10,000 heads of lettuce per day. By building these farms up instead of out Mirai has found one solution to the problem of space for farms in Japan.
Inside their indoor vertical farm, Mirai can control all the things that keep a farm awake with worry every night. In the controlled environment they have created rainfall can be precisely controlled, soil nutrients can be meticulously applied and damage from animals and insects ceases to be a concern. The yield per square meter is 50 to 100 times that of a normal farm.
The types of vertical farms that Mirai has created can be installed virtually anywhere they are needed. This means that the food miles (a measurement of the distance food has to travel from producer to consumer and the fuel required) for their products are greatly reduced.
The indoor nature of these farms also reduces water consumption. All drainage from the watering of crops is collected and recycled. Even the water lost to evaporation is trapped and then recycled.
These are just a few examples of how vertical farming will revolutionize the world of agriculture and enhance smart cities.
In the next episode Grant treks to Los Angeles, California to take a look at the future of city building.
Full Automation From Planning To Control For Indoor Farms Is Here
Full Automation From Planning To Control For Indoor Farms Is Here
Brooklyn, August 10, 2017 - Two leading agtech companies have joined forces to offer award-winning automation software and hardware to indoor farms.
For the first time ever, growers will be able to use technology to automate processes that have previously been decided based on incomplete data. Agrilyst, based in Brooklyn, is the market leader in farm management and automation software for indoor farms. Motorleaf, based in Montreal, is a market leader in IoT, plug-and-play sensor, and controls hardware and software for hydroponic and greenhouse automation.
It is now possible to connect Motorleaf devices to Agrilyst’s platform. Growers can visualize all of their climate and nutrient information real-time and alongside their crop yield data.
“The customer is the most important piece of the puzzle, and facilitating easy access to critical information in an intuitive and plug-and-play environment are two of the things that both Agrilyst and Motorleaf customers already experience. Now for the first time they can do this with both companies working together on their behalf. Welcome to the new way agtech should work for all customers,” says Ally Monk, Motorleaf Co-Founder and CEO.
“We believe the open exchange of data between systems is critical for farm success and have always been committed to helping farmers access and utilize their data in better ways. We’re excited to work with Motorleaf, who is quickly becoming a key player in advanced indoor controls technology. Connecting to top-of-the line devices will help our customers get the best insights into their operations possible,” says Allison Kopf, Agrilyst Founder and CEO.
For a limited time, growers who sign up for an annual commercial farm subscription with Agrilyst will receive two free control units from Motorleaf.
About Agrilyst
Growers who are interested in taking the next step in data and automation can sign up at: https://www.agrilyst.com/motorleaf/
Agrilyst is the virtual agronomist powering the horticulture industry. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Brooklyn, NY. The subscription-based software helps growers automate labor-intensive processes like production planning, crop scheduling, and task management and drive higher revenues on the farm. Agrilyst is committed to helping every indoor farmer reach profitability.
Contact: Allison Kopf CEO, Agrilyst | akopf@agrilyst.com
About Motorleaf
Motorleaf turns any greenhouse and indoor farm, into a smart connected operation. From a hobby grower to 100+ acres of greenhouse; Motorleaf has a suite of hardware and software to allow the Monitoring, Automation, and AI/Machine Learning enabled discovery to flourish. Motorleaf allows all farmers to ‘Sleep Well While Plants Grow Well.’
Mouser Electronics “Vertical Farming” E-Book
In this EBook, entitled “Vertical Farming,” Mouser and suppliers Analog Devices, Intel, Microchip and Molex explore how urban farming could help smart cities meet the challenge of feeding their growing population.
Mouser Electronics “Vertical Farming” E-Book
August 2017
Tying into the first EBook from Mouser Electronics’ Empowering Innovation Together initiative, Mouser and Grant Imahara of MythBusters’ fame now explore the up-and-coming realm of urban farming. As previously mentioned, the Empowering Innovation Together initiative takes readers on a quest for new knowledge where they can see a direct connection between ideas and products, and how it’s all applied into a working solution.
In this EBook, entitled “Vertical Farming,” Mouser and suppliers Analog Devices, Intel, Microchip and Molex explore how urban farming could help smart cities meet the challenge of feeding their growing populations.
From precision agriculture and indoor farming to energy efficiency and connectivity, this E-Book examines the aspects of smart agriculture, and the implications these advances may have on our future.
Full Automation From Planning To Control For Indoor Farms Is Here
Full Automation From Planning To Control For Indoor Farms Is Here
Montreal, Canada | August 10, 2017
Two leading agtech companies have joined forces to offer award-winning automation software and hardware to indoor farms.
For the first time ever, growers will be able to use technology to automate processes that have previously been decided based on incomplete data.
Motorleaf, based in Montreal, is the market leader in IoT, plug-and-play sensor, and controls hardware and software for hydroponic and greenhouse automation.
Agrilyst, based in Brooklyn, is the market leader in farm management and automation
software for indoor farms. It is now possible to connect Motorleaf devices to Agrilyst’s platform. Growers can visualize all of their climate and nutrient information real-time and alongside
their crop yield data.
“The customer is the most important piece of the puzzle, and facilitating easy
access to critical information in an intuitive and plug-and-play environment are
two of the things that both Agrilyst and Motorleaf customers already experience.
Now for the first time they can do this with both companies working together on
their behalf. Welcome to the new way agtech should work for all customers,”
says Ally Monk, Motorleaf Co-Founder and CEO.
“We believe the open exchange of data between systems is critical for farm
success and have always been committed to helping farmers access and utilize
their data in better ways. We’re excited to work with Motorleaf, who is quickly
becoming a key player in advanced indoor controls technology. Connecting to
top-of-the line devices will help our customers get the best insights into their
operations possible,” says Allison Kopf, Agrilyst Founder and CEO.
For a limited time, growers who sign up for an annual commercial farm
subscription with Agrilyst will receive two free hardware units from Motorleaf worth over $1400 USD.
Growers who are interested in taking the next step in data and automation can
sign up at: https://www.agrilyst.com/motorleaf
About Motorleaf
Motorleaf turns any greenhouse and indoor farm, into a smart connected
operation. From a hobby grower to 100+ acres of greenhouse; Motorleaf has a
suite of hardware and software to allow the Monitoring, Automation, and
AI/Machine Learning enabled discovery to flourish. Motorleaf allows all farmers to
‘Sleep Well <while plants> Grow Well.’Sleep well, grow well,
About Agrilyst
Agrilyst is the virtual agronomist powering the horticulture industry. The company
was founded in 2015 and is based in Brooklyn, NY. The subscription-based
software helps growers automate labor-intensive processes like production
planning, crop scheduling, and task management and drive higher revenues on
the farm. Agrilyst is committed to helping every indoor farmer reach profitability.The Motorleaf Team!
Contact: Alastair Monk - Motorleaf CEO | monk@motorleaf.com
Motorleaf’s Monk on Priorities and Challenges of Being an AI Startup in Indoor Ag
Motorleaf’s Monk on Priorities and Challenges of Being an AI Startup in Indoor Ag
JULY 19, 2017 LOUISA BURWOOD-TAYLOR
Motorleaf is a Canadian startup that has built a smart and automated indoor farming operating system, consisting of hardware devices and software analytics, to enable growers to capture data about their crops, learn what the crops need, and instruct existing equipment to answer those needs.
The motorleaf system can be used in any type of indoor farming operation from greenhouses through to warehouses and at any size. Motorleaf receives 40,000 data points per customer per week and therefore can start predicting a crop’s needs, solving potential problems before they exist. Also, the startup plans to use its network of data and growers to connect users to each other – on an opt-in basis – to share data, plant recipes and knowledge.
We caught up with Ally Monk, CEO of motorleaf, a few months after the business raised a $1.1 million seed round of funding — which was launched on AgFunder — to get an update on how the business is progressing.
It’s now been seven month months since you closed your seed round; how have you spent the proceeds so far?
The first thing we bought was a robot vacuum we’ve named Elroy (from the Jetsons). That was about the extent of any extravagant spending. Other than welcoming Elroy, we’ve increased the team and invested in talent that builds amazing software, hardware and understands the needs of our client base.
We’ve been fortunate to be invited to talk at a few events in Vegas and Tokyo on the topic of artificial intelligence and big data at agriculture-focused events, so some travel as well. We’ve also invested in a small secondary location to accommodate testing our new technology on various crop types.
What have been your biggest milestones to-date?
I think if I could pick my top three they would be:
1) Getting picked for the FounderFuel accelerator AI cohort; can you imagine how many companies applied for the six places on offer? And then becoming a ‘proper company’ soon thereafter! That was quite the journey in itself, which I did a TEDx talk about.
2) Building two versions of our hardware — now five different units — and software within 12 months, with the deployments proving everything is working as it should. That may sound simple, but it’s like building two different companies with half the budget normally needed for both. Then getting repeat orders.
3) Seeing real AI + Machine Learning built out, integrated into our software, deployed in indoor farms, and then seeing it exceed expectations. As we now like to say: “AI is what we do, it’s not a buzzword.’
What are your priorities for the rest of 2017?
Again – it’s never just one thing – my top three are:
1) We’re looking to grow the team, so planning for that big next step will begin in Q4 2017.
2) Continued and increased communication with our clients; we learn more in these interactions than in any staff meetings.
3) Stick to our technology road map. It’s aggressive, but with access to some of the best R&D financial programs in the country (Canada) and likely in the whole of North America; we can do more with one dollar than most companies — even those that outsource overseas.
What have been the biggest challenges to getting where you are today?
Focus. Every day we are approached by potential companies/partners/distributors/clients that ask us to work with them, and some cases ask us to modify what we have for them. We can only do so much, so trying not to get distracted by people from all over the world who reach out is tough. It’s exciting to know your little idea that went from a friendship + prototype in a ski town of 4,000 people, in less than two years is getting contacted from all corners of the planet; it’s amazing, but it could break us if we don’t execute a plan that’s agreed and well thought out.
What are the biggest hurdles ahead?
If I knew that we’d be bullet proof! The hurdles we know of center around what parts of a very large market we double down on. Part of what investors expect you to do with seed money is investigate various hypotheses. Our technology can help an indoor farmer who grows in a grow tent, and all the way up to hundreds of acres under glass. So we can’t service everyone the same way, and at times that feels like leaving money on the table. So a huge challenge is looking at which partners to ‘allow’ your products to be sold by, where we won’t wish to focus directly ourselves, but still know there is huge sales potential.
That and the fact I still sleep on the office floor on an air mattress due to workload. That’s proving to be a challenge- I may upgrade to a futon at some point!
Machine learning and AI are all the buzz across industries today, but it seems to me that it takes some time before a startup can really start deploying this tech and it requires a lot of data. Do you agree?
Access to data is certainly an issue for a lot of young companies, but likely, more importantly, access to data you can parse/understand/and then draw relevant conclusions from is harder still. Where we see a huge advantage on what we’re able to do, is the fact we can collect data ourselves, we don’t have to rely on someone else’s data. We’ve processed over 1 million datasets since we started deploying our units, but not all that data is useful. So it may sound a lot, but in the big scheme of things, we’ve just gotten started.
What’s your take on early stage startups name dropping their use of AI/ML?
It doesn’t take long for young startups to hear “just say you do AI – investors love it!” and so they add it to their company description. One of our mentors at our accelerator program was Jean-François Gagnét, Founder/CEO of Element AI. They raised 100 million recently, and are by far the company with the most ‘AI talent’ in N America, perhaps the world.
He said to us “What you need to remember is that you never tried to convince anyone you were doing AI, you were doing it before the buzzword came along, so keep building out as you planned, and no one can accuse you of jumping on the band wagon.” It was a big relief to hear him say that, as now, only a short time after we ’emerged’ we feel we have to justify the use of these terms in what we do, and then remember that we actually don’t.
The proof is in the pudding; once we’ve finished our private beta, I can’t wait to show our clients video testimonials on how our AI/Machine Learning helps them.
So I would say this: ask how many crops a young company can successfully use AI/Machine Learning on: the higher the number, the more salt you should sprinkle on their answer. Growing crops and proving out this kind of tech takes a lot of time; plants take time, results take time, triple testing and more takes time.
Where is the indoor ag industry today? How fast is it growing in Canada and beyond?
I think it’s at a crossroads. A lot of great press for the industry is making people aware technology MUST help it transform, investors are aware it’s one of the last huge industries that’s been around for centuries that’s ripe for disruption, or just ‘change’ if you want to avoid the cliche buzzwords!
However, technology needs to travel. Data needs not to be kept behind closed doors, especially when the farmer is the one who owns it, and will benefit the most if it’s allowed to visit other service providers to help him/her get better insight/results.
So the market is certainly growing fast, but it’s shooting off in different directions.
In Canada and the US we’ve found a ton of growers who EXPECT tech to help them, and if fairly new to growing crops indoors, are quickly frustrated by some of the incumbents in the market who seem to think they have no obligation to change how their systems work to accommodate any newcomers trying to work with indoor farmers.
It reminds me of the first time I used Uber, I asked myself: ”Why did it take someone from outside of the taxi industry to come up with this; it’s a way better service.” Then I realized, they all had it way too easy being top dog in their city, no real need to service their customers any better.
Agtech is moving so fast, and young companies are laser-focused on the needs of real customers across the world. So you can’t help agree with David Bowie: “Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.” If you choose to listen that is.