Internet of bees – Wyld Networks at insect-tech event

Agri-TechE Article
Agri-TechE
internet of bees
Smart beehive sensor enables remote monitoring

Commercial bee-keepers will be able to monitor their hives remotely with an innovative lid sensor being developed by Wlyd Networks and Bayer. The collaboration emerged after the Agri-TechE mission to St Louis in Missouri.

Mission valuable

Satellite IoT Consultant Eric Hewitson of Wyld Networks comments: “Wyld learnt an immense amount from the Agri-TechE mission to St Louis in early 2020, making great contacts in some of the key companies and organisations and gaining an understanding the immense scale of agriculture in the region. In numerous ways this reframed how Wyld perceived its place and potential in the agri-tech ecosystem.”

Wyld Networks simplifies sensor to satellite connectivity and this is a growing requirement. The new generation of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites will very soon provide near global connectivity, and this will offer a huge opportunity to deploy sensors in remote areas where there is little cellular coverage.

Its product, Wyld Connect, enables sensors to send data directly to LEO satellites – at low cost, low energy and minimal investment.

Eric continues: “Since the mission we have started projects with Bayer and KWS and have many other potential opportunities arising from people and companies we met.”

Internet of bees

Wyld, in partnership with Bayer, is designing, building and testing a satellite connected beehive lid sensor. The project will gather data from hive health such as temperature, humidity and hive weight and combine this with the lid sensor data. Testing is taking place in beehive sites in the USA, Canada and Germany.

In addition,  in collaboration with KWS it is testing satellite connected soil moisture sensors with a view to deploying across multiple field assets where cellular coverage is poor or unavailable. The need for connectivity everywhere at low power and low cost is critical for delivering granular data sets over time. Satellite IoT is the solution to meet this data demand.

Eric will be talking about the smart beehive lid sensor at the Agri-TechE event “Feel the buzz – Insect-tech explored” an online event on the 26th April 2022.

More about Wyld Networks 

Breedr raises £12 million for precision livestock trading platform

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Precision livestock company Breedr has raised £12 million to develop ‘Breedr Impact’, a data-driven financial product for livestock farmers.

farmer tech Breedr precision livestock platform
Ian Wheal, founder of Breedr, precision livestock management platform

The company says that restricted access to finance is a concern for livestock producers and a major cause of stress for UK farmers. The removal of EU farming subsidies, which can make up to 90% of a farm’s income, is an additional challenge. The lack of cash flow is holding farmers back from making investments into their operations, such as introducing sustainable practices, and yet farmers have an under-leveraged asset – livestock – on their farm.

Breedr Impact allows farmers to release cash from their livestock in order to expand their business. For the first time it makes it possible to utilise data to track livestock as an asset.

In early trials, this innovative asset purchase agreement has created strong returns for farmers and investors and is part of Breedr’s vision to democratise access to innovative financial products for a new generation of farmers.

Precision livestock

Breedr was founded in 2019 by Ian Wheal, who grew up on a farm in Australia, to revolutionise outdated and inefficient agricultural practices by moving to individual animal management. Via the free app and platform, farmers can record everything they need to know about their animals on their phone or laptop. They can track metrics such as weight, genetics, health and medication to improve animal welfare and profitability over time.

They can scan electronic ear tags, sync movements, record medicine use, store breeding and fertility information, and receive individual data analytics for each animal in real-time to improve efficiencies and reduce emissions. Breedr’s powerful growth algorithm and benchmarking tools use this data to predict the future growth of animals, guiding farmers on how to grow healthier animals and plan finishing dates.

In under three years, Breedr has helped over 1,100 UK farmers transform their businesses through free and easy data analysis of more than 160,000 registered animals. Farmers on the platform can additionally buy and sell cattle via the Breedr Marketplace, with over 6,000 animals worth £4.5 million having been traded since January 2021.

Transforming the future of farming

The new funding from Investbridge Capital brings the total raised by Breedr £17.5 million after the startup previously raised £5.2 million from investors including LocalGlobe and Forward Partners. The startup will use the funding to continue to build out its financial products and invest in its external expansion plans, particularly focused on the Australian and US livestock markets.

Ian Wheal, founder and CEO at Breedr, said: “We have created Breedr to put data at the heart of farming. By enabling farmers to grow healthier animals, we’re transforming the industry: allowing farmers to use their animals to make investments in their farms, improve trading and provide more transparency to the supply chain – which is sorely needed in this under-invested industry.

“We’re seeing the positive impact this is having already in the UK on helping to decrease methane emissions and improve cash flow for farmers and can’t wait to expand this model across the world, starting with Australia and the US.

“We’re delighted to have the support of Investbridge Capital and our crowdfunding investors to help us expand Breedr to support even more farmers.”

More about Breedr

Breedr benefited from early exposure in the REAP Start-up Showcase.

FoodTech 500 2021 features companies from Agri-TechE ecosystem

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New model makes it easier to predict GHG emissions in different livestock grazing systems

Research Digest
Agri-TechE

Predicting the nitrous oxide (N2O), ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide emissions generated by different livestock systems will become easier following the development of a model, by researchers at Rothamsted Research and the Bristol Veterinary School.

The computer model simulates the intricate workings of a livestock farm, accurately mimicking grass growth, the amount of beef and lamb it produces, and the greenhouse gas emissions of its animals. It will enable complex systems to be analysed without the need for realworld experiments.

Measurement of greenhouse gas emissions in livestock production is challenging. Emerging agri-tech to support the transition to net zero is to be discussed at an Agri-TechE event to be held at Rothamsted Research, Harpenden.   

Lead author Dr Lianhai Wu said: “Our computer model accurately predicts animal and grass growth, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as nutrient and water cycling by taking into account the effects of factors such as livestock breed, climate, soil types and feed quality and quantity.

“The model could potentially integrate economic, environmental and social factors as well to provide decision makers with the ability to forecast, interpret and respond to potential threats or opportunities for UK livestock farmers.”

Ruminant livestock can make an important contribution to global food security by converting feed that is unsuitable for human consumption into high value food protein, however overuse of bought in feed and intensive production may create adverse environmental impacts.

Predict GHG emissions from livestock systems

The extended SPACSYS model enables estimates of ruminent growth under different feeding regimes. Intake of herbage (plants other than grass) and concentrates and the energy they contain was simulated in the component. Animal growth was validated by using liveweight data from over 200 finishing beef cattle and 900 lambs collected from the North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP) in southwest England, UK, between 2011 and 2018.

Agriculture is the major source of NH3 emissions to the atmosphere, primarily deriving from livestock. The study provided insights into nitrogen cycles on a permanent pasture grazing system. It showed that 13% of the nitrogen applied as manure and deposited as excreta during grazing was lost to the air via ammonia volatilisation.

Of the inorganic nitrogen applied as Ammonium Nitrate at 190 to 260 kg ha−1, 37–61% was removed from the fields either as silage or animal intake. However, 15–26% was lost through surface runoff or drainage and 1.14% was emitted to the atmosphere as N2O.

Supplied by Rothamsted Research

Novel whole system model

It is novel to link animal, plant, soil and atmosphere together into a whole system model. By doing so it is possible to quantitatively investigate the dynamics of animal and grass production and nutrient fate, and their interactions under varied environmental conditions.

Through this study, the configuration for a permanent pasture grazing system has been validated. Researchers observe that the extended model has the potential to investigate the responses of the system on and consequences for a range of agronomic management and grazing strategies.
L. Wu, P. Harris, T.H. Misselbrook, M.R.F. Lee, Simulating grazing beef and sheep systems, Agricultural Systems, Volume 195, 2022,103307,ISSN 0308-521X.
 

Morrison replacing soy with insect protein from Better Origin

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Better Origin insect factories
Mini insect factories produce chicken feed

Better Origin is to provide insect mini farms for generating feed for 10 egg suppliers to Wm Morrison,  UK’s fourth-largest grocer.
The automated farms are housed in shipping containers and will produce insects fed on waste from Morrisons’ fruit and vegetable processing site in Yorkshire as part of  a “circular agriculture” scheme.
Insects are a natural feed for chickens, but rearing the birds indoors means that the bulk of the feed comes from soyabeans and grains. According to the British Free Range Egg Producers Association, the largest contributor to emissions on a free range egg farm is bought-in feed, which typically makes up more than 85 per cent of an egg’s carbon footprint.
The 320,000 free-range hens on the 10 farms will also be fed a supplementary diet of British beans, peas and sunflower seeds. Morrisons says it aims to start selling its carbon neutral eggs laid by insect-fed chickens next year.
More about Better Origin
 

AgriSound launches timely pollination monitor at REAP 2021

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Targeted pollination can double the yield of soft fruit and increase the quality of the produce. To enable farmers to increase pollinator levels, AgriSound is launching an insect listening device called POLY, which displays a heat-map on a smartphone to show insect activity. It highlights pollination deficits on-farm as well as providing proof that interventions increase ecosystem services. 
Casey Woodward, CEO of AgriSound, presented in the REAP 2021 Start-Up Showcase. He says: “We would love to meet people that have a genuine interest in getting pollination right and want to be working with us as early adopters.  
“Once you have the ability to tell the difference between species of insects, you can then monitor biodiversity, which will provide evidence of natural capital assets.  
“We’d like to talk to farmers and growers about their challenges and find out how to use our data in new ways.” 
Find out more at agrisound.io 

REAP 2021: Changing Time(s) for Agriculture10th November 2021

Imagine a world where agriculture is not constrained by time. The ability to manage and manipulate time is increasing and REAP 2021 will explore the advances in technology and breakthroughs in science that is making this possible.
REAP brings together people from across the agri-tech ecosystem who believe that innovation is the engine for change. The conference bridges the gap between producer needs and technology solutions and showcases exciting agri-tech start-ups. 

New bait spray from Microbiotech traps the fruit-fly before it spoils the strawberries

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Agri-TechE

A new molasses bait spray, being developed by Cambridge-based Microbiotech in collaboration with Niab, will lure Spotted-Wing Drosophila, an invasive fruit fly, to its death before it has a chance to lay its eggs on fruit crops. The new product is not attractive to beneficial insects and only uses a tiny amount of insecticide against one of UK horticulture’s biggest threats.
Prof Ralph Noble, CEO and co-founder of Microbiotech, presented in the Start-Up Showcase at REAP 2021. He says bait sprays offer a huge time-saving:
“The amount of time required to apply a bait spray is probably about 10% of the time required to apply a standard spray, just because you don’t need to be covering the entire crop. You also don’t have to return to fill up the tank so often because you’re applying 40L per hectare rather than 500L.”
Ralph is keen to meet both fruit and mushroom growers interested in trials.
“We would be happy to include them in our development programmes. It’s always nice to do experiments on sites where the grower is actively getting something out of it.
“We’d also like to meet any companies who are testing new products, new growing media and new control methods; we’d be interested in including those products in our experiments. We also do commercial trials for companies, testing products against pest and disease problems.”
Find out more at microbiotech.co.uk

REAP 2021: Changing Time(s) for Agriculture10th November 2021

Imagine a world where agriculture is not constrained by time. The ability to manage and manipulate time is increasing and REAP 2021 will explore the advances in technology and breakthroughs in science that is making this possible.
REAP brings together people from across the agri-tech ecosystem who believe that innovation is the engine for change. The conference bridges the gap between producer needs and technology solutions and showcases exciting agri-tech start-ups. 

Sarah Morgan – 1980s: What does Techno have to do with cattle grazing?

Agri-TechE Article
Agri-TechE

Sarah’s research interests encompass developing more efficient forage-based ruminant production systems which result in consistent, high-quality products for the consumer whilst also safeguarding the environment.
She is currently leading the Cell Grazing project which aims to evaluate the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of traditional set-stocked grazing in comparison to a management intensive grazing system known as ‘techno-grazing’.
Sarah says:
“Techno-grazing is a management system based on the principle of ‘graze and rest’, where animals are fenced into a small area at very high stocking density and are rotated to new pastures every day or two.”
“Plenty of anecdotal evidence on farm suggests techno-grazing can improve productivity per hectare whilst yielding greater biodiversity and higher carbon sequestration in the soil – but there is little scientific evidence of this. If our research supports the claims then clearly it will be a win-win.”

REAP 2021: Changing Time(s) for Agriculture10th November 2021

Imagine a world where agriculture is not constrained by time. The ability to manage and manipulate time is increasing and REAP 2021 will explore the advances in technology and breakthroughs in science that is making this possible.
REAP brings together people from across the agri-tech ecosystem who believe that innovation is the engine for change. The conference bridges the gap between producer needs and technology solutions and showcases exciting agri-tech start-ups. 

1978: What can the ‘facial action coding system’ tell us about animal health?

Agri-TechE Article
Agri-TechE

Until recently Marwa Mahmoud’s work was focussed on human behaviour understanding, automatically detecting social signals from facial expressions and body gestures in the context of automotive applications and healthcare. She is now applying her expertise in computer vision and machine learning to livestock, in particular to provide early warning of contagious disease in sheep.
She says: “Sheep are prey animals and so have evolved to hide signs of pain or lameness when predators are around.  We are working on systems that can detect these signs of illness when humans are not present, using machine learning to predict early signs of pain and distress by automatically analysing their facial expressions and gait.”
Marwa is working with collaborators from University of Chester and University of Lincoln on field trials to gather training data to build robust machine learning models that are able to distinguish between healthy and ill sheep, the first step towards automated disease detection.

REAP 2021: Changing Time(s) for Agriculture10th November 2021

Imagine a world where agriculture is not constrained by time. The ability to manage and manipulate time is increasing and REAP 2021 will explore the advances in technology and breakthroughs in science that is making this possible.
REAP brings together people from across the agri-tech ecosystem who believe that innovation is the engine for change. The conference bridges the gap between producer needs and technology solutions and showcases exciting agri-tech start-ups. 

Vets need to be more involved with technology

Agri-TechE

“We are seeing major changes in the veterinary profession, particularly in the demographic and the type of support needed by farmers,” says Matthew Dobbs, a former farm vet and now Digital Practice Lead for Stonehaven Consultancy. He is joining the Sofa Session at REAP 2021. “A good farm vet now needs to be able to understand data, statistics and the risks to really advise and help the farmer and this includes the implementation of technology.”
Matthew works at board level for several UK and US vet businesses in addition to his support for a portfolio of UK-based agri-tech start-ups, leveraging his knowledge of livestock health along with a passion for innovation across business practices.

Lameness monitoring takes 6 hours a month

One of these areas is intelligent remote monitoring and he sees this an opportunity to save time by detecting ill health at an early stage.
“Lameness is probably the biggest welfare issue in the dairy industry,” says Matthew. “All farmers are obligated to record a mobility score for the animal every 3 months, so they assess how well its walking and whether it is lame or not, and they have to report that information to their milk purchaser or red tractor assessor.
“At the moment it’s a very laborious, painstaking task, full of bias and challenge because it’s the human eye and the farmer standing there with his clipboard. We estimate this takes about 6 hours a month or about £2.5k a year to do mobility scoring.”
Matthew is currently acting MD for AgSenze, developers of smart monitors for animal behaviour; audio and visual recordings of the animals are analysed to detect underlying health conditions that might not be detectable by eye and provide constant surveillance.

Remote diagnosis of illness 

“AgSenze are looking to do this lameness monitoring automatically, by locating camera’s where they can record cattle movements and link them to the animal’s records. The visual signals are input into a machine learning algorithm that can diagnose early signs of lameness and it generates a list for the farmer of the cows that need attention. Early warning can help prevent lameness.”
Matthew sees the potential to extend the technology to other applications that currently rely on the human eye, this would increase the return on investment. For example, the company is looking at using the cameras and supporting models to monitor growth rates and body condition. When combined with weight this will provide automatic and objective grading of the animals.
Digitising this information and making it available to the abattoir would reduce the requirement to visit farmers or transport animals to market.
Matthew explains: “With the camera system an abattoir could look at the cows and make some very objective measures – ‘that cow has a body condition score of 3, it weighs 550kg, we know it will grade out at this grade when it gets slaughtered, so what we need the farmer to do is to feed up 3-4 other animals in that pen that aren’t quite at that grade, and then we’ll take the whole lot in in 2 weeks’ time’.
“So, if the farmer has a contract in place, the abattoir would commit to having those 10 animals, monitor them and call them in at the right time for them – so they’re at perfect spec.
“To close the loop, we are also looking at putting a camera in the lairage, where the animal first comes into the abattoir, to see if it graded out as well as expected. All this will feedback into the algorithm, so it is learning and improving all the time.”

REAP opportunity to meet the ecosystem

Matt sees REAP as a great opportunity to meet partners and investors: “There may be other businesses out there who see an application for our technology that we haven’t thought about. Smart monitoring can be the eyes and ears for range of applications.”
REAP 2021 is on 10th November 2021 and provides an opportunity to network with people from across the ecosystem.

REAP 2021: Changing Time(s) for Agriculture10th November 2021

Imagine a world where agriculture is not constrained by time. The ability to manage and manipulate time is increasing and REAP 2021 will explore the advances in technology and breakthroughs in science that is making this possible.
REAP brings together people from across the agri-tech ecosystem who believe that innovation is the engine for change. The conference bridges the gap between producer needs and technology solutions and showcases exciting agri-tech start-ups. 

Coming of age for Agri-TechE members

Agri-TechE Blog
Agri-TechE

Agri-TechE is growing up

In agriculture a lot of time is spent waiting for things to mature – fruit to sweeten, grains to fill, vegetables to ripen and livestock to grow up – this month we have seen evidence that agri-tech is growing up.
Raising crops and animals through that crucial development period – providing the best environment for their growth – is usually expensive, hard work, and sometimes stressful.
Nurturing a company through its birth, growing pains and scale-up, is no different – with one of the major goals being that someone else (customers, investors, other businesses) recognises and reward the value you have built in the business. That value hopefully increases as the business matures and attracts more revenues, investment and opportunities, leading to growth and expansion.

Big wins for British agri-tech

This month there have been some big wins for British agri-tech. These successes demonstrate the investment in time and money resulting in several home-grown businesses which are making their mark and showing that UK agri-tech is, indeed, growing up.
Yagro (featured in our REAP Start-Up Showcase in 2015) and Outfield  have both revealed major developments this month – Yagro has joined forces with the Frontier Group and Outfield has raised £750,000 in a funding round, while Breedr (Start-Up Showcase 2018) has launched a crowd-funding campaign building on its success to date in the livestock / beef supply chain. Index-based insurance scale-up business Stable (featured in our Weather event March 2020) has also just announced a massive new investment of $46.5m after several years of building global leverage in insurance.

Maturing innovation ecosystem

Although the UK has an impressive track record in R&D and frequently punches above its weight in terms of its research outputs, it is important to show this maturation to build investor confidence and demonstrate a flow of ideas and talent to attract the money – and more talent. And so the circle continues, resulting in a functional innovation ecosystem.
Global investment into agri-tech – particularly farm-focussed technologies (rather than downstream food / consumer-facing businesses) is buoyant despite the pandemic, and investment success is largely a matter of timing. The UK routinely ranks in the top 5 of countries in terms of investment into agri-tech. Capturing the value that has been created is exactly what building a business is about – just like farmers when they sell crops and livestock.
Like agriculture, growing a successful business is a large part of being in the right place at the right time. And waiting for time to pass – while working hard to protect, support and provide the right conditions for growth – is a much about growing a business as it is about running a farm.
Perseverance and resilience, with a dash of innovation and harnessing data driven insights, diversifying when it makes sense, listening to your customers, collaborating where you can and going it alone when you need to.
From individual farm businesses, to agri-tech empowered companies, to an innovation ecosystem. Growing up is not easy, nor should it be taken for granted. As the saying goes – growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

REAP 2021: Changing Time(s) for Agriculture10th November 2021

Imagine a world where agriculture is not constrained by time. The ability to manage and manipulate time is increasing and REAP 2021 will explore the advances in technology and breakthroughs in science that is making this possible.
REAP brings together people from across the agri-tech ecosystem who believe that innovation is the engine for change. The conference bridges the gap between producer needs and technology solutions and showcases exciting agri-tech start-ups. 
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Breedr announces new crowdfunding campaign

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Breedr has announced that it will shortly be launching a crowdfunding campaign as part of its next round of investment.
Earlier this year Breedr announced a new risk-free way to buy and sell livestock, based on lifetime animal data and weights. The Breedr livestock trading platform means producers can buy and sell through the free app with certainty, with a price guarantee in case of any differential in the weight of weaned calves and stores between farms. Sellers are also ensured payment within 72 hours of collection.
Ian Wheal, founder of Breedr, says: “The ability for our customers to share in the success of Breedr is something that is really important to me, and crowdfunding is a great way for us to democratise our funding round by opening up the opportunity to everyone.
“The best part about crowdfunding is that it allows our customers and community to invest in Breedr at the same valuation as world-class investors including LocalGlobe & Forward Partners.
“Now is the perfect time to join us. The livestock & meat production market is worth $1.7tn— and we believe we are perfectly placed to positively drive sustainable change within the industry.”
Find out more about Breedr.