Answering your questions about smart farming...

[GrainBrain]

I started this discussion so people can ask me questions about smart farming and smart agriculture.

The technology is quite complicated so I'll refrain from explaining it unless specificly asked.

But! I think it's helpful to understand the benefits as well as potential costs for different types of agriculture.

Please ask away, no questions are stupid.

Part of the reason I'm doing this, is that usually you would have to contact existing companies providing these kinds of services, who can charge you tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands of pounds, to put the set up in place.

I'm here to try and change all that, and get farmers to use smart sensors to get insights from their farms, to make better decisions and increase margins.

 

[Flatlander]

Wow. You’ve joined the forum a couple of days ago to tell every farmer on here they need your smart sensors to make their farms profitable. Where have you been for so long while we all slave away waiting for your shiny light at the end of our tunnel. I’ll take two please both 12 volt.

 

[GrainBrain]

@Flatlander
Not 'my' smart sensors. I'm not selling anything

The technology is there, there are companies making millions selling this to farmers in all kinds of agriculture, all around the world. It does work and give insights, so it's big business, but it doesn't have to be big money!

Most of this tech is available without a brand name, and at low costs. It's not off the shelf 'ready to go', but my goal is to understand what people are looking for, so I can possibly create things that farmers can put together themselves from existing technology, or, yes, make a range of sensors that are cost effective and last years, but that don't lock people into any one system.

Currently, as any sensors I make (for testing) would all be built on-demand, by my hands, and not mass produced, I can't offer anything that represents good value, the most basic one could be £150, hopefully with enough people, large custom orders can be made for better value.
But it's not really about the sensors, it's about using the data they collect effectively.

(Erm, so I guess you're being sarcastic, but they do work on 12v, as well as 5v with solar and battery backup. Depends on the type of sensor needed.)

Think of any kind of sensor and it's probably available:
- Air and wind
- Gas levels
- Humidity/ Temp
- Moisture/ leaks
- Vibration
- Location (GPS)
- Movement/ ultrasound
- pH
- Gyro
- Light/ UV
- Flame
- Distance
- Energy monitoring

Plus there's the kind that tracks, or can identify things through optical recognition e.g. specific livestock, people, or numberplates etc.

All of those things are currently available, on their own, it's not something I'm selling.

I appreciate people are sceptical, or even adverse, but I'm really only trying to understand if there is any interest whatsoever, or if they want to, help farmers to learn more about the possibilities, without doing a deep dive into the tech.

 

[Gaath]

What you add to the soil to get better production for pepper and tomato?
Please,help

 

[GrainBrain]

Hmm, I'll assume sarcasm is your intent - as that's not what smart sensors are for, but I'll answer anyway!

As far as I know the main things are; nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, proper fertilisation and irrigation.

Something you could monitor with smart sensors is the pH level (between 6.0 and 6.8), but to reiterate, I'm not selling anything, just trying to understand if British farmers are interested in 'smart farming' in large numbers.

I get the feeling it's more to do with understanding and cashflow, than whether or not it will works as there are many agricultural institutions with research on, and farmers who have it, that have seen benefits.

My goal is to answer any questions and see what people might use it for and how many of those there are to see if it's worth my time making things like tutorials, or other videos showing the community the benefits.