Low-Cost Sensors
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
There have been plenty of precision ag companies that have come and gone over the past 15 years, but some are still finding gaps in the marketplace. Dewald De Vos is the global partnership manager at Farm21. He said their technology has been gaining traction in Europe over the past five years, and has made its way now to the U.S.
De Vos… “We identified shortcomings in the likes of affordability the expertise needed to install these, maintain and calibrate these devices. It's a specific sort of person that has the expertise to do so. That has just led us to be able to provide advice or to provide the data collection method to most farmers. Again, we looked at the segments or these were expensive, difficult to use, and it was difficult to make sense of the data coming out of these devices.”
De Vos said Farm21’s approach focuses on low cost, easy-to-install devices.
De Vos… “It is battery operated, so there's no installation of additional infrastructure on your farm. It's literally plug and play. Due to the affordability and given the differences in soil types and structure found globally, you're now in a position to deploy these hardware in each and every one of your soil types and really get a average data collection or average feed to make better decisions.”
De Vos said the system has been working both in broadacre and specialty crop environments.
