Download PDF
Understanding production costs to remain competitive
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Agriculture
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Farm Monitoring & Precision Farming
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Data Science Services
The Challenge
Lilliput Ag, a farming enterprise that grows a variety of crops and produces seed for sister-business Baker Seed Co., was looking to adopt a newer recording platform linked to the cloud to track production data. The co-owners, Andrew & Sue Russell, felt that they had to be able to connect production data to their finance software in order to remain competitive. They were using an older software solution for 20 years and felt the need to advance to a cloud-driven mobile platform. The goal was to capture as much data as possible in order to dial back inputs where possible and decrease costs. The more data they had to reference, the more precise they could be with the inputs they applied.
About The Customer
Lilliput Ag is a farming enterprise comprising 2,400 hectares just west of Rutherglen in Victoria. Run by Andrew Russell, it works in unison with sister company Baker Seed Co., run by Co-owners Ashley and Pam Fraser. Lilliput Ag produces seed for wheat, barley, faba beans, triticale, oats, lupins safflower and canola while Baker Seed Co. focuses on processing and selling this seed to growers. Quality requirements are very stringent when producing seed and Lilliput’s agronomic practices and constant quest for data to enable improvements in production, reflect this. At the start of every season, Mr Russell creates an agronomic plan in Agworld together with his agronomist, Andrew Bell of IK Caldwell in Corowa.
The Solution
Andrew adopted the Agworld platform in 2017. Lilliput’s agronomist, Andrew Bell with IK Caldwell, was already using Agworld to record all observations and recommendations, so a lot of data entry was already happening regardless. By collaborating with their agronomist on the same platform, Lilliput Ag was able to easily record all critical production data. Planned production data for Lilliput Ag is now available in Agworld so that financial data can directly be derived from it. Lilliput Ag is now able to make better-informed crop management decisions. Leading hand Chris Colvin also uses Agworld to receive spray recommendations on his phone and convert them to a record of what was done once the job is completed.
Operational Impact
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Intelligent Farming with ThingWorx Analytics
Z Farms was facing three challenges: costly irrigation systems with water as a limited resource, narrow optimal ranges of soil moisture for growth with difficult maintenance and farm operators could not simply turn on irrigation systems like a faucet.
Case Study
Greenhouse Intelligent Monitoring and Control Solution
Farming Orchids is the most successful form of precision farming in Taiwan, and also the most exported flower. Orchids need a specific temperature and humidity conditions to grow and bloom, and its flowering time may not be in line with market demands, so the price collapses when there is overproduction. Therefore, some farmers began to import automated greenhouse control systems for breeding and forcing, which not only improves quality, but also effectively controls the production period and yield to ensure revenue. In 2012, an orchid farmer built a Forcing Greenhouse of about 200 pings (approximately 661 Square Meters) in Tainan, Taiwan. The system integrator adopted Advantech’s APAX-5000 series programmable automation controllers to build the control platform, coupled with Advantech WebAccess HMI/SCADA software, to achieve cloud monitoring. The staff of the orchid field can monitor important data anytime via smart phone, iPad, and other handheld devices, and control the growth and flowering conditions. System requirements: In the past, most environmental control systems of orchid greenhouses in Taiwan used PLCs (Programmable Logic Controller) with poorscalability and control, and could not be connected to the Internet formonitoring from the cloud. For advanced database analysis and networking capability, the PC platform must be adopted. Therefore, PAC Systems (Programmable Automation Controller) with both PLC programming capabilities andPC functions is a better choice.The environmental control of the Orchid greenhouse switches on and off devices like fan, shade net, cooling/heat pump, liquid flow control, water-cooling wall etc. It is controlled by a control panel of electric controllers, and is driven by a motor, to adjust the greenhouse temperature, humidity, and other environmental conditions to the set parameters.
Case Study
Enabling Internet of Things Innovation in Agriculture
DigiBale, wanted to apply technology know-how and IP from implementations successfully to more agriculture sectors including cotton, forestry, sugarcane and cattle. However, farmers and growers still have worries about the connected technology.
Case Study
Precision beekeeping with wireless temperature monitoring
Honeybees are insects of large economic value and provide a vital service to agriculture by pollinating a variety of crops. In addition, bees provide us with valuable products such as honey, beeswax, propolis, bee venom, etc. Monitoring of honeybee colony health, population, productivity, and environmental conditions affecting the colony health have always been exceedingly difficult tasks in apiculture. Research has shown that even small deviations (by more than 2°C) from the optimal temperatures have a significant influence on the development of the brood and the health of adult bees.
