2019 Cohort

With a combined 30 years of experience in Agricultural service, Toby Harpham and Jason McNeice understand the frustration of farmers and agricultural software providers who manage data collection in rural areas. Their mission is to enable on-farm data collection regardless of tractor brand, to easily sync and share remotely with trusted advisors, enabling regional businesses to benefit from the billions of dollars spent on Agricultural software solutions. No more carrying USBs from the office to the tractor, now farmers can remotely sync machine data two ways with cloud storage, regardless of their level of computer skill.

With no vendor lock in and secure backups, farmers can choose to share machine data with as many advisors or consultants as they want. Capable of integrating with farm management software, Big Sky Technologies’ solutions are the conduit between data creation and data analysis to drive better decision making.

Location: Toowoomba QLD, Australia

Farm not Forms: With its feet firmly on the ground, BOS C AGRI is a family-run operation based right in the heart of Beef Country. Natalie Engel (AKA ‘the Pocket Rocket’) saw that administration procedures were placing significant burden on food and agribusiness producers. At present, quality assurance certification requires input into multiple systems across every level in the process chain and often these systems do not interact with one another. This inefficiency results in a lack of quality data to enable accurate product certification, potentially eroding domestic and international consumer trust. Natalie is developing One Platform a single data entry point for all quality assurance related data and compliance certification.

Location: Rolleston QLD, Australia

boscagri.com

Location: Rolleston QLD, Australia

Adoption of agtech is poor in many areas due to the level of complexity of solutions and the poor value proposition for farmers. Tim and Peta Neale are breaking down the barriers to adoption by creating simple to use, easy access, low cost digital solutions. A formidable husband and wife team, Tim was awarded Australian Rural Consultant of the Year in 2018. They now have 16,500 farms on their system covering 80,000 paddocks and have processed 7.9 million hectares of farm data with an aim to support 50% of Australian agronomists using precision agriculture tools in their everyday business while scaling to a global market.

There are many other Precision Ag software solutions on the market, but what sets DataFarming apart is the experienced team, deep industry connections, emphasising practical agronomy and not the technology, and the relentless focus on adoption and not ‘bells and whistles’.

Location: Toowoomba QLD, Australia

datafarming.com.au

The average farmer receives less than 10% return on the final price of their produce. This is because produce travels many kilometres and through many hands before reaching the consumer. Erica Hughes is meeting this challenge by connecting producers to commercial food business and home foodies, allowing them to buy and sell direct through her platform Farmer Meets Foodie, a virtual farmers market, giving producers greater control over their returns, a range of alternate markets, providing retailers and restaurants with better access to fresh, healthy and artisan produce. Erica is passionate about telling the story behind how produce is grown and prepared, and the challenges, innovation and creation that is making Australian produce sought worldwide.

Farmer Meets Foodie is the only platform that gives the full virtual farmers market experience, allowing producers to have a shop front, to receive and send direct messages to customers, receive direct payments and have a multitude of delivery options available. It further enhances the experience by having shop fronts for restaurants, cafes, food trucks that are sourcing local.

Location: Mt Molloy QLD, Australia

farmermeetsfoodie.com.au

LYRO is creating the brain, the eyes, and the hands for the next generation of intelligent picking and packing robots. Almost two-thirds of horticultural producers have crop left unpicked each season because they cannot find the right labour at the right time. The team from LYRO Robotics has developed robotic systems that can pick and pack fruit which allows growers to concentrate on farming and not on managing teams of backpackers and seasonal workers. In 2017 the team led by Juxi won the ‘Olympics’ of robotic picking, out-competing 15 other teams worldwide by picking the most objects in the given time. In the last months, LYRO has developed prototype robots that can pack not just eCommerce items but also mangoes, avocados, chillies, and citrus fruit. On-site trials with growers and packers have commenced.

LYRO provides customers with reliable labour, at the right time, in the right place. Our robotic systems that can pick and pack any kind of product, are designed to be deployable and cost-effective in applications currently not accessible for competing systems. At LYRO we create robots, robots that work!

Location: Brisbane QLD, Australia

lyro.io

Location: Taroom QLD, Australia

spotbooked.com.au

SwarmFarm Robotics is an AgTech company developing autonomous robots for agriculture. SwarmFarm builds small, lightweight robots that operate in ‘swarms’ or ‘fleets’ to enable new farming techniques that reduce pesticide and fertiliser usage, increase crop yields and create new, more sustainable farming practices for a better farming future. As farmers they are passionate about ensuring the future generations of farmers have a vibrant, economic, and sustainable future in the cropping industry.

SwarmFarm was created by two farmers with a vision to revolution agriculture with a ‘soil up’, rather than ‘technology down’ approach. They didn’t set out to automate agriculture or create a driverless tractor, rather they set out to enable entire new farming systems that are enabled by autonomous farming. Their SwarmConnect® system is creating a pathway for partners and developers to release new agtech such as tools, attachments and apps on board robots and be adopted by farmers all around the world.

Location: Gindie QLD, Australia

swarmfarm.com

As a horticultural producer, Ben Harzer has first-hand experience of the high labour costs and human resource challenges that come with growing citrus. He had seen machinery on the market which could help, but it was priced beyond what a normal producer could afford. Ag-Trim has developed attachments that can be added to a farmer’s existing equipment to help citrus growers gain improved yields in a safer environment and without the use of chemicals.

Ag-Trim offers a cheaper, more economical alternate to a conventional machine. Ag-Trim originally joined the program as Thin and Trim Holdings.

Location: Gayndah QLD, Australia

Location: Emerald QLD, Australia

growninthecentralhighlands.com.au