Pasture covers are a key metric for farmers, and agritech company AIMER is transforming pasture measurement and grazing management through AI-driven image analysis.
Using AIMER, the smartphone in the pocket of every farmer transforms into a pasture measurement tool, trumping the need for the guesswork, platemeters and sward sticks traditionally used to measure pasture covers.
Dairy farmer turned agtech innovator, Jeremy Bryant, founded AIMER Farming, which utilises AI-powered pasture intelligence to enable better farm decisions. The technology was built around a desire to improve pasture eaten.
AIMER is one agritech business to have undertaken a pilot, facilitated by the Farm Innovation Network (FIN), to test the early technology on real farms. FIN is part of Ravensdown’s innovation arm, Agnition, and scouts the best in new and emerging technology here and globally, matching it with keen kiwi farmers to test practical application on-farm.
With a deep understanding of the challenges that farmers face, Bryant realised there was a gap in forward-looking decision support tools that could help them optimise farm operations, profit and environmental performance. Practical on-farm testing was an important part of the early development of the product.
“A lot of people grow a lot of grass that goes to waste. We are trying to close that gap and increase feed utilisation,” he explains.
Every additional tonne of dry matter eaten equates to an extra profit of $428 per hectare. Increasing the dry matter eaten and improving feed quality, even by just .1 megajoule of metabolisable energy over the whole year, is worth a further $50-75/ha.
“The other side of the equation is that a lot of farmers are not measuring pasture, so they are missing a key data point, not knowing if they are running into a feed surplus or deficit.”
Bryant says it’s best practice to measure pasture once a week to every 10 days, a task that would take the average farmer two to four hours. AIMER cuts that down to 45 minutes to an hour, delivering a consistently accurate result on the back of a significant labour saving.
“The platemeter was the dominant method. Now, we are using a smartphone to do a five second scan of a paddock and estimating the amount of feed with 90% accuracy, within 200 kilograms of DM/ha. It also gives you a score to tell you how optimised you are, based on the feed wedge.”
AIMER allows farmers to play with scenarios to lift the feed optimisation score, creates a 14-day feed forecast and will even let you know when paddocks are due to be measured.
The technology platform is accessed by downloading an app to your phone, or using the web app version. A premium version, AIMER Pro, gives additional features like automatic generation of a grazing plan and the 14-day feed forecast with recommendations, such as taking paddocks out for silage or dropping the amount of supplement fed.
AIMER already has a proven track record in dairy systems, with some beef farmers using the dairy version, but the next step is a specialised beef offering, due to be rolled out later this year.
Other developments include developing their own satellite models and drone integration.
Bryant emphasises that while the technology might be doing the heavy lifting, the farmer remains in control. Estimates can be locked in, or a new scan done, and there’s even an option to add a manual feed cover entry. “If the farmer disagrees, they can enter their own number, if there’s a lot of weed in the paddock, for example.”
He says it is important to stress test new technology early on, which is where FIN came in.
“You can wait for technology to be perfect but I think it’s better to get it into the hands of farmers and stress test it early. You get real, raw feedback so you can improve, and quickly. The real-world feedback is the biggest benefit of FIN.”
“It shortcuts having to go and canvas farmers, too. In the early days when I was developing AIMER I went to Facebook groups looking for farmers to do data collection and test it. If that network is already available to link into through FIN, it shortcuts that process.”
Bryant is still in touch with some of the earliest AIMER users, who continue to provide feedback. Early adopters often give robust feedback, he says, but the challenge is connecting with the next tier of farmers.
“I don’t believe farmers are slow to adopt (technology). If they see something that will make their life easier, they will adopt really quickly.”
Ease of use and installation is crucial to successful uptake by farmers. “It needs to be so intuitive that they can just use it. The best technology is the technology you don’t even know you’re using because it’s so natural, take Google Maps for example. If you can take complex things and make them simple, you have a winner.”
AIMER in action
Tatuanui dairy farmer Dave Muggeridge has been using AIMER on his farm for about a year, and he’s a convert.
Previously, he used a platemeter and then tried LIC Space to measure pasture, but he found Space was too long between readings. “I saw AIMER and thought ‘this is a bit of me’. We trialled it and my contract milker absolutely loved it,” he says.
They use AIMER to plan their round length, decide which paddocks to cut for silage and record feed utilisation.
“We use AIMER our way. It recommends which paddocks to measure but we have taken it one step further. My contract milker loves to walk the farm and he does that every 10 days or so, scanning each paddock using AIMER. Compared to what AIMER is estimating it’s within 20-30 kilograms difference.”
When they used the platemeter it was a manual exercise, with everything written down by hand and entered into a spreadsheet. Now, before they even walk in the door, everything is at their fingertips from the feed wedge to the utilisation rate and dry matter intake per cow.
“It’s just more efficient, instead of taking a pen and paper around 55 paddocks.”
One of the things Muggeridge likes most is the constructive relationship he has built with Bryant and his team.
“We converse with them on a regular basis and they listen to us and take our feedback on board, to try to make it an even better product.”