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A cloud-based open integration platform for all farm-based systems, data and machinery. A one-stop-shop for data integration. Digital plumbing for innovative farms.
About
The on-farm data challenge:
Production of on-farm data is increasing rapidly but remains largely underexploited and undervalued reflecting vast siloed structured and unstructured datasets, lack of accessibility, explainability, and interoperability of data, limited governance structures for sharing and data trust, and limited machinery integration.
Siloed “Technology Islands” create inefficiencies, reduce ROI, restrict adoption of AI/ML technologies, and block productivity-gain. Management of on-farm technology and data must change. Addressing “Technology Islands” directly reduces costs, creates new opportunities, and drives productivity and information exchange.
A new approach, the Open Digital Farm (ODF):
Traditional methods of data management are inadequate for the complexities of modern farming, so we initiated the Open Digital Farm (ODF) initiative, currently with >25 separate organisations. ODF is led and inspired by the multiple real business needs of arable and horticultural farms to integrate on-farm data, applications, and systems into the core ODF platform, itself built on the Diometer Flexifarm platform using Open technical and commercial standards within a new data governance and data trust framework (fully compliant with “The principles for good farm data governance” published in 2023 by the British Farm Data Council).
Not just data integration:
Integration requires cooperation across the industry from machinery companies to software businesses to 3rd party data providers. ODF achieves this by working with everyone. Open integration leads to partnership working delivering a win/win for everyone.
By integrating technology at the data level ODF also opens the door to the real time application of the latest AI technologies including Multimodal Natural Language Programming, Knowledge Graphs, Machine Learning, Generative AI, and predictive analysis to streamline data management, improve visualisation, and offer predictive insights for farms.
The Wider Market challenges:
In addition to the technical challenges, farms face multiple external pressures including the volatility created from climate change, input and output cost fluctuations, how to move to net-zero, how to improve biodiversity, and in some countries, major subsidy changes (e.g. the UK).
ODF, with the Diometer Flexifarm at its core, addresses all these issues by integrating all farm technologies at the data level allowing farmers to pick the best of everything. This integration strategy, agnostic to the sources or usage of the data, is disruptive, turning would-be competitors into partners.
The ODF digital ecosystem delivers farmers the flexibility they need to adapt, to integrate new/emerging technologies and advanced tools, to increase productivity, measure environmental sustainability and carbon footprints (net-zero), reduce food waste whilst improving food quality, and Increase food supply chain resilience in the increasingly challenging market.
Key Benefits
ODF, with the Diometer Flexifarm platform at its core, impacts all operational activities on a farm including many not currently being digitised. This results in multiple benefits varying by farm type, scale etc:
1) Increased farm productivity / time management
Monitoring of total farm equipment, inputs and people to reduce inputs, retain/improve profits margins, and increase productivity.
2) Better management of Health & Safety including Lone working
Lone worker monitoring with automated alarms, to improve health & safety and reduce operating costs.
3) Automated auditing through “automated form filler”
A Bridge AI targeted need which is achieved through deployment of enhanced AI technologies – saves time and enables focus on real issues.
4) Field, river and wider environmental monitoring
Digitally monitoring water/soil quality, nitrate run-off, & biodiversity/wildlife to reduce input costs, enhance the environment, and improve sustainability.
5) Remote systems management: food stores and irrigation
Economic solutions to remotely manage food stores and irrigation systems to reduce food waste, improve food quality, and save management time.
6) Carbon monitoring
Directly linking carbon used on modern arable, horticultural, and mixed farms to workflows and measuring carbon sequestration, to reduce inputs and minimise environmental impact as farms move to net-zero.
Applications
All arable, horticultural, and mixed farms of 200Ha or greater. This equates to approximately 22,500 farms in the UK and 680,000 globally. It is a global opportunity with a TAM of ~$2Bn and CAGR of >10% (part of the $24Bn Global Smart Farming Market).