Faced with increasing demands in the agricultural sector, the creation and maintenance of resources within this sector have turned to intelligent technologies to improve performance, control and efficiency.

A recent study from Juniper Research has found that the total value of the Agtech market (Agricultural Technology/Precision Agriculture) will reach $22.5 billion by 2025. A rise from $9 billion in 2020. These are key areas of growth for the next 5 years.

Agricultural systems, once driven by manual devices requiring teams of staff, have advanced to reduce requires personnel, costly organisational processes and product wastage. By advancing existing systems, greater control and return on investment is secured to continue growth in this sector, and managing demands.

Smart agriculture, also known as precision agriculture, has become a talking point in the industry, with sophisticated climate control, soil and water quality testing and distribution systems integrated into current farming implements for businesses to have full access to data-driven decision making.

Precision agriculture graphic

What is Smart Ag?

Smart Ag refers to the advanced management systems integrated into agricultural processes, vehicles and devices using IoT technologies, CAN-communication and telematics control systems for intelligent data collection. 

With all this additional information available after the integration of these systems, this reduces the need for teams of hands-on personnel and provides high levels of reporting data to increase the performance of entire teams and organisations. High-level business stakeholders and investors benefit from this advanced quality assurance and system maintenance benefits, for a greater return on investment and lower production risks.

Smart Ag can be applied to a wide range of agricultural practices, from greenhouse climate control, to environmental and weather tracking, dispersal and harvest of crops, accurate measures of soil quality, and tracking of livestock position and health data.

Smart remote telemetry

How can we create Smart Agricultural technologies?

By utilising specialised control systems and sensors, agricultural personnel are given accurate information on machine functionality and all manner of external environmental data to make informed decisions and create automated solutions that reduce risks of human error.

 

  • Sensors can be developed, programmed and implemented into existing agricultural vehicles to measure a wide range of environmental elements and relay information in real-time.

 

  • CAN-enabled Control Systems are custom programmed and expertly developed to create a full system lifecycle to manage any aspect of your agricultural functions. This control system utilises the data measured by sensors throughout the agricultural implement and external servers, and can inform a collection of responses to certain criteria. For example, if the humidity levels fall below a certain optimum range, a process will be set in place automatically for this to be corrected.

 

  • Remote telematics is a significant advancement in intelligent communications. This allows for all collected data to be stored securely and updated in real-time for personnel and management in off-site offices. GPS tracking and fleet management can be added to your custom solution to measure the performance of vehicle process delivery and employee management.

 

  • Data storing and collection is of the utmost importance when measuring quarterly and yearly produce and livestock yields. These automated processes can be put in place for highly efficient and error-free reporting on all aspects of the agricultural lifecycle.

 

  • Safety standards can be improved by balancing risk assessments, tracking vehicle systems to avoid system downtime and increased ability to reduce workplace risks around agricultural machinery. Control Technologies works with a wide range of suitable hardware solutions that are approved industry and safety standards for all custom solutions.

By working with industry-standard technologies, CT-UK is able to work with our wide range of approved partners to develop your customer solution, such as our PEAK-System Technik hardware and software range.

Wessex International Salt Spreader

Case Study: Wessex International

To ensure high productivity, remote fleet management and assure minimal product wastage, Control Technologies implemented a sophisticated CAN-enabled control system box to manage the signals from a Wessex salt-spreader vehicle for automated and efficient product distribution.

Our applications team at CT-UK worked through a robust software programme to ensure accurate readings, communication channels and real-time live vehicle tracking designs to distribute an appropriate amount of product, at an appropriately measured speed.

CAN-communication technologies is an integral part of our engineering process, and we offer specialised training courses designed to pass on our system knowledge to your team in managing your own intelligent solution.

Smart agricultural implements

The benefits of integrating intelligence into large-scale agricultural projects

Currently, smart agriculture is a developing sector, with plenty of opportunities to adopt intelligent processes to gain a significant edge over your competitors. By utilising our IoT technology processes, your agricultural processes will be optimised for the way that best fits your requirements, industry, budget and long-term growth.

Precision agriculture has a wide range of benefits that include reducing overall costs, introducing advanced communication protocol into each business plan and heavily improving on farming strategies. 

By establishing the optimal parameters for your business, each collection of data and system design will work towards reducing business running costs, avoiding wastage of expensive agricultural products and ensuring that your goals are accurately measured throughout each process.

Within top-level management structures, detailed information about current fleet performance, environmental measures and real-time tracking data is always securely available for review and performance of existing strategies.

As a result of these advanced measures, your organisation has the opportunity to:

  • increase yield
  • reduce downtime
  • reduce the need for additional personnel and ultimately produce a higher quality product to set to market

With the lifecycle of your agricultural process mapped out, these advanced systems will facilitate continual growth form your business, year after year.

intelligent drone spraying crops

Work with us to develop your custom smart agricultural solution

At Control Technologies UK, we work with you to design, develop, implement and then test a custom smart agricultural solution for your specific industry, budget and requirements. We work with a wide range of technologies to propose the most efficient solution to facilitate a large return on investment and impressive production value.

As specialists in intelligent control system design, IoT and smart agricultural solution frameworks, we can develop your complete engineering solution that is delivered to your budget and unique requirements. We can also analyse your current systems and provide recommendations to make highly specialised solutions that elevate you above your competitors.

Get in touch with us to discuss your smart agriculture project and arrange a consultation.