Agri-Tech Archives - Page 2 of 21 - Agri-EPI Centre

Agri-Tech

Tag Archive for: Agri-Tech

Spectral imaging for the agriculture industry

Spectral imaging as a general concept combines characteristics of imaging and spectroscopy technologies. Optical spectral imaging particularly makes use of visible, near infrared and short-wave infrared spectral range, has been demonstrated to be a very powerful tool in identifying, classifying, and mapping specific targets across whole scenery image in various application scenarios.

Spectral Imaging is especially useful in the agricultural domain, where crop/vegetation in different conditions has unique spectral characteristics. With more robust and rugged imaging product integrated with various platforms, agri-tech has been undertaking revolutionary improvements for remote sensed inspection. Multispectral imaging, hyperspectral imaging, and SIF (solar-induced fluorescence) imaging can be broadly derived depending on spectral bands and resolution needed.

Eliot Dixon, Head of Engineering at Agri-EPI Centre said:
“We have established a strong sensing team within the company, able to deploy a range of spectral imagers into agriculture including some exciting unique capabilities. With our contextual farm data, storage facilities and analysis tools this is a key data service for developers which is available to all.”

Multispectral Imaging
The advantage of multi-spectral imaging is that it extends human sight sensitivity beyond visible spectrum. Some wavelengths that are widely recognized for particular applications, such as normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI), can be deployed into multi-spectral imaging. Nonetheless, it has been proven to be very useful in many other fields, greatly empowering advancement of agriculture. And the adoption of UAV has made it possible to make large-scale mapping and thus better agricultural management.

Agri-EPI Centre has invested MicaSense Altum sensor covering RGB, NIR, Red Edge and LWIR, which can be operated easily on VTOL UAV platform.

With this multi-spectral imaging system, several important vegetation indexes such as red edge, NDVI, can be quickly collected and mapped across survey fields.

Hyperspectral Imaging
Hyperspectral imaging captures images at hundreds of wavelengths, creating a detailed spectral signature of objects and materials. Compared to multispectral imagery, hyperspectral imagery measures energy in narrower and more numerous bands, thus giving much more information on target. Hyperspectral image data is a datacube, where each pixel holds full spectrum across the range. Since spectra are as unique as ‘fingerprint’ to target, hyperspectral imagery can unveil features that multispectral may miss out.

Agri-EPI Centre has invested in a range of hyperspectral imaging systems. Read below for more:

Spectral imaging brochure

Virtual fencing for livestock: Nofence

Nofence began in a small Norwegian town named Batnfjordsøra, many years ago when their Founder and CTO, Oscar Hovde, set about making his idea of virtual fencing for livestock a reality. As the concept grew, so did the interest. The man with a plan soon became people with a purpose: getting animals out on pasture where they belong. And with the help of their customers whose input, innovation, and patience continue to be an integral part of their product development, Oscar’s idea blossomed. Today, NoFence are a team of international professionals with a set of shared goals: to support livestock farmers, improve animal welfare, and restore the fertility of our soil.

Nofence has created the world’s first virtual fencing for livestock: using GPS and cellular communication technology built into special collars to help farmers graze animals on pasture without the need for traditional penning and electric fences. Their vision is to improve animal welfare and make it easier for farmers to rear animals, as well as promote sustainable food production and help people to make better use of pasture resources throughout the world.

NoFence is one of the many agri-tech innovators in residence at Agri-EPI Centre’s Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation Hub, where the availability of all kinds of agricultural expertise and access to commercial farms for trials and research offers practical benefits to their agri-tech solutions. Since joining the Midlands hub in April 2021, Nofence has expanded with 7 new employees and has increased its customer base from 25 to over 400 at present. From distributing their first 400 collars in 2021, they are now at over 6500+ and have been featured on BBC Countryfile, BBC One show and GB News.

Read the Nofence case study below for more information:

Nofence 

 

Ground-breaking technology to monitor biodiversity on-farm 24/7

40% of insect species risk extinction, and a further 30% are endangered (New Scientist 2019), yet few farmers have the tools to actively monitor or quantify on-farm biodiversity, despite it being an important measure of ecosystem, landscape, overall biological health of the farm and key public good. A joint collaborative project funded through Innovate UK and Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, with organic farmer Sophie Alexander, Agri-EPI Centre, AgriSound, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Pollenize CIC and Chirrup AI will use technology to monitor biodiversity 24/7 on a dairy and arable farm in Dorset.

The project aims to test and demonstrate the effectiveness of digital technology as a means of remotely monitoring wildlife diversity in a farming context and address escalating ecological challenges through accurate quantification of nature in any one location. With biodiversity monitoring set to increase through the introduction of policies and schemes, it’s vital to assist ecologists with access to scalable remote technologies.

Three separate remote sensing digital technologies will detect, identify, and quantify varieties of invertebrates and birds in correlation to flowering plants that they rely on. Insect conservation and pollination innovator AgriSound, who specialise in remote insect technology and environmental sensors to monitor pollinator populations have installed three unique in-field sensor devices for automated insect monitoring as part of the project. The technology, Polly™ is optimised for attracting pollinators from a broad spectrum of local insects and detects 24/7 through the use of a specialised bioacoustics technology with data transmitted and stored securely, providing a comprehensive understanding of the pollinators on the farm.

Combining other data sets across the farm include Pollenize app to photograph and geolocate plant species. Chirrup AI will use artificial intelligence to monitor species of birds that are thriving on the farm. This, in turn, will reveal more about the diversity of bugs and seeds above ground, and the richness of life in the soil. The same transects monitored by the digital devices will be surveyed by a professional ecologist from Dorset Wildlife Trust to ground-truth the findings.

Sophie Alexander, farm owner of Hemsworth Farms, said:

“I believe it is important to establish our biodiversity baseline and to continue to monitor progress. There are too few experienced ecologists with sufficient time to manage it all. We are therefore pleased to be involved with testing the data collection capabilities of digital technologies to assist ecologists and in this case, Dorset Wildlife Trust to ground truth the information and demonstrate how an organic farming system can nurture wildlife as well as produce food.”

This early-stage feasibility project, bringing together a technology start up with RTO and end user, will explore emerging applications of remote sensing to inform the development of a commercially relevant solution. This will catalyse a pipeline of further R&D across a much wider area, new research collaborations and accelerate research translation and development of new solutions.

Casey Woodward, Founder and CEO of AgriSound, said:

“We are thrilled to be embarking on this exciting new R&D project with Agri-EPI Centre and Hemsworth Farms. It’s a tremendous opportunity for all parties involved to put AgriSound’s cutting-edge pollinator monitoring technology to the test in a real-world farming context. We truly believe this project has the potential to shed new light on all of the great work happening across British farms to improve local biodiversity.

“This collaboration not only underscores the importance of partnerships in driving forward sustainable agriculture but also showcases the immense value of innovative sensing technologies for biodiversity assessment which are being increasingly required as consumers expect produce sourced from sustainable agricultural practices. We anticipate that the insights gained from this project will not only help Hemsworth Farms to better understand and manage biodiversity on their own sites but also act as an example for the wider industry, demonstrating how technology can be harnessed to promote biodiversity and sustainable farming practices.”

Women in Engineering Day 2023

This Women in Engineering day we are celebrating the work and achievements of women engineers around the world. At Agri-EPI, we celebrate our CTO Trisha Toop and Agri-Tech Sustainability Analyst, Emily Laskin, who come from engineering backgrounds and who are leading Agri-EPI’s sustainability efforts.

Trisha has an interdisciplinary background in engineering, genetics, and biochemistry and has worked as a research scientist, sustainability and techno-economic analysis expert, and innovation manager for a number of companies. She brings her passion for engineering and sustainable innovation to her work as CTO, and has spearheaded Agri-EPI’s new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) offering within the company.

Trisha said:

“Engineering has broken free from the confines of its male-dominated stereotype, embracing a new era where it thrives on smart design and the pursuit of efficiencies.”

Emily studied Biosystems Engineering at the University of California, Davis, and has spent the last few years supporting technical activity across AEC’s commercial farm network. She is now a qualified LCA practitioner, delivering sustainability analyses of R&D projects for agricultural clients across the UK. She leads in providing a framework for sustainability within Agri-EPI.

Emily said:

“Engineering is a hugely important tool for improving the sustainability of our food systems. There is so much opportunity in this field – I would encourage any young engineers to consider applying their skills to agricultural technology.”

This Women in Engineering day serves as a testament to the invaluable contributions of women like Trisha and Emily, whose passion and expertise are transforming the field of engineering and forging a path toward a more sustainable and inclusive future.

Sustainable marine-based poultry feed alternative receives IUK funding

A consortium led by sustainable aquaculture innovators Aquanzo Ltd has received funding to investigate the feasibility of farming artemia, a small marine shrimp similar to krill, as an alternative circular produced marine protein for young chickens, known as broilers.

Funded by Innovate UK in collaboration with Agri-EPI Centre and SRUC, the 24-month project will explore the use of different agricultural by-products to produce artemia, in turn investigating the nutritional benefits as a broiler chick starter feed on gut health, lifetime growth and performance. Marine proteins, such as krill, are one of the best sources of nutrients for young farm terrestrial and aquatic animals. However, harvesting of marine ingredients from the wild has reached its limit and has a significant impact on the environment and costs have reduced its use in commercial young animal feeding.

Aquanzo is developing technologies to farm a new source of marine proteins, artemia, sustainably, at scale and on land, artemia, a marine zooplankton.

Remi Gratacap, Aquanzo CEO says: “Farming marine protein has the potential to revolutionise the animal feed sector, by combining the best of marine ingredients (nutritional value, taste and energy) and farming (scalable, controllable, sustainable precision platform)”

At the industrial scale, Aquanzo is forecasting production capacity of thousands of metric tonnes of artemia meal per year per industrial facility.

Remi continues: “Marine protein Green House Gas (GHG) emissions are the main contributor to aquaculture environmental impact accentuated by long distance transport and the long-term resilience of the sector is dependent on a fragile environmental balance under climate change threat.”

Agri-EPI Centre will provide life cycle analysis, measuring exactly how environmentally sustainable the product is at each stage of its development, in addition to project management.

Agri-EPI Centre Sustainability Analyst, Emily Laskin, said: “Using this scientific method for quantifying sustainability we will evaluate the production of Artemia and compare the results to the production of fishmeal. We hope this study will prove Artemia to be an environmentally sustainable source of protein and a valuable part of the solution to the growing challenges faced by the aquaculture industry.”

SRUC Professor, Dr Jos Houdijk, Head of Monogastric Science Research Centre, who will undertake the feed performance trials on starter broiler feed and following the growth cycle, said: “Following the establishment of its nutritional value, Artemeal provides great opportunity to bring back into starter diets for broilers the nutritional and functional benefits traditionally derived from the use of fishmeal.”

Kayleigh Breen joins Agri-EPI Centre as Agricultural Laboratory Technician

Agri-EPI has recently hired an Agricultural Laboratory Technician to join their technical team. Kayleigh Breen comes from an academic background in Applied Bioscience and Forensics and previously worked in science-based roles for over 5 years. These were based largely in the pharmaceutical industry at companies such as AMRI and Sartorius and extended to Covid-19 testing during the pandemic.

Kayleigh’s role is helping to develop the current laboratory and technical facilities which are based in Agri-EPI’s Northern Agri-Tech Hub using existing instrumentation or bringing in new equipment where required. Some instrumentation already in place includes the Voice200 Syft Mass Spectrometer capable of highly sensitive, selective and non-discriminatory semi/ volatile organic compound analysis of air, water and soil samples, the TA.XT Plus 100C Texture Analyser capable of analysing various food, soil and animal feed samples for things such as consistency and shearing resistance, and also the NIRFlex N-500 FT-NIR Spectrometer used to analyse food, beverage and animal feed samples for moisture, macronutrients and protein content.

Her aim is to provide in-house and on-site testing of various sample types depending on project and partner requirements, such as soil, water and air samples, extending to animal products such as wool or faecal sample analysis.

Kayleigh said:

“This will be a substantial undertaking, but I am looking forward to the challenge and am keen to transform the lab into something that will actively benefit the business and projects moving forward.”

Tag Archive for: Agri-Tech

Nothing Found

Sorry, no posts matched your criteria