Some fine tuning has helped Autogrow improve the accuracy of its yield prediction solution, FarmRoad.
Four months after commercially launching the technology, the New Zealand-headquartered company has reported that several new techniques have led to a 5 per cent improvement in prediction performance, with some growers hitting 95 per cent yield accuracy.
“A 5 per cent improvement may not sound big, however, when you are talking about scale that equals hundreds of thousands of dollars for enterprise sized growers, 5 per cent is a significant improvement,” explained Autogrow’s chief technology officer Jonathan Morgan.
“We currently have enterprise scale growers in Mexico, Australia and New Zealand all in the 95-percentile prediction range. This improvement happened faster than we anticipated but it’s been down to the rich data that growers have been providing us and the models we have created.”
While FarmRoad is an enterprise scale platform, smaller scale growers can also take advantage of the yield prediction technology.
“If you’re in a greenhouse relying on manual controls you can still utilise Yield Prediction by FarmRoad,” said Autogrow’s head ofproduct marketing, Sophie Stanley. “The effects and the models will be different to a grower in a hi-tech environment but with enough data you can achieve the same accuracy.”
Stanley said accurate yield prediction helps growers develop stronger relationships with their customers, as they are able to provide surety of supply and deliver consignments on time.
“Our success is down to the openness of our growers to be part of the process,” Stanley explained. “Growers can be reluctant to share data like crops, yield and price to external parties.”
