Pasture.io
Optimal Grazing Decisions through Automation

Agriculture 4.0 is steadily gaining traction in the world today and is undoubtedly the future of farming. Nevertheless, the variability in technical literacy among farmers emerges to be one of the roadblocks on the path to innovation, considering the growing demands for sustainability and efficiency in farming. Although there are multiple tech-savvy farmers, they do not have the time or bandwidth to learn new technologies or applications, even if such adaptations result in significant time savings and reduced decision fatigue. Oliver (Ollie) Roberts realized this predicament first hand, owing to the deficiency of pasture management platforms that allow dairy farmers to fully utilize their farming data and arrive at the best grazing decisions. In an ambitious bid to mitigate such shortcomings, he created his 100 percent bootstrapped technology start-up Pasture.io, which blends automation, remote sensing, and machine learning to ensure that farmers get the maximum value from pastures, with minimal labor and time investment.

Pasture.io’s pasture management technology leverages satellite imagery, weather data, and farming records in a machine-learning environment to deliver automated grazing decisions for farmers. This enables them to make daily tactical grazing decisions and optimize their farm resources with ease. “With Pasture.io, farmers can know the quantity of feed available, the paddocks to be grazed, paddock areas to be allocated, and the amount of feed supplements needed, at any given point in time,” reveals Mr Roberts, the CEO of Pasture.io. Alongside automated pasture measuring, the platform features a ration calculator and predictive feed wedge to help users understand the availability of feed on a farm in real time.

In essence, the Pasture.io platform is all about enhancing the communication between the farm and the farmer. “We automate data extraction from multiple sources, clean it up, and glean meaningful insights to put the farmer in the driver’s seat,” adds Mr Roberts.

Pasture.io’s lean startup methodology of ‘live,’ ‘build,’ ‘measure,’ and ‘learn’ enables it to listen to agriculturists and truly understand their needs, in turn, allowing them to develop, test, and validate the right solutions for each specific need. In a nutshell, the company offers the ultimate decision support tool that empowers dairy farmers with a true sense of the word, assisting them in improving resource management, land productivity, and cattle productivity. This results in more profits from a farm, sustainability in production, and a lower decision fatigue for the farmer.

Pasture.io’s satellite-powered, remote automated pasture management platform has optimized decision making on many farms across Australia, New Zealand, the US, and the UK. One of its earliest clients, the Robin Hill farm in Flowerdale, has been using the Pasture.io platform since 2014. In just two years post implementation, the farm beefed up its growth rate by four whole weeks, generating extra feed every year. Owing its success to Pasture.io, the Robin Hill farm achieved a greater positive impact on cash flow and optimal farm management in a short span.

Pasture.io develops all its solutions with its end users in mind––the farmers. This customer-centric methodology allows the company to deliver value to the farmers consistently while assisting them in establishing sustainable farming practices. The company’s competitive advantage in the market stems from its openness in forming relationships and its ability to enhance the productivity of both the farm and its cattle. Added to this, its sister company, Milkflow.io, is at the forefront of delivering precision milk forecasting through statistical analysis, thereby boosting efficiency in the dairy supply chain, from behind the farm gate and beyond the milk processor.

Pasture.io plans to collaborate with large multinational AgTech companies and render further benefits for the farmers through this co-action. While the company currently focuses on the dairy industry, it also looks forward to expanding its solutions to other livestock markets in and around Australia in the near future with the scope for a high-internationalized growth.