YOUR INDUSTRY
TAKING INNOVATION WAY BEYOND Words by Glenys Christian
Jonathan Morgan with a Folium crop monitoring unit
The last year has been a busy one for Aucklandbased agri-tech business WayBeyond despite the restrictions of Covid-19. It has employed 15 new staff, mainly in the research and development area, launched several new products for vegetable and fruit growers and intends to pick up the innovation pace further in the near future. “The pandemic has had its challenges and also created opportunities for creative solutions,” says chief technology officer, Jonathan Morgan. While its rivals overseas have had a lot of their new product development work halted, WayBeyond’s staff have been able to visit local growers, run trials and continue business with overseas clients via Zoom. WayBeyond was incubated as a start-up within Autogrow, which was founded in the early 1990s, and split away in early 2021 as a separate business. While the original company has increasingly focused on automation and control systems, WayBeyond’s expertise is in data, artificial intelligence and plant science. It has concentrated on tomato growers and more recently those growing berry crops, providing easy to use measuring and data storage solutions via FarmRoad, its farm management platform launched two years ago.
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NZGROWER : APRIL 2021
The Crop Registration app in use in a glasshouse
Here growers can find Folium, a climate monitoring system using readings from a network of wireless sensors, giving data across large growing areas. Each Folium unit measures both PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) and RAD (solar radiation), barometric pressure, carbon dioxide, relative humidity and temperature, with a further two sensors available to give leaf temperature and soil moisture readings. “Understanding the microclimate and what’s happening with your plants gives you the power to make smart decisions,” Jonathan says.
