It’s been a good year for 30MHz. And as we move into March, it seems like new deployments are, excuse the pun, cropping up every few days. We’ve met and learned from growers all over the world, and it’s been great to see them become a part of our (increasingly global) community. We’ve made no secret of the fact that our grower network guides our product development. It’s simple: they tell us what they need, and we sort out the technology. Unsurprisingly, this approach works. Our customers are happy, and they’re vocal about it. Sometimes it’s to us directly, sometimes it’s to potential customers, and we hear the great reviews through the grapevine. If you’re going to make data-driven decision making accessible to agribusinesses regardless of size, crop or location, you’re going to have to spread the word. This time, we’re letting our community speak for us. Here are some of the benefits of our sensory data platform, in our customers’ own words:

You don’t have to wait ages to see results

We’re working hard to fight the misconception that data needs to be “big” to have impact. When it comes to real-time crop monitoring, it’s not about data size, but data prioritisation. With the right granular metrics, you can start taking action (or confidently keep things as they are) from the get-go, and watch insights–and actionability— accumulate over time. Here’s what

Peter van Ninhuys from Van Lipzig Tuinderijen says:

“With 30MHz technology, we’ve started monitoring the temperature of cucumbers— observing how quickly they warm up, and whether temperature falls below dew point. We track these metrics to prevent sunscald and mycosphaerella. In fact, after the first week of sensing, we realized that our tube settings were quite good, and our cucumbers did not have excessive moisture. We also saw an opportunity to lower temperatures and save energy.”

The results you see can be business-critical

Some customers come to us with clear goals. Others just know they want to measure, and identify opportunities to optimise. Whatever route they take, they often report results that have an impact on their strategy, productivity, resource usage and bottom line.

Here’s Sander Berkers, from Kwekerij Moors’ take:

“Using the technology developed by 30MHz means that we get so much insight into the temperature of our peppers during the growth phase, and can adjust the greenhouse climate and the inputs we use accordingly. This has enabled us to continually improve the quality of our produce while cutting energy costs, and is expected to save us up to 5 percent per year in energy costs.

This UK-based customer requested to stay anonymous (competitive advantage–we get it), but the results they report speak for themselves:

With your soil moisture sensors, we’ve been able to achieve around 25-30% water saving. The sensors have given the growing and irrigation team the confidence to dry out the crop. This has reduced algae build up, which has also resulted in fewer pest issues (whitefly and sciarid fly feed off the algae)”

About that competitive advantage…

Our deploy-at-any-size, plug and play approach means that the insights offered by real-time monitoring, and the benefits of a platform that enables flexible data visualization and sharing aren’t just for the largest of customers. Improved productivity, better collaboration and lowered costs mean that small and midsize agribusinesses have the resources they need to truly demonstrate their value in the market.

Here’s how Preston Hartwick of Common Farms sees it:

“The need to improve control over our production through better crop monitoring and data analysis led Common Farms to connect with 30MHz. High-tech sensors and software like the 30MHz solution are fundamental tools for the modern farmer, and will help up-and-coming companies like Common Farms compete with international exporters.

Redefining agricultural work

We’re not here to trumpet the age of the human-free, robot-populated farm. As far as we know from our customers, human meetings are still important, the crop walk hasn’t lost its value, and human wisdom is still your best bet for keeping crops alive and at their best. Our customers have always wanted agtech that augments and connects human wisdom alongside accurate measurements, makes real-life meetings more efficient by ensuring they aren’t the only opportunity for communication, and provides that crucial context needed to get the most out of a crop walk. Our customers are redefining what it means to “work in agriculture”, and our tech is their operating system for that evolution.

CK Tan, WengFong Farms:

“I can trust the information from anywhere in the world on my iPhone. Sometimes I cannot sleep and I will check my phone to make sure that my plants are doing okay. I feel more confident in my decisions and I am already saving money everyday through the usage of the 30MHz solution.”

Alvin Kwong, Magic Season Farms:

“It was important for us to start generating data, so that we can continue to optimize our growing process. 30MHz provides an easy-to-use platform for our employees and stores all the relevant information on the cloud platform so that I can easily access it from Hong Kong when I’m not at the farm.”

Gerben van Vucht, Anthura:

“I am very enthusiastic. It gives us a good insight into plant temperature and moisture balance. We share the data within Anthura and Anthura China.”

Chris Need, Agricultural Consultant

“I could monitor Newey Roundstone’s plants while in France last week. I knew the weather was hot, so I could just check the dashboard and see how the plants responded. It works fantastically. Plus, I have the opportunity to easily compare previous data. I can see how today’s working, but also how it compares to yesterday, or the day before. I can see how effective actions we’ve taken are, what’s working and what isn’t. And everyone in the team can share data. At Roundstone, three team members are working with the platform, including the person working with irrigation. When I make recommendations, different stakeholders stay in the loop, and see the live data I’m drawing conclusions from.”

Dare we say…fun?

Maybe it’s the easy deployment, and the satisfaction of knowing you can set up a wireless network in just a few minutes. Maybe it’s the good looking and intuitive user interface. Maybe it’s the beloved cow logo. Maybe it’s all of the above. In any case, we love hearing that customers are having fun “nerding out” with our tech. After all, we’re nerds too.