Wade4Wireless

Hi-Tech Farming Solution Overview


We all know that the farming community is already using so much technology for their equipment. They use it for their fields to monitor growth, moisture, and pests. They use it for their fields to monitor growth, moisture, and pests. They already have a ton of automation. This is a prime and innovative market.

Farming has embraced a lot of new technology, more than you know. Unfortunately most people are not paying attention outside of the farming industry. You really have to look at what they’re doing to understand what’s going on. Once they get the models built we can expand to new verticals. 

However, in farming the use cases are expanding beyond monitoring the land for moisture, disease, and pests. This was just the tip of the iceberg. 

Now, they’re using drones to spray crops, which is a payload model. The dream is to replace planes and helicopters which did it today. Not just to reduce costs, but to reduce emissions and provide a safer way to spray. It also helps the farmer target where they want to spray. With the larger crafts they had to spray entire fields to justify the costs. With drones, they can fly lower and target problem areas. 

Why stop at drones? Tractors are the key tool for most farmers. Testing to get them to self drive has been ongoing for years. The thing is, coverage was always the issue. While you may think that a carrier’s network would solve this issue. Unfortunately most don’t have coverage in rural farming communities. Wi-Fi and LoRa can’t solve that issue. This is where a combination of 5G and the LEO solutions could solve the issue. GPS, geofencing, and communication can solve all of these issues. Most farmers would love to automate their tractors. They can spend less time in the field (literally) and more time researching prices and weather. 

What problems can wireless solve for the farmer? Well, let’s count the ways we can help. Most of these are technical solutions, not necessarily wireless, but necessary all the same. 

  1. Security, meaning most farmers deal with varmints coming onto their property. This could be humans poaching or animals killing livestock and crops. Either way, the camera should catch it and feed it back to a central server. Maybe they can’t react in real time, but they can find the problem, a break in a fence or a security risk, and patch it.  What if the scarecrow would do more than just sit there, but come to life, take video, and even make noises to scare away pests? It’s more than fixed cameras, drones could do this just as well from the air, more about that below. 
  2. Sensors are a big thing for tracking greenhouse gasses, moisture in ground, rain levels, and chemicals. Today we have sensors for almost anything. We can use this to track soil, moisture, nitrogen levels, sun exposure, and so on. The problem for the tech team will be to find the right solution that has devices that work. Many of these devices are available in LoRa or BLE, but not necessarily PLTE or P5G.Remember that motion sensors could help them as well, in storage places where rats dwell, motion might be the first line of defense to stop varmints from wiping them out. 
  3. Tracking disease – using AI and video, you could track the plants or animals getting sick. While this may not seem like it can be done, it is being done with crops. If you see a color change, then there may be a problem.
  4. Tracking insects – if there is a problem with insects, either destroying crops or spreading disease, they can be tracked using AI, cameras, and sensors. You could even have drones monitor their migration from above.  
  5. Evaluating storm damage – drones can do this quickly by taking videos over a mass area quickly without putting people at risk. Drones also eliminate the need for more people to go out and walk fences, locate lost animals, or look for flooding. Use this tool to make the farmer self-sufficient. 
  6. Tracking soil conditions – this is key for farming, not just crops but animals too. Drones play a huge part in this because they can track it overhead, but you can also put sensors around the farm. Then they can connect back to a monitoring station somewhere else.  
  7. Data, data, data – The more data you have, the better to plan. You can be made aware of problems in near real time. You can pay attention to things you didn’t have access to before. You can realize efficiencies that you may have missed in the past. You can free up your time from damage control to future planning. 
  8. Automation – What if we could enable water for irrigation automatically, not daily but when it’s needed. Maybe control the release of pesticides when insects are detected. Pick up on disease as soon as it hits part of the crops. We could use video and sensors to make all of this happen.
  9. Drones and robotics –  this is what the tractor companies are doing today. They are working on self driving tractors that rely on GPS to enable geo fencing for tractors to go off and do the work with minimal human intervention. How cool is that? Also, if they still have to spray the fields, why not have drones do all of this and keep it within the farmers’ control of where, when, and how.
  10. NOC Services are something that the farmer could use. While it will add OpEx to their business, it could save them from hiring people to gather data or send them updates in real time. If you have a back end solution that could save them time and money, this is part of the automation process that could be invaluable to the business. 
  11. Remote Broadband connections for outbuildings or temporary setups. This could be handled by a wireless hotspot on the property that could light up a section of the farm when needed. While this may not sound important, it could connect remote locations when they are being worked or during planting or harvest seasons when teams are in a remote section of the farm.
  12. The value of AI in the farming community has not yet been realized but it will be huge. Why? Because farming deals with similar problems century after century. They have plenty of knowledge from the past that they could use today. While major advances have come about, anyone new to farming, maybe a small scale farm or an indoor farm, could benefit from this knowledge just by signing up for a service. As farming grows across the world, countries could benefit in the sharing of knowledge. With AI, it could learn from all the data points out there.  

I just want to point, farming could be the quickest winner if you put in the work. It’s already being tapped by farmers and farm supply companies alike. I believe the biggest winner here could be the system integrators. We can also look at AI solutions around farming. 

Farmers want automation, data, and reduced labor. Here you’re offering solutions for all of that. It’s already high tech in most western countries. Let’s help out the rest of the world. 

We have the technology. We have drones, cameras, NOCs, AI, and all the tools to make quick progress in farming. 

Farming Evolution

Look at all the new opportunities there are here in the US. We can grow marijuana and organic farms are more and more popular. There is also a market for microfarms as close to the public as possible. Not just farmer’s markets, but very small farms that people can buy direct from a local farmer even if they live in a city. People have farms in warehouses as well as greenhouses. Opportunity is everywhere. 

The growing marijuana industry is also making new use cases relevant. These farms are new and have a chance to set up automation from the beginning. An actual greenfield deployment. 

I worked with a team in California that decided to grow hemp in a warehouse. Security was an issue, indoor farming made sense, so the warehouse concept was used. Secure and a controlled environment. Weather wasn’t a factor in this model and they could automate everything. From watering times to turning the sun lamps on and off. It all could be controlled. Set it and forget it. They had sensors to monitor the ground and video for most everything else. Pretty cool, right? 

Microfarms are popping up across the US and Canada where very small farms can use tech to be efficient and bring the food as close to the people as possible. There have been so many advances that allow better, organic food to be made available with fewer pesticides, chemicals, and preservatives. They rely on automation and sensors to make sure quality is maintained. Efficiency allows them to make money and remain very small.

More Stuff:

Promos for a Win-Win:

First: do you want to sell or merge? I have partners looking to acquire or merge small businesses looking for partners or an exit.

  • Looking for companies in IT, Fiber (indoor or outdoor), wireless, Wi-Fi, FWA, Venue or DAS.
  • Looking for owners ready to sell or retire.
  • Smaller companies, maybe 4 to 15 employees.
  • Concentrating on the East coast, but open to US based businesses,
  • Email me at wade@techfecta.com.

Next, do you want to grow, expand, or purchase a business? Maybe you are looking to purchase a company, spark growth, or increase production and need an investment partner. This is how my other partner can help.

  • Here is who they want to help:
    • US based,
    • Someone looking for $10M and up,
    • Needing to grow, consolidate, or merge,
    • Email me at wade@techfecta.com.
  • About the Investment company;
    •  Made 155+ completed transactions,
    • $2.4B+ deployed,
    • $1.4B of assets,
    • Focused on Technology, IT, and Wireless,
    • Been around over 15 years.

Finally, here are some other updates.

Update on next book! I am putting together a new book on Private Wireless Networks. Hopefully by the end of January.

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