Data key to smart farming
GO Smart’s BioCam provides crucial data for farmers so they can increase efficiency, said business development and marketing manager Ron Shavit.
The patent pending technology – ‘low cost and stationary’ - gives precise continuous measurement and tracking can optimise feeding, and improve FCR and fish growth performance, while reducing feed waste, and labour costs.
The all-in-one online integrated system calculates the accurate fish weight, in addition to the distribution of the cage population, together with the integrated oxygen and temperature sensors, all in the same housing.
And it can connect directly to the feed barge/ shore base in real-time, enabling live observation during feeding.
The system is designed to operate autonomously in all weather conditions, running on solar energy, and can be controlled remotely via a user friendly web application.
Shavit said the company, a spin-off of GiliOcean Technology, can also provide cloud data services and complementary management software.
The main feature of the device is based on a unique image processing algorithm and tools, and it will communicate, via radio transmission with the shore base, to the cloud using GSM communication.
The first prototype is operational and has been tested in several sites, with around 100 per cent accuracy, said Shavit.
In the next version they plan to include disease monitoring and stress detection as additional features.
‘As fish must be fed according to their accurate weight, this data is critical for the planning and execution of a proper feed plan, and this is the main feature of our system,’ he added.
The system has been tested at several sites in Israel and the Mediterranean with great accuracy.
‘We estimate that one BioCam can increase the farmer’s net profit by at least 18 per cent …mainly as a result from saving on the overhead expenses of cutting down the grower time of the fish, and the improvement of the feeding accuracy.’
The business model is based on a oneoff installation fee, and then a monthly service charge and data. The initial focus is on large suppliers and growers in the Mediterranean market.
Shavit said they already have ‘several potential customers’ waiting for demonstrations, and they will be given the next stage units, currently in production, for longer trials. Now they are looking for $2.2 million over two years.
Most of the competition is in the salmon industry, but he believed in the Mediterranean market niche there were not many competitors.
‘GoSmart aspires not only to be a tool for getting the data, but also to act as the data’s final station, collecting information from multiple farming sites and building a big data source of the industry, with comparisons between different operations and growers.’