Terra NutriTECH bring significant advances to ‘Internet of Things’ Farming

Bringing Innovation to the farming sector has always been the goal at Terra NutriTECH. In this blog, we discuss advances in IoT and Edge Computing. Through this technological innovation, farmers are witnessing reduced labour, improved safety, improvement to livestock health, higher yields and improved efficiency on a vast amount of farming-related tasks.

Bringing IoT to the Irish Farm

IoT has long been associated with traffic management systems, sensors in manufacturing plants, household appliances and security systems. But what is IoT and how does Terra NutriTECH use this technology?

IoT means ‘Internet of Things’, which refers to the exchanging of data from various sensors, software and other technologies with other devices over the internet. This allows connected devices to communicate with each other thus creating a network of connected devices to make our lives easier. 

How does Automation help on the farm?

Terra NutriTECH has brought this technology to its OPIS mineral dosing system. Our sensors communicate with our automated mineral dosing controller and use this data to accurately dose the required minerals into the water system for the herd. These sensors also send this data to our cloud.

If our customers use our mobile app, they can view the data from the IoT connected sensors and OPIS controller right in the palm of their hands. This will allow the farmer to adjust any rates and track the water consumption of the animals.

These decisions are sent to our cloud system and that in turn sends this information back to our IoT connected OPIS controller. The Controller will then execute these commands giving the customer the ability to control their farm from anywhere in the world. 

Edge Computing on the Farm 

Edge Computing is using microcomputers to make decisions locally on the farm to speed up the processing of algorithms and make decisions faster. Traditionally systems like our OPIS controller would take in the data from the various sensors and send this data to a server in the cloud.

The server would then use this data to make decisions using algorithms such as dosing amounts and then send this data back to the controller for it to send these command back to the sensors or pumps. 

This can be slow, some communications can be disrupted or coverage could be bad or non-existent. This would limit the areas that our system could work but using Edge computing all the decisions are made by the microcomputer on-farm ensuring the system will work irrespective of communication.

 By bringing the computing power closer to the source of the data this reduces the risks typically suffered by long-distance communications between the client (OPIS Controller) and the server.

Our OPIS controller using edge computing is the most accurate dosing system in the world for mineral dispensation due to our “Always ON” microcomputer making all the decisions for our customers on farm where all the action happens. 

Key Benefits of Terra NutriTECH

The latest in precision data, IoT and cloud computing are employed to ensure correct dosing of supplements at all times. Water usage is constantly monitored and advanced algorithms overcome variations in water consumption ensuring precise daily dosage.

Below, we’ve outlined some key reasons to consider using an Automated Mineral Dosing System.

Please call Ronan on 087 7086714 to find out about using an automated mineral dosing system.   Get in touch with our nutritionist team to learn more about liquid mineral supplementation and find out how your farm can benefit. Invest in your herd today!

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