Australian start-up The Yield has partnered with the UTS Data Science Institute to provide more accurate predictions on the best time to harvest.
Technology is helping decision-making around when to harvest. Photo Adobe Stock Images
Partnered with the UTS Data Science Institute, The Yield uses artificial intelligence to give fruit and vegetable growers prediction models using on-farm sensors and an analytics platform.
What growers do is like landing a plane. They need to bring it in on a narrow runway to get the right quantity, the right quality, at the right time and in the right place. We use AI and machine learning to help them land their planes.
Ros Harvey, Founder of The Yield
The role of AI in agriculture
The partnership between The Yield and UTS Data Science Institute has helped the global wine company Treasury Wine Estates (TWE). With over 6,800 hectares of vineyards in Australia and New Zealand, predictions on when to harvest can significantly impact TWE's vintage outcome.
To improve harvesting, The Yield and UTS team put together AI-driven prediction models to assist the expert winemakers.
“We generated several advanced analytic models for The Yield, who triaged them and selected the best ones to put into the product they sold on to TWE”, said Fang Chen, Distinguished Professor and Executive Director of the UTS Data Science Institute.
“We had a big bank of historical data and added some American wine growing data to compare the impact of different seasons and different climates.”
Ros Harvey, founder of The Yield said, “Where previous models could produce predictions a few times a year, we could do it every two weeks and in harvest every day. We could do it without any sampling. It was more efficient and cost effective, and it was weather responsive.”
The impact of strategic partnerships
For The Yield, the UTS partnership enables efficiency and flexibility. “We have a team of around 10 data scientists working with us. You might ask why we work with UTS when we’ve got that capability internally. But we were looking for a partner to help us develop further.”
“We purposefully design our research projects so our university partners can go and find out things that we don’t have time to think about.”
“Fang’s team really gets that. They have a commercial mindset and are focused on the long-term partnership.”