Yet another agricultural revolution is under way as digital disruption of the sector gathers speed. Wicklow man Mark Connolly is playing his part in that revolution with his unique platform Livefarm.
In a previous life, Connolly spent 10 years working in Norway as a geoscientist. After his move back to Ireland six years ago, he tossed around a few business ideas based on precision agriculture. Initially concentrating on soil mapping and soil scanning, he then spotted a gap in the market for an effective digital solution to help farmers do this work on the ground and eventually reoriented the business to focus on building this software.
The goal of Livefarm is to streamline all aspects of farm management, making it easier for farmers to handle essential soil-sampling tasks and maintain accurate records. For busy farmers without enough hours in the day, it’s a game changer, Connolly says.
“It allows farmers and farming advisers to manage the farm together,” he explains. “It’s a collaborative space that allows them to save time by streamlining what happens between the adviser and the farmer and make better decisions about the farm at the end of the day.”
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Connolly has now built a best-in-class workflow for soil sampling, as the platform incorporates GPS-integrated soil sampling, allowing farmers to precisely co-ordinate and manage soil samples with ease.
“The whole idea there is to connect the team, such as the farmer, the farming adviser and the soil sampling contractor, and manage that entire process, from assigning the job to getting the results, and ensuring all data is kept in one place.”
This is even more imperative given the new Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) regulations for soil sampling, which have just kicked in. “This will require all soil samples to be geo-referenced going forward,” Connolly explains. “This is one of the key features of our platform but many people aren’t even aware of the new rules yet.”
Livefarm is working with the likes of Dairygold, which uses the platform to serve its 2,500 members as part of its sustainability programmes. Similarly, the platform is being used for the DAFM national soil sampling programme where more than 100,000 soil samples have been collected across the State.
Winning one of Three’s grants for small businesses will be the catalyst for realising Connolly’s long-term vision for the platform. He wants to go far beyond soil sampling, streamlining all aspects of farm management.
“We want to build a highly connected and heavily integrated smart farming platform,” he says. “By connecting people and data, this will allow farmers and advisers to get away from the ‘busy work’ and focus on their actual jobs.”
The €5,000 credit for device and connectivity solutions, as well as mentoring and ongoing support from Three Ireland’s in-house business experts, will be invaluable.
“What we are trying to do with the grant is really work on the ‘live’ in Livefarm, by integrating real-time sensors and IoT [Internet of Things] devices, and building that connected smart farm,” Connolly says.
The plan is to integrate IoT-type services into the platform by next year, and also launch a GPS correction service to provide high accuracy positioning for farming equipment.
Like other entrepreneurs, Connolly says the boost from winning the grant is as much psychological as it is financial. “We really weren’t expecting to win it so it was a pleasant surprise and very much appreciated,” he says, adding that it has helped to fund the business’s new website, which has just been launched.
“It’s always nice when somebody recognises what you are doing and understands it. We are quite a small start-up and we have been essentially self-funded up to this point so having the backing of Three is a huge thing for us.”
For more information on Three Ireland’s grants for small business visit three.ie/business/sme-grants
