‘Live Farmer’ boosting farm yields and profitability at Hartpury Tech Box Park

First Base Solutions Ltd, a data technology company helping farmers increase crop yield and farm profitability is the latest member to take up residence at Hartpury’s Tech Box Park – a £2 million pound facility dedicated to enabling the growth of local businesses looking to develop new or existing products for the agri-tech market.

The company, established in 1994 will use their membership and residency at the innovative workspace units on Hartpury’s commercial farm to develop and adapt new technologies for the farming industry and showcase their ‘Live Farmer’ farm management software app to the regions farmers and farmers of the future – Hartpury students.

Currently being used by growers and producers of fresh produce and plants with over 400 installations across Europe, UK, Australia and New Zealand, the Live Farmer technology is helping farmers better manage their farms.

The novel, cloud-based farm management system enables farm owners, farm managers, agronomists and packhouse managers to manage their farms in real-time and use live data and costings to make better farming decisions.

Their recently launched ‘Crop Booster Device’ is a transmitter which uses bio physics to improve the health, photosynthesis, and nutrition absorption of plants, typically improving fruit & vegetable crop yields by up to 20% - 30% and even up to 900% on certain fodder crops.

Steve Bradstock, MD at First Base Solutions Ltd and Live Farmer said:

“With Live Farmer, you can see crops in real time, and track all your resources. This means you can manage all aspects of the farm much more efficiently and make informed decisions when it comes to labour, machinery, and even the weather - and be as productive as possible with your time.”

“The UK’s exit from Europe and difficulty in getting labour, fertilisers and other agricultural products through the winter months has really shocked the UK farming industry into realising that they need to grow crops all year round, and the only way they can do that is by utilising technology, capital investment, artificial intelligence, and robotics along with new forms of energy.”

“As a company we are highly innovative. Whether it’s using drone technology to scare pigeons or detect pests in crops, killing pathogens using UV Lighting or developing sand heat storage energy solutions to take farms towards zero carbon. We hope that all our technologies will have a significant impact on the industry.

Catherine Briggs, Tech Box Park Centre Manager said: “We are delighted to welcome our new agri-tech residents to the Hartpury Tech Box Park and very much look forward to supporting them with the development, testing and showcasing of their innovative and exciting new products for the farming and land-based industries.”

Hartpury’s Tech Box Park facility funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the GFirst LEP ‘Getting Building Fund’ and the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust is dedicated to enabling the growth of innovative local businesses looking to develop new or existing products and accelerate them into the Agri-tech market.