The Future of Farming
Ask a farmer about their experience with AgTech and I bet they’ll regale a tale of something they tried that just didn’t work. It’s a bloody tricky business. And we know our good old farmers aren’t always the easiest to convince that a new way of operating is best. But there is one guy who seems to be getting it right. Hamish Munro is a fifth generation farmer from Cumnock and the founder of the AgTech start up Pairtree Intelligence.
WORDS : Alice Armitage IMAGES : Luke Burgess
With a long farming legacy ingrained in him, Hamish has taken his own experiences and frustrations on the land to build intuitive software with Australian farmers in mind, leading to the development of a software solution with the true ability to be implemented on farm at scale.
So what is AgTech? AgTech emcompasses any technology being used to enhance the productivity of the Agricultural & Primary Production industry. From data management software to fruit picking robots; ge- netically enhanced seeds to alternative proteins. It’s all contributing to the AgTech space, which is predicted to become Australia’s next $100 billion dollar industry by 2030. And unlike many of today’s tech super stars sectors, this one is far less driven by consumer convenience and is instead addressing a rather pressing issue for us all. Our ability to feed an ever growing population. With estimates clocking us in at a global popula- tion close to 10 billion people in the next 30 years, we’ve got some mouths to feed. Which sees Australia face growing pressure to continue to produce high quality, sustainably farmed produce for our domestic market here at home as well as internationally. And as we’re starting to see the true impacts of our changing climate, AgTech is fast becoming a critical part of our lives and will continue to play a crucial role in tackling the dynamic challenges of the future.
With all that said, it seems to be a no brainer for farmers to be implementing AgTech solutions like no tomorrow but on farm implementation just isn’t taking hold. “One of the biggest problems is that there just isn’t enough grassroots AgTech companies that are delivering needed services with farmers in mind, and that understand what it means to build software that fits in with the day to day routine – most of it is just not hitting the mark. But we are really starting to see more and more ringer proof* solutions hit the market which is great!”
Hamish says of some of the roadblocks the industry is facing. With the average Aussie farmer over the age of 55 and having spent most of their lives working the land with very traditional practices, it’s no wonder it’s a tricky business encouraging the adoption of new technologies to their way of life. Farmers are often heavy set in their ways and far from tech literate. Paired with the harsh realities of the Australian landscape and the unreliable nature of livestock, which makes the development of sturdy and reliable tech incredibly challenging, we’ve got a long road ahead.
But with COVID shining new light on the importance of industry and off the back of recording breaking severe weather, a new sense of necessity for the Australian farmer has come to be. Fueling the emergence of farmers just like Hamish, building AgTech solutions for themselves.
“PairTree happened quite organically. No matter what kind of farmer you are, there is never enough time to manually get the visibility you need over all of the aspects of your operation. I was always struggling to find the time to check up on everything so I could make good decisions day to day but I just couldn’t do it myself. So we built PairTree.”
PairTree is a data management solution with a simple dashboard set up, designed to be a flexible tool for any farm to integrate their data management practices into. With simple navigation and an intuitive interface, the foundational product is the perfect starting point for anyone looking to try their hand at the AgTech game. A key element that’s seen Hamish emerge as a clear front runner within the Australian AgTech eco- system.
When asked about the benefits of the software Hamish simply states “Pairtree is just decision support help- ing everyday farmers to be able to make repeatable, reliable decisions easily with access to the right data”.
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This original story became part of our book, published 2020 so we thought it might be timely to give you a little update on how Hamish and Pairtree have been travelling in the year since initially going to print with this story. This year Hamish successfully secured series B funding to continue to develop this software. In tandem to this, a new lean version of the software offering has hit the market. Which expands the softwares capabilities to suit family farming operations as well as corporates. As Pairtree is rapidly growing Hamish continues to invest in the development of the start-up ecosystem in the Orange and Molong region, believing that a software business doesn’t need to converge on the city to find success.
