Agtech Accelerator: FarmSimple
For livestock producers, the task of checking your animals’ water bowl is one they know all too well, including Katlin Lang, co-founder of FarmSimple Solutions and livestock producer himself.
“In the summer, for example livestock producers are running their cattle in remote pastures that are typically multiple kilometres away from their home territory, so an average customer may have to drive 40 kilometres there and back each day just to check the water that’s available to the cattle. That adds up to over $2500 in the summer in fuel and time,” Lang explained.
“We figured we could develop a product that could monitor that water and send them a text message notification if there’s a problem so now, they don’t have to look for the problem, the problem is going to them.”
Lang called this IOT product the Herd Hand.
On the flip side, during the winter months livestock watering bowls can freeze and damage plumbing or cause other issues. Lang said customers 24/7 temperature monitoring of the water as well as the internal temperature of the watering bowls with Herd Hand DT (Dual Temperature). If the temperature is too low, customers will receive a text message which will allocate time to stop it before it happens.
Agtech Built Locally
Lang expressed his firsthand knowledge of the effort that goes into maintaining the animals and their needs. He said their family is all in agriculture and located just outside of Regina in Vibank, Saskatchewan.
“Growing up and living in Saskatchewan is a tremendous value because all of our friends and network are farmers and producers, so we know the struggles they go through everyday and that helps us tackle their struggles and they’re personal to us.”
FarmSimple Solutions is one of 16 companies in the Cultivator’s Agtech Accelerator program. This program brings both agriculture and technology together to accelerate the growth of Canadian agtech startups built to solve global problems. This venture capital backed accelerator is built with founders and farmers as the foundation.
