Head of IoT Business Development, Vodafone Business
In 1893, Bernard Champion arrived in Kent with the ambition of becoming a leading fruit grower.
Starting out by growing strawberries for the family stall in Covent Garden market, Hugh Lowe Farms is now the exclusive strawberry supplier to Wimbledon.
For Marion Regan, Bernard’s great granddaughter, farming isn’t just a job, it’s her family’s legacy. She, and her husband Jon, understand that success relies on innovation and are passionate about using technology to create a farm that is efficient, responsible and sustainable for the next generation – and beyond.
By working together and using the power of the Internet of Things (IoT), we are helping them sustainably produce and deliver 1.5 million of the best strawberries to this year’s tennis championships.
Delivering sustainable strawberries at Wimbledon
Hugh Lowe Farms has supplied all the strawberries to Wimbledon for nearly 30 years and each year, more than 30 tonnes of strawberries are consumed by tennis fans at the event.
This means the farm’s operations must be as efficient as possible to meet the demand, but it’s also vital that the strawberries arrive on site in the best possible condition.
By connecting every shipment using our IoT technology, Marion, Jon and their team can locate every load and track their journey to London, constantly monitoring for temperature, condition and any events that may impact the quality of the delivered product.
This means they can step in and fix discrepancies almost immediately, ensuring that customers only receive the best product whilst minimising wastage.
On the farm, IoT technology is being used to deliver live data into MYFARMWEB™, our digital farming platform, to provide even deeper insights into the growing environment. Improving the soil and crop conditions, supporting more effective water use and precision use of fertilizer and pesticides, as well helping to reduce greenhouse gases.
We caught up with Marion Regan to find out more:
Digitising Dairygold
It’s not just strawberry farms that can benefit from the use of IoT and MYFARMWEB™.
In Ireland, Dairy farmer Sean O’Sullivan is using MYFARMWEB™ to get valuable data in relation to soil classification, soil chemical analysis, soil micro life and leaf analysis.
Additionally, an IoT microclimate weather station helps him determine the correct time to spray and fertilize his fields. This leads to better grass production which in turn benefits the yield and ultimately the farm’s cows, as well as saving Sean valuable time.
Already, he’s seen the significant difference that IoT and MYFARMWEB™ has made to the running of his farm:
Connected agriculture
With tightening supply chains, changing regulation, environmental concerns and the continual demand for increased output, farming has moved centre stage in the digital agenda.
As farmers look to further improve sustainable and eco-friendly production methods, digital transformation provides the key to drive efficiency, compliance and quality.
With the launch of MYFARMWEB™, and as a global leader in IoT technology, we are dedicated to bringing new technologies to farmers and to collaborate with the farming community to meet their national and international objectives including the EU Farm to Fork strategy.
Connected agriculture can not only safeguard food supply but can help reduce carbon emissions. This supports our commitment to help all our business customers reduce their carbon emissions by a cumulative total of 350 mTCO2e globally by 2030.
