Agmonitor Inc.

California Energy Commission reports on AI precision irrigation technology AgMonitor, a digital platform for farmers to track and manage their water, fertilizer and energy inputs, tested its product on farms from 2019 to 2023. CEC reports that farms using AgMonitor over that period “improved precision in irrigation from 70% on average to over 90%.” "AgMonitor exemplifies how public clean energy research funds can support the innovation of new tools with the potential to unlock tremendous energy and non-energy benefits when deployed at scale. Using advanced data analysis to improve energy, water, and fertilizer efficiency not only lowers costs and resource consumption, but also creates new revenue streams for farmers through load flexibility,” summarized Jonah Steinbuck, Director of Energy Research and Development Division at the CEC. State Food and Agriculture Board Chair Don Cameron used AgMonitor on Terranova Ranch to track water reduction during droughts and recharge during wet years. In a release during the Almond Conference, he said that the technology will help producers find “a low-cost, accurate way to measure their water use and provide water accounting for SGMA,” the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The platform simplifies on-farm processes and can interface in both English and Spanish. CEC also reported that the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) recently increased the amount of accepted methods to measure groundwater extraction following the CEC review of AgMonitor. https://lnkd.in/g68RcH6v

Measurable improvements during annual review at ranch near Turlock Thanks to Homer Garza who hosted us during the annual review of the Stanislaus ranch part of AgIS Capital LLC portfolio. We started the day at the local diner with other growers who know each other and Homer sent us a text to be careful with the fog yesterday. By the time we met on Keyes Rd east of Turlock, the sky cleared up and we reviewed the health of the pumps with PumpMonitor(TM). Our AI-power alert system caught a fan failure on a VFD a few weeks ago, and they already fixed it. The continuous maintenance of the well pumps in Turlock Irrigation District (TID) allows Homer and AgIS Capital to keep the cost of water low at $100 per Ac-Ft. We reviewed the annual pump records with the results from LandIQ that serves the GSA, and they matched within 2%. We moved to the irrigation schedule with CropMonitor(TM), and Homer saw that that improved water use efficiency on an aging almond orchard by increasing precision. Homer asked us for a real-time pressure alert. Great timing as we will release that feature to all our customers in February part of World Ag Expo after trialing with legacy customers. AgMonitor continues to be impressed by the Turlock community. The 2,000-acre ranch reduced its groundwater usage by 20% in the last few years, and they are planting lower water-intensive crops (pistachios). Sustainability is a complex economic and financial equation. Homer strives to get the most of each drop of water and the AGIS Capital team is conscious to work with the local community.

Growers and food processors flew in and out of Santa Barbara for OpenFarm 2024 before the storm hit Central Valley on Wednesday. They enjoyed a great lunch in the sun after two engaging panels with other stakeholders on water security and energy transition. “This was an amazing event” mentioned Food & Beverage expert Erica Löfving of SLR Consulting. "This was nicely organized and I enjoyed the frank conversations" summarized Don Cameron of Terranova Ranch who farms fresh and processing tomatoes among 20 other crops in Helm, west of Fresno. "Thank you Olivier and UCSB. It was great meeting everyone yesterday!" concluded Robert Dika who is the CFO of Primex who operates the third largest pistachio processor in the world. The panel on Energy Transition in Food Processing was moderated by Eric Masanet of 2035 Initiative at UCSB. It reviewed what it will take to decarbonize food processing and industry that uses a mix of energy sources: 1). Energy efficiency. Jesse Tootell explained how Lineage continuously improved the operation of its cold storage facilities using advanced data models. Sometimes the most impactful changes are the simplest ones such as changing freezer doors. They have a goal to be carbon zero by 2040. Steve Sesock shared the results of the CEC-funded project at Los Gatos Tomato, Inc. that reduced its consumption of natural by improving heat-efficiency of boilers powered by natural gas. 2). Electrification. Steve continued that electrification is not the answer to everything because the grid is not ready. Moving its operation to all-electric would increase the power load from 5 MW to 30 MW. Eric Masanet discussed heat pumps with Steve Sesock. There is a limit on how many you can cascade. However, Los Gatos Tomato has deployed 2MW of solar and is always looking at improvements. Easier wins such as to electrical forklifts require adjustments in labor schedule according to Daniel Hartwig of the California Fresh Fruit Association. Increases in battery range are needed to make the transition seamless. 3). Low carbon fuel, feedstock and energy services. The use of bio-fuels in the tomato industry is difficult because there is no way for the end consumers to know about it and value it. Labels such as organic are already complicated. Hydrogen fuel cells are being considered. Decisions can be difficult. On fresh produce side, Jesse Tootell explained that the transition from HCFC to natural refrigerants, such as low-charge packaged ammonia and transcritical CO2 system, takes time because personnel safety comes first, and then efficiency. 4). Alternate methods. Robert Dika decided with Primex Farms LLC to go off-grid when needed by installing a 5MW solar array and a large battery managed by Scale Microgrids. They received $5M of CEC funding via the Food Processing Investment Program (FPIP). Incentives play a role. Check the panel and other takeaways from OpenFarm 2024 here: https://www.openfarm.ai/

Water, energy and food stakeholders meeting in Santa Barbara tomorrow The ninth edition of OpenFarm will be at UCSB tomorrow Wednesday November 20th. It is the first time in person since the COVID-19 pandemic. We are glad to host Cannon Michael, Chairman of the San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority, who signed an expansion of San Luis Reservoir last week. It is set to boost California’s water-storing capacity and it will help secure the future of farming in Central Valley. https://lnkd.in/gUWW_E4V Also, speaking at the workshop on managing water security and energy transition from farm to market: · Daniel Hartwig, California Fresh Fruit Association · Don Cameron, Terranova Ranch · Carl Evers III, AgIS Capital · Steven Sesock, Los Gatos Tomato Products · Robert Dika, Primex Farms · Jesse Tootell, Lineage Logistics There are a few seats left and you can register here: https://lnkd.in/gG-qzf79

Terranova Ranch, Inc. is no stranger to water use efficiency and groundwater management. They have contracts with several tomato processors who value their commitment to fruit quality and innovation. Don Cameron was an early adopter of sub-surface drip irrigation systems to achieve better yield and higher uniformity. He also tried Regulated Deficit Irrigation from Dr. Hartz at UC Cooperative Extension System to reduce water usage. “With better control over water application, we reduced water usage, and we got much less rot and mold”. Don Cameron deployed #AgMonitor to know what is going on across the farm and to quantify water reduction. “Data is great but getting the answer is really what matters” told Don to the Western Growers Association. AgMonitor first deployed PumpMonitor™ to measure pumped water across all pumps. Terranova reduced their water needs from 3 Ac-Ft/Ac down to 2.7 Ac-Ft over the years thanks to RDI for #tomatoes and #almonds. Don was able to leverage existing Smart Meters and installed flow meters where needed. AgMonitor then deployed CropMonitor™ with the Director of Farming, Patrick Pinkard, and the back office team. They found good alignment between satellite data and most crops, but some specialty crops are trickier. They can predict how much water they need and plan how much they need to bank (groundwater recharge) when they have a wet year. Through Terranova’s hard work and investment in water management and innovation, they reduced the water requirements by more than 10% while improving yield and fruit quality. That is the type of win-win that sustainability is all about. #agriculture #farming #irrigation #watermanagement #sustainability

Inverters are a critical part of #solar maintenance - small issue costs grower $50,000. Check out the example below from a #pistachio grower in San Joaquin Valley, where a 75kW inverter went offline on May 9th reducing the maximum generation. They were losing about 500kWh of solar credits per day, which results to $160/day or over $50,000 in annual lost credits based on their utility rates. Solar #inverters are required to convert the direct current (DC) electricity generated by the panels to alternating current (AC) that can be sent to the grid. Many large-scale solar installations in agriculture have multiple small inverters (e.g. 25 kW) that work together to support an array at a #farm or #foodprocessing facility (e.g. 500 kW). A single inverter can occasionally go down, reducing the amount of energy sent to the grid for solar credits. This results in a sudden and discrete drop in solar production. It can be challenging to detect this if you are not checking these manually, but AgMonitor can detect this pattern and send you an alert automatically. How do we get the data? AgMonitor tracks the solar generation every 15 minutes using the Smart Meter that is a bi-directional power sensor. It is installed by the utility to track electricity consumption or generation and calculate your energy bill. AgMonitor leverages existing hardware to provide an automated “solar expert” service. The impact on savings can be significant. However, the crew does not have the time to check the solar infrastructure connected to the grid. They are focused on farming. That is where AgMonitor is critical in scheduling maintenance and getting the proper service onsite ASAP. We continue to leverage AI to deliver simple actionable messages that save time, protect investments and deliver measurable savings.

Maintaining good pump health keeps energy costs low and water supplies secure during peak irrigation season. We're excited to exhibit our 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 - this report aggregates essential pump statistics to help you make informed decisions about repairs, identify costly or inefficient pumps, and to evaluate potential pump retrofits. Growers use the Agmonitor Inc. Pump Health Report to understand pumping costs of groundwater wells, surface water pumps, how solar impacts pumping costs, or to justify budget requests for pump repairs and retrofits. Key metrics include: 🔹 Operating costs of your pumps 🔹 Total water volume pumped (in ac-feet or gallons) 🔹 Pump efficiency, hours of operation, and $/acre-foot or $/gallon costs 🔹 Asset grading with detailed notes and scores 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? #watermanagement #irrigation #farming #pumphealth #agtech #energy #solar #agriculture

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AgMonitor improves solar energy generation by 7.5% with timely recommendations. AgMonitor released a new decision-support tool in 2019 to help growers and food processors to transition to renewable energy. RanchMonitor™ reduces energy costs by better integrating solar generators and irrigate off-peak. More importantly, it helps family farms and food processors deal with increasingly complex utility bills due to Net Energy Metering Aggregation (NEMA). They don’t have time to waste time during the growing season. In the last five years, AgMonitor has saved accountants and CFO’s time and headaches. A lesser known fact is that it has helped ranch managers deal with maintenance. Installing a solar array is an important investment for a farm. Yet, managing a new asset is not easy and it can be a distraction for the operations team focused on farming. “It helps schedule operational improvements such as solar cleaning… before we were flying blind.” Explained the CFO of Bowles Farming Company, Inc. when we visited them the farm two years ago. “Before AgMonitor, it was difficult to know when our solar panels needed maintenance” further explains Lalo Garcia, Technology Manager at Bowles Farming in the video below. “AgMonitor has provided alerts, which helps me to check that solar is working correctly. When it is dirty, I schedule a wash. That is where we can see the production going up on the dashboard.” The Bowles team opted to buy their own cleaning system. Dust settles in the summer, especially during harvest, and panels often need cleaning once or twice per summer to maintain optimal generation. AgMonitor sends a text alert or email when the lost credits from dirt surpass the cost of cleaning. AgMonitor analyzed 12 sites that have been monitored across SCE and PG&E since 2019 for the EPIC (Electric Program Investment Charge) Program funded by the California Energy Commission. On average, the alerts improve electricity generation by 7.5%. That represents tens of thousands of dollars of saving per meter under current rates, and millions of dollars for our customers in the last few years. Have a good summer and check the video. https://lnkd.in/ekjz3xNx

Happy July 4th from the AgMonitor team. We recently went through our impact report with one of our investors, Echo River Capital. They saw an increase of 13% in diversity within our workforce last year. It takes different people to make a united team and innovate to solve practical problems. Echo River Capital focuses on companies making a difference in Water. Their investment tenet is to (1) digitize (2) decarbonize and (3) decentralize water assets for a brighter and healthier future. https://lnkd.in/gugFNXUk You can check their website below, and I was reflecting on the page where they post the pictures of the various founders. That is what a diverse group looks like. We are stronger united as in the United States of America. Happy July 4th with your friends and family.