Grovestreams is a great IoT platform

Grovestreams is an IoT platform that is under the radar now; but that shouldn't last for too long.  I am listing 10 reasons Grovestreams is a great IoT platform for our solution.  Farmstreams is built on the Grovestreams platform and is leveraging the tools built to deliver value to livestock production.

1.  Simple to put data in and take data out of the store.  The APIs are published and open.  Easy enough that non-programmers can accomplish it.  Powerful enough for talented software developers to build apps and websites pulling and putting data in and out.  This also allows larger organizations to leverage Grovestreams for its cloud-based data gathering and analytics without sacrificing or needing to switch from the enterprise software they run their business with.

2.  Built with Big Data technology.  Scales to nearly unlimited size.  When it needs to get bigger, a new cluster is added.

3.  Cost.  A user can get started with a Free account to play around with developing a solution.  Pricing is data driven.  You pay for what you use.  No mandatory consulting fees or annual contracts.

4.  Quick to deploy a solution.  Whether its an app or a sensor feed, its easy and fast to run calculations, build dashboards and deploy your IoT solution.  Location/Map integration is also a nice feature.

5.  The roll-up stream data is a really efficient way to get to the data you need.  The in the field sensors can simply send raw data in.  Once received, they go to the store but then are accessed with the roll-up time selection (example hourly) and the preferred statistic (example average).  So, if you want the average hourly humidity, send the raw data in every minute and the data automatically rolls up to the hourly average.  Furthermore, minimum and maximum are also readily available in the store - so you can also view average, minimum and maximum on the same chart.  Even furthermore, you can monitor the quality of your data by monitoring gap counts in the rollup streams.

6.  The analytics package is really good.  You can run very complex expressions on any stream in the store.  You can then run more expressions on those created streams.  For example, I am calculating a feed bin inventory using data inputs from 5 different sensor streams and/or app entry streams.

7.    Blueprinting an organization makes setting up new organizations really easy.  When new sites (like a farm) needs to be set up simply create a blueprint and start the new organization exactly as the previous one was very quickly.  Also, switching organizations is all done in one log-in so a user can have access to all of their organizations without having to log out and log back in.

8.  The alerting engine is solid.  Users can get alerts upon arrival for those alarm type streams.  Users can run a condition alert, example temperature  > 32 send alert.  Or with latency, too much time has passed between data streams.  Features like time filters are effective in mitigating false alerts.  Example: feed latency alerts are ignored in the middle of the night.

9.  The dashboards to visualize the data are really good and easy to use.  Drag and drop graphs or spend more time and develop a super-dashboard.  A lot of well thought out features to quickly and accurately create the visual tools needed for stakeholders to your project.

10.  We are just at the beginning.  The base platform is already great.  With the enhancement roadmap laid out the platform will get even better.

So, why would I boast about this platform?  Shouldn't this be my best kept secret?  First, I want customer farms and potential customer farms to know how good this back-end solution is.  Feedlogic's focus is on providing intelligent and connected devices at the farm.  Without a platform like Grovestreams that endeavor is somewhat pointless,  Second, the IoT space is like a really large sandbox right now.  There is plenty of room for a lot of people to play in it.  For Farmstreams to continue improving more and more people need to find Grovestreams and use it.  Then Grovestreams can grow its support system, add enhancements and developer networks can be started for collaboration within and across industry can make all solutions better.  I encourage you to check it out or contact us with questions/comments.

Sensor Spotlight: Poultry Scale

Poultry scales are not new technology for chicken or turkey producers to incorporate in their live production operations.  Weighing birds has many advantages throughout the supply chain starting in the live production area (nutrition, vet services, etc) to finished production planning, sales and marketing and accounting.  Many stakeholders in a poultry production system have a need for accurate, timely live weights in the barn.

The average weight itself has some limit to its value.  It is valuable to understand nutrition and other factors from a learning and KPI standpoint.  The more frequent weights and accurate, frequent, surrounding data the more learning and improvement a system can gain.  What producers really want is an estimate of when a weight that triggers an event (like marketing) is going to be obtained.  Example: in 4 days the weight should be 6 pounds.  This is the crucial information needed for planning within an organization.

A quick google search shows many poultry scale options.  Any follower of this blog will know that FarmStreams is all about getting the data off the farm and into the cloud where it can be accessed and consumed by the users who need the information but are not going to the farm every day.

The FarmWeight VEIT Bat2 scale is a scale we have had success implementing with the FarmHub patform.  If a producer is already invested in a different type of scale a retrofit is possible; but this is one that we have successfully connected to the cloud and is ready to install today.

It offers the following features.

1.  Wireless connectivity to Grovestreams data platform.  Which can in turn be pushed into an enterprise system.

2.  Network multiple scales over a single connection point at a site.

3.  24/7 monitoring and reporting of the following:
a. average weight (male & female)
b. weight gain
c. number of samples

4. Alerting if certain weight related thresholds occur.  The thresholds can be variable and change with other data or time passing.

5. Data allows a producer to predict market dates.

Beyond just the single data points related to bird weights integrating with feed data, temperature, water usage and other data surrounding the environment of the barn in real-time in a powerful analytics engine like Grovestreams allows producers to glean new information to improve processes even further.

Similar to the other sensors, the data is valuable on its own as discussed above and can have even greater value as part of a larger more complex analytics program on the farm.

Invest in process improvement not band-aids

Technology enables improved process management.  Process management is the antidote to common issues in the industry.  Often times producers will take steps to reduce issues by dealing with the symptoms of the problem.  For example, installing larger feed bins or bigger feeders on the site.  That can help reduce problems but won't solve and is massively more expensive than implementing process-focused technology.  Livestock farming is one of many industries that can adopt M2M / IoT systems to improve existing processes in an organized and meaningful way.

Some ways we are doing this is with:

• Feed management.  Ordering feed, tandem bin management, feed outages, and intake analysis are some ways we can impact an existing process that some producers struggle with.
• Group management.  Farmstreams app collects placements, mortalities, marketing and other customizable data entry streams. 
• Medication / antibiotic tracking.
• Environmental alerting. Water usage, temperature and air quality.
• Deeper big data analytics.

Within the industry commonly approaches to deal with issues are to go bigger.  For example, when feed bins running out of feed it is often suggested to spend the capital to upgrade to larger feed bins on the site.  When digging into the results of this investment - often results are a mixed bag.  It is nearly as common for feed to run out when larger feed bins are used as smaller ones.  Barn workers have a false sense of security with all that feed capacity on site and the bins run out even in tandem.  Or both slides are left open and both bins run open catching the worker by surprise.  It happens frequently.  If the process isn't fixed, the problem isn't fixed.

I have been at a layer facility where tandem bins 36 tons each were sitting within the line of sight of the feed mill no more than 1/2 mile away.  The bins would run empty and be waiting on feed from the mill.  

That much capacity also makes it very difficult for industries, like egg layers, who might want to change nutrition quickly to do so.  You have to go through 4 days of feed before you can change the ration when that much is on site.

More feed capacity inside the barn is another common solution to feed outages.  Without a doubt it is helpful but expensive.  It also doesn't guarantee that there are not times when feed is not flowing and that bunk is not full.  

One last comment, process improvement and band-aids come in waves.  Process improvements made today will make waves that result in even more process improvements in the future.  Band-aids work the same way, a 24 ton bin today becomes 36 tons in a few years.  You have to keep making the band-aid bigger and bigger, they don't get smaller.