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A Consistent View of Cultivations Using Source Track, and a Time-Saving of 45%

Agrocare Rilland has enjoyed working with the Source Plant App and Source Track and has experienced a 45% time-saving in collecting plant data.

Solution used in this case: Source Track Tomato

Agro Care has been a development partner of Source.ag right from the start, helping to build the products now known as Source Track and the Source Plant App. Agro Care began using Source Track in July 2022, launching it in all of its locations including Rilland.

Agro Care grower Tomasz Golisz has been with the company for 16 years, having worked his way up to crop manager and grower in Rilland. He manages 10 hectares, growing Sunstream Lau tomatoes. At Rilland, the Source Track dashboard provides key data and tracking across his three cultivations, giving Tomasz a complete and accurate overview of all key cultivation parameters across these cultivations:

Key Challenges

  • Plant measurement previously cost Agro Care a lot of time and had at times produced unreliable data. Manual measurements and calculations could take up to 27 minutes for 10 plants.

  • Yield prediction was previously calculated using different Excel files, which proved time-intensive.

  • They were unable to keep and compare actual crop results to date versus its crop plan.

“I’m a huge fan of the Source Plant App. It is a big improvement compared to our previous way of measuring as it’s very user-friendly, visually appealing and less prone to mistakes. Before Source, we had to do plant measurements by manually filling in numbers in tables, but the Source Plant App actually shows you the whole plant digitally, making it much easier to do plant measurements, resulting in less errors.”

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Tomasz Golisz

Agro Care Grower

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Growing Tomatoes on
24
Hectares
tomasz-working-in-greenhouse-agrocare-rilland
Working in
3
Greenhouses
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Achieved Time-Savings of
45%

Being ‘On Track’ Every Day

Agro Care Rilland has a strong drive to continuously improve and learn from other growers at Agro Care. Being able to compare crop plans easily with other growers from Agro Care is of enormous value. These collaborations often result in Tomasz making adjustments to his plans. Agro Care is now able to efficiently compare different KPIs across greenhouses.
Kilograms Harvested

The total amount of kilograms harvested from one cultivation.

Calculated 24-Hour Temperature

A dynamic 24-hour target for greenhouse temperature, based on the actual amount of radiation received compared to the realized 24-hour temperature.

Realized 24-Hour Temperature

The average temperature measured in the greenhouse from sunrise to sunrise.

EC and pH Drain

Average measured pH and EC levels in drainage water over the period from sunrise to sunrise.

Total Drain

The drain percentage measured over the period from sunrise to sunrise.

Pruning Waste

This refers to leaves and everything else that is unusable after pruning.

Working with Source Track

When asked about his process of working with Source Track and the Source Plant App, Tomasz mentions: "The first thing I do in the morning is look at Source Track to look at my most important KPIs. I want to know: what was realized in the past day? What was the 24-hour temperature? What was the pH drain? After checking my KPIs, I make my rounds in the greenhouses to check if the data I am looking at is accurate.For example, if I’m looking at irrigation, I look at my KPIs in Source and I check by hand to see if my sensors are working properly. And then, after my rounds and my plant measurements, I am back at my computer checking my KPIs to make decisions to ensure the best possible result for my crop season."

With Source Track, the flexibility of choosing what information to fill out when making a crop plan, and which metrics not to fill out, is also of great value. It has enabled the grower to determine which KPIs are most valuable to track that season, giving them the insight to make more frequent adjustments and optimize crop plans based on their results to date. 

Source Track provides a constant, accurate view of the cultivation, giving Agro Care the insight to make adjustments to what they have learned during the season. For example, using insights from Source, the grower has adjusted the humidity in the crop plan for this season, keeping it at 80% instead of 75%, which has produced good results. Knowing if they are ‘on track’ every day has ensured the best possible results.

“My day starts and ends with Source.”

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Tomasz Golisz

Agro Care Grower

Key Benefits Experienced

Agro Care reports saving almost 45% in time, measuring plants with Source. The grower used to measure 10 plants in 27 minutes on average, and they now only need 15 minutes.

Manual calculations now happen automatically with the Source Plant App. For example, previously they had to manually write the date of the fruit set on a label to track truss development time. Now this is calculated automatically by Source. This makes data much more reliable and less prone to mistakes. It is also a valuable step in becoming AI-ready.

After collecting plant registration data, it is immediately available in Source Track, where the grower can see the impact of the latest measurements on crucial KPIs. This gives Agro Care the chance to make any necessary changes quickly.

Agro Care can see all its important information on all greenhouses in one overview, with the flexibility to choose the information it wants to see and select any KPI to compare between the greenhouses.

Looking To The Future

Agro Care meets with the Source.ag team regularly to learn from each other. The feedback Agro Care gives to the Source team during these sessions, or at any other time, is incorporated by Source in their product updates and Agro Care can see their suggestions fed back into new releases of the software.

In the future, Tomasz looks forward to working with Source Cultivate, Source’s solution which helps growers determine their best cultivation strategy, simulating the development of crops across the whole season resulting in a much more accurate yield prediction.

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Get Started with Source Track

Looking to standardize your plant measurements, get a better oversight of your greenhouse operations, and track all data in one place? Reach out to us for a demo!

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