Video by Influence Media.
What’s your favourite part of Christmas? For a lot of people, it’s the food. The pigs in blankets, the roasts, the turkey and stuffing.
Well in the run up to Christmas celebrations, we’re going back to the source.
It’s easy to forget that farming and agriculture plays a huge role in getting that delicious food on your table.
And behind that, is another increasingly important player; Agri-tech.
It’s a topic we covered in our previous interview with Will Dunn, founder of Ag-drive, but there’s a wealth of talent in the sector in Northallerton and the surrounding region.
This month we’re speaking to Sam Hoste, someone who has been in the industry for a long time and through his company, Quantech, is now making the connections needed to drive the sector forward. And rather than crops, his focus is more on animals.
In this interview we hear where agri-tech is today, how he’s making sure farms have the data they need, and how his vision aligns with C4DI’s.
Connecting the agricultural world
In this industry Sam Hoste is the man you call when you want to get ahead. He works with a whole range of companies across the entire supply chain, “from breeding to nutrition and agri-tech companies providing sensors as well as processers and retailers at the other end.”
For them, Quantech provide a range of insights and data which is “useful for making genetic evaluations of animals and improving what they're doing. That's really where the company is focused at the moment.”
“Some of the companies I work with are startups. So, I'm helping them grow their businesses, perhaps within the UK. And I have a lot of international connections as well. So, it's helping those companies internationalise because I have some idea about how to do it in different countries.”
"But I also help agri-tech companies from overseas enter the UK market as well, because again, I know a lot of people in the UK. I also work with corporate, established companies, and make connections with startups that may have good solutions for what they're doing but may not keep up with the startup world.”
From initially only working with animal breeding companies, he’s now involved in the industry at a regional and international level. The changes occurring in agriculture mean farmers are looking to ensure the sustainability of their business long term, in the face of external pressures.
Equally Agri-tech companies are looking for a way into the industry. “In the UK, they're looking to see how they can put into place a network via a distributor, somebody who provides support for those sorts of things. So, I try to help them make those connections and identify people to work with.”
A shared vision
If any of what Sam does sounds familiar it’s because it “aligns quite well with C4DI in terms of making connections between startups and established companies and trying to grow them.”
As well as sharing this ethos, he’s benefited from being in the C4DI ecosystem. “John and Louise and others in the C4DI team, are not only very approachable and open, but also they've been very good on the technical front, making introductions to people I can work with.”
Our Northallerton site is the perfect location. “At C4DI Northallerton, where one emphasis is around agri-tech and agriculture, we've been trying to make connections with businesses in agriculture. That could be feed companies, nutrition companies, breeding companies, and also farmers.”
He’s also been involved in setting up relevant events in the area. “We've had three farmer agri-tech events here. One in this building. And then in the Spring, we held an arable day at a local farm. We brought agri-tech companies and farmers to see what was going on at the farm and provided a forum where they could meet, discuss, and look at opportunities.”
“Recently, we had one on a dairy farm, making connections between farmers and agri-tech companies.” These have all been done in partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs and North Yorkshire Council.
As we’ve discovered agriculture is in need of support so getting all these parties involved is essential, but the space also has the potential to benefit from revolutionary changes.
What the future holds for agri-tech
“There's lots of change going on in agriculture at the moment.” Leaving the EU has created a huge amount of uncertainty for the industry, but Sam says there are also opportunities, and it hasn’t stopped the appetite for innovation from some people.
“There's a lot of interest in carbon calculators, and how we measure carbon? Can farmers get paid for the carbon they have in their soil? And then of course, there’s the whole digital side of things. So, there's quite a lot going on that's new and exciting, and people are inquisitive about how it all goes forward. So at the moment there are enormous opportunities, and there are enormous challenges. But for a company like Quantech and others in this space, it's very exciting times.”
Sam’s recently started another business too; a startup called Agrillo. That’s a “mobile phone app to help people manage their plant protection products and chemicals they have on the farm. We're interrogating a government database to provide information about when the withdrawal date for those products is, so we can do things in terms of making sure they're complying with the regulations, and making sure the products are safe for people and for the environment.” It’s a great example of modern tech slowly making its way into an industry that for so long has been wary of it.
There’s also government support for projects like this, but they’ve also benefited from C4DI’s network. “We've had an Innovate UK grant to be able to do that. So that's a research starter program. But there are also some connections that we've got through C4DI involved in that project. Guy Wallace, who was a member at C4DI, is the programmer involved in the company.”
There’s so much potential to be had. A lot of it just starts with a conversation. It’s heartening to see it happening more and more throughout our network.