Agriculture
Soil moisture, microclimate, livestock tracking and grain-store monitoring - multi-year battery life, LoRaWAN-ready, built for farm-edge realities.
IoT-WorkS builds farm telemetry that works without mains power or broadband: soil-moisture and microclimate sensors, multi-point grain-store probes, and GPS collars or ear tags for livestock. Multi-year batteries over LoRaWAN mean a single farm gateway covers fields and buildings with no cabling.
Where we deploy
3 typical use casesSoil & microclimate sensors
Soil moisture, temperature, EC and leaf-wetness sensors across fields. Irrigation triggers and disease-risk alerts based on real conditions, not the regional forecast.
Grain-store + silo monitoring
Multi-point temperature probes detect heating events early; ventilation control reduces spoilage losses across the storage season.
Livestock GPS + health tracking
Long-life GPS collars and ear-tag accelerometers - location, activity patterns and welfare-event detection in one feed.
How do sensors work on a farm with no power or broadband?
They do not depend on either. Sensors are battery powered with multi-year life and talk to a farm gateway over LoRaWAN, a long-range low-power radio that covers several kilometres across open ground. The gateway needs one connection - a mobile signal is enough - and everything else runs off it. That is what makes field-scale monitoring viable where running power or fibre never would be.
- Multi-year battery life, so no charging rota across dispersed sensors
- LoRaWAN range measured in kilometres across open ground
- One gateway per farm, backhauled over a mobile connection
- Enclosures rated for permanent outdoor and in-store deployment
What does grain-store monitoring prevent?
Spoilage that begins invisibly. Heating events start in pockets deep in the bulk, and by the time a hot spot is detectable at the surface the affected grain is already downgraded. Multi-point probes report temperature at several depths continuously, so ventilation can be triggered on evidence at the point a trend appears rather than on a schedule or a spot check.
What does livestock tracking add beyond location?
Behaviour. GPS gives you position, which matters for extensive grazing and theft, but accelerometer data in a collar or ear tag reveals activity patterns - and a change in those patterns is often the earliest welfare signal available, appearing before visible symptoms. Practically, that means calving alerts, lameness indicators and early detection of an animal separating from the group.
HSE agriculture guidance (hse.gov.uk)Does this help with farm assurance and audit evidence?
Yes, where the scheme asks for storage or environmental records. Continuous logging produces a timestamped history rather than a retrospective sheet, which is stronger evidence for grain storage conditions and cold storage in particular. Exports are generated on demand rather than assembled before an inspection.
Red Tractor Assurance (assuredfood.co.uk)Every vertical runs on the same engines: AI Telemetry for sensor data, Engineering services for hardware + firmware + integration, the same platform for dashboards, alerts and compliance exports. The vertical changes the asset class and the regulatory frame; the stack underneath doesn't.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need broadband on the farm for this to work?
- No. Sensors reach a farm gateway over LoRaWAN, and the gateway backhauls over a mobile connection. A single gateway typically covers fields and buildings measured in kilometres.
- How long do the batteries last in field sensors?
- Multi-year at typical reporting intervals, which is what makes dispersed deployments practical. Battery level is reported with the data so replacements are planned rather than discovered.
- What does grain-store monitoring detect?
- Heating events developing deep in the bulk, before they are visible at the surface. Multi-point probes report at several depths so ventilation is triggered on an emerging trend rather than on a fixed schedule.
- Can livestock tags detect health problems?
- Accelerometer data reveals activity patterns, and changes in those patterns often appear before visible symptoms. In practice that supports calving alerts, lameness indicators and detection of an animal separating from the group.
- Will the hardware survive outdoors year round?
- Yes. Enclosures are rated for permanent outdoor and in-store deployment, including wash-down areas and grain stores, which is a different specification from indoor commercial sensors.
Tell us about your agriculture project.
A local engineer will reply within one working day with a recommended sensor mix, gateway architecture and a rough deployment timeline.