Australia: Bee Tracker Measures Real-Time Pollination
Bees are the lifeblood of the food chain, responsible for pollinating one-third of Australia’s food, and protecting their existence has never been of greater importance.
“There are so many remarkable advancements in modern cropping such as plant breeding and genetics, real-time measurement and application of water. But commercial pollination is still just a hive placed in a field, and the growers cross their fingers, hoping the bees do a good job. It’s the same practice my father used, and his father before him,” explained David Lyall.
For commercial beekeepers and Co-Founders of Bee Innovative, David and Kate Lyall, this practice was well overdue for a shake-up. Their solution is BeeDar, a supercharged approach to pollination that allows growers to significantly increase yield, and yield quality, without additional irrigation, fertilizer, or land. “Effectively, what we’re doing, is helping the natural behavior of bees become more efficient and profitable,” said CEO and Co-Founder of Bee Innovative, David Lyall.
By measuring where bees are working in a crop, the BeeDar sensor identifies problem areas, informing decision-making that optimizes pollination outcomes. Attached to a drone, BeeDar works like a short-range radar, identifying whether a return signal belongs to a bee and even where that bee is headed.