AN app developed in South Australia is empowering growers to assess their grain on-farm.

GoMicro, is based at the Tonsley innovation district, has developed an app for lentils, with another for wheat to be released early this year.

Company chief executive Dr Sivam Krish said the GoMicro Assessor could help reduce some of the stress associated with determining grain quality for both growers and receival companies, and empower growers to make better informed trading decisions.

The app is based on visual machine learning via artificial intelligence and assesses lentil samples for visual qualities such as colour, size, breaks or wrinkles in the seed coat, and the presence of contaminants such as snails and weed seeds.

“The GoMicro Assessor can accurately assess thousands of lentil seeds in about a minute with an accuracy of more than 95 per cent,” Dr Krish said.

Dr Krish said the difference between GoMicro and other grain assessment technology in development around the world was its use of an associated patent pending device which created studio-quality lighting at all locations, including outdoors on farms.

The device removes shadows and distracting backgrounds, eliminating the need for expensive machinery, industrial cameras and grain feeders to separate the grain before it is photographed.

“We are putting this technology in the hands of farmers, who have traditionally been price-takers,” he said.

“A lot of farmers are now using on-farm storage, so the app will empower them to assess their grain themselves and make decisions on when to sell.”

Walco Seed Cleaning at Halbury, near Balaklava, Long Seed and Grain at Leasingham, and three SA grain receival sites are currently trialling the app.

Their input about local weed seeds and other quality issues is being incorporated to expand the visual memory of the AI behind the app.

Kurt Walter from Walco Seed Cleaning said the GoMicro Assessor was a game changer for growers.

“It will provide them with convenience and the confidence of knowing the grade of their grain before it’s even loaded on the truck,” he said.

“It will also be a big help to growers who store on-farm, so they can keep closer track of their grain quality through the year.”

Long Seed and Grain’s David Long said the app was easy to use and it demonstrated the enormous scope for AI technology in the grain industry.

“We are only just on the edge of how AI can be used,” he said.

“For example, the same technology could be used to do seed counts so you can adjust seeding rates and to check germination rates and new versions of the app could be developed to monitor for diseases.”