About Bitwise Agronomy
We’re farmers ourselves, so we understand the challenges that growers face every season.
As growers ourselves, we understand the challenges you face every season with crop variability, inconsistent yields and adverse weather events.
That’s why we teamed up with other farmers, viticulturists and IT professionals to create our GreenView system – and enable better farm management decisions for all of us.
We exist to bring farming together with modern leading technologies like AI and machine learning. We want to help create the smart farms of the future and enable berry growers and viticulturists to make insightful decisions, reduce operating costs, and grow better quality crops.
2017
New Beginning
- The idea for Bitwise Ag was dreamt up in 2017
AUG 2019
GreenView AI
- First AI neural net launched in Aug 2019
FEB 2020
Bitwise Agronomy
- Established as a limited company
MAR 2020
First paid site
- GreenView launches onsite
JUN 2022
Global Growth
- GreenView grows to 50+ paid sites
2023
The story continues
Our vision is to power the farms of the future.
Our mission transform farming with cutting-edge technology.
In the media
Bitwise Agronomy + Burro revealed as World Ag Expo 2023 'Top 10 Product' winner
Products ranged from a safety innovation to autonomous robots to resource-saving products. The contest judges consisted of farmers, ranchers, and industry professionals.
Sprint Ventures announces investment in Bitwise Agronomy alongside Jelix Ventures
Bitwise Agronomy is a Tasmanian-based start-up revolutionizing the way agriculture is managed through the use of precision analytics to help grape and berry growers forecast & manage crop variability.
De Bortoli Wines x Bitwise Agronomy: Improving site management using vineyard images
Reading Between the Vines episode seven features De Bortoli Wines Yarra Valley vineyards who have been using GreenView to support site management.
Wine Australia: GreenView supporting management pr variability in Yarra Valley
To help overcome the challenge of variability, Rob and his technical assistant Emma Taylor started trialling the Bitwise Agronomy GreenView system.
Artificial intelligence paves the way for accurate crop yield estimates for berry and grape growers
In a digital and data-heavy world, producers can find it difficult to isolate meaningful information and translate it into profitable decision-making.
Bitwise Agronomy chief executive Fiona Turner wins top Women in AI awards
Ms Turner won the AI in Agribusiness award for Bitwise Agronomy, as well as being the Grand Award second runner-up for Innovator of the Year.
Winners of Women in AI Awards demonstrate how a “diverse workforce equals diverse solutions”
There’s a huge pool of talented women working in AI in Australia, making essential contributions and leading on key innovations in this booming industry.
The Examiner: Tasmanian startup hopes to use artificial intelligence to boost revenue
Computer vision in vineyards could help reduce labour costs and increase yield for winemakers, a Tasmanian startup says.
Meet the Founders
Fiona Turner
Co-founder & CEO
With a background in Deep Tech, Innovation and Product Development, as well as managing her own vineyard, it was Fiona’s destiny to combine her passion for technology and love for wine. The result? Bitwise Agronomy.
Aran Elkington
Co-founder & CTO
Aran has the technical and strategic background to architect, lead and deliver highly successful products. He’s passionate about using AI to advance farming productivity and help growers around the world to dramatically transform their operations.
The Founders story
Fiona had been working in the global tech world for years, specialising in Industry 4.0 projects to deliver the smart cities, smart factories and smart wineries of tomorrow. However she always knew she wanted to get back to her farming roots.
After years in the tech world, a lifestyle change beckoned, and in 2016 Fee and her partner bought Jinglers Creek vineyard in Tasmania, Australia.
Swapping ‘tech board rooms’ for ‘cellar doors’ took some adjustment. Life was busy, and the vineyard quickly got out of control.
“I always missed the windows to do certain jobs around the vineyard and it was really stressful – everything took twice as long, and was twice as expensive, it felt like we were ploughing money into the ground rather than being efficient.” – Fiona Turner
Fee hired consultants but then realised she couldn’t give them the information they needed to actually help her. She knew there had to be a better way to understand her crop and bring some data-driven structure to her farming.
And from those early challenges at Jinglers Creek vineyard, Bitwise Agronomy was born.
“I knew it was possible to use some of the technology I’d used in my past tech roles, like sensors, robotics and agtech cameras, to solve some of these real-world problems I was facing on my vineyard.” – Fiona Turner
Fiona also knew this task was bigger than one person.
Aran and Fee had worked together at AECON in Queensland for 5 years, and when Fee called, Aran immediately saw the potential in the idea. They worked nights and weekends for a year trialling everything from farming sensors to vine rover robots to swarms of drones to scare away birds.
“Really our heart was always set on using AI and neural nets. After lots of testing and trialling we thought we had enough data to make it work. Fee took some initial imagery with a GoPro in her vineyard and away we went. When we put the neural net on LinkedIn it just blew up.” – Aran Elkington
That was in 2018 and the rest, as they say, is history.
From that first neural net and months of development, Fee and Aran moved to incorporate Bitwise Agronomy in late 2019. In March 2020 they brought on their first paid customer, and by June 2022 the Bitwise Agronomy GreenView system was being used in 72 sites around the world.
This is just the beginning for Bitwise Ag.
Fiona and Aran find inspiration every day in conversations with growers who never thought they’d have access to data like GreenView. They’re motivated to develop new ways to help farmers, improve food security and positively impact global food production.
Bitwise Ag is now a team of 15, based all around the world and with one mission: to transform farming with cutting-edge technology.