We Build Weather & Disease Platforms for Agriculture
Our goal is to provide Decision Support Platforms to enable more sustainable agriculture.
Our platform gives Growers, Agronomists and Researchers the best tools to understand weather conditions and activate research to manage pest & disease risk and achieve sustainability goals.
Decision Support
HortPlus has pioneered the development of digital decision support tools for corporate agriculture and industry organisations through our MetWatch Platform.
MetWatch supports decision making for key activities including crop planning, pest & disease management, irrigation, and spray timing. MetWatch encompasses a powerful suite of interactive tools and data views backed by scientific models, monitoring inputs and a robust weather data network.
MetWatch is highly extendable and can be customised to your organisation's needs to integrate with existing infrastructure, on-property hardware, and business intelligence systems for a central point of truth.
We have been trusted by growers and industry for over fifteen years and provide industry-level platform solutions for Apples, Kiwifruit, Summerfruit, as well as a range of corporate and research solutions in New Zealand and internationally.
HortPlus are a proud member of Agritech New Zealand
Agritech New Zealand helps connect, promote and advocate for shared interests in the primary sector and the use of smart and innovative technology for sustainable agriculture.
Built Upon Science
HortPlus provides a bridge between science and industry.
We strive to understand the underlying challenges that are being faced by growers and firms and to deliver technology solutions that solve these using our expertise in platform development.
HortPlus has a strong working relationship with leading scientists and researchers in a range of institutions in New Zealand including Plant & Food Research, as well as relationships with experts in agrichemicals, entomology, crop monitoring, and irrigation.
We have a proven record delivering practical pathways for activating research and extension, as well as being a key partner to industry in the journey towards integrated production initiatives and sustainability.
HortPlus collaborates closely with research institutions such as Plant and Food Research.
Innovative Technology
Our platform is based on powerful science and data models to enable insight and inform management decisions for individual growers and agronomists, while also providing high-level overviews of regions and historical trends for managers and industry organisations.
We use a modular system architecture and design process to customise the MetWatch Platform to specific business and industry challenges. We are able to quickly dashboard new concepts and iterate projects to be responsive to changing needs and requirements such as Integrated Production Programmes and GLOBAL G.A.P.
Our systems are cloud-based and highly secure and developed for ease of use with the latest in responsive web technology.
New Zealand's Leading Network of Agricultural Weather Stations
We have developed a network of scientific and research-grade weather stations located in key growing regions throughout New Zealand for current & historical weather, as well as using the power of the IBM Weather Company, MetService, and other vendors to enable highly accurate localised forecasts in New Zealand and globally.
Weather Data & Forecasts
- High precision hourly weather forecasts up to 15 days in key growing areas and at a property-level to inform grower actions
- Key weather variables including temperature, rain, wind and relative humidity
- Agricultural variables including soil moisture, evapotranspiration, dew point, leaf wetness
- Historical research-quality weather data going back up to twenty years
- API access to weather data feed is available for advanced integration and functions
Our Platform Integrates
With Your Technology
Connect Your Weather Station
Connect your own weather station hardware and networks of stations to enhance insight in specific locations.
The MetWatch Platform is compatible with a range of weather station providers and sensor equipment, including Harvest Weather Stations.
Bring Your Data Sources Together
We can integrate with your existing tools, user management and business intelligence systems and processes to connect data including spray diaries, irrigation monitoring, and property information.
Case Study: PSA Risk Model for Kiwifruit Industry
The Kiwifruit industry approached HortPlus. PSA had presented a major challenge to the industry and they wanted to implement an interactive PSA Risk Model for growers. We took them through our design process to develop and deliver a digital solution.
The immediate need was to create a PSA risk model for growers. We also identified a need for other tools, including a Chill Unit Calculator and weather forecasting tools to further enable decision making.
We worked with Plant & Food Research and Kiwifruit Vine Health (KVH) to ideate the implementation of the project and build a timeline and roadmap for delivery of the solution, including the installation of new weather stations.
We developed and successfully launched the project, integrating it with existing Industry web tools. We have continued to work with both Plant & Food Research (science) and KVH (industry) to refine and evolve the tools and models.
