Insights / Agriculture
IoT Applications in Agriculture: Real Examples and How They Work
Five ways IoT is used on farms and in growing spaces, two examples from our work, and why connectivity and power decide what works in the field.
The short answer
IoT in agriculture means connected sensors, controllers and machines that report conditions on the farm and act on them. The five most common applications are livestock monitoring, climate control in barns and greenhouses, irrigation and water management, machinery and field data, and automation and robotics. In each one, sensors measure animals, plants, water or equipment; the data reaches a platform or app; and the farmer, or a controller, acts on it. What decides whether a system works in practice is usually not the sensor. It is connectivity, power and an app that farmers can set up and trust.
What IoT does on a farm
Farms used sensors long before IoT. The difference is that older sensors stored readings in local memory for later use, so nobody saw a problem until the data was collected. Connected sensors send readings over cellular, satellite or local networks as they happen, so decisions can be made while they still matter.
- MeasureSensors read animals, crops, soil, water, climate or machines.
- TransmitA gateway or the device itself sends readings over whatever network the site has.
- DecideA platform or local controller compares readings with thresholds, schedules or models.
- ActThe farmer gets an alarm, or a controller switches a pump, fan, light or feeder.
Actions change conditions on the farm, which the next readings confirm or correct.
- Smart farming
- Farming that uses connected sensors, controllers and data platforms to monitor animals, crops, resources and equipment continuously and to automate routine decisions.
Five applications of IoT in agriculture
| Application | What is measured | What it enables |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Livestock monitoring | Activity, temperature and behaviour from wearable tags or implanted sensors; weight from cameras in pens | Spotting illness, heat or calving early and tracking growth without handling every animal |
| 2. Barn and greenhouse climate control | Temperature, humidity, air quality, light | Automatic ventilation, heating, cooling and lighting, with alarms when limits are crossed |
| 3. Irrigation and water management | Tank and reservoir levels, soil moisture, pump status | Watering on schedule or on demand, and knowing when water runs low |
| 4. Machinery and field data | Telemetry from tractors and mixed fleets, field operations, crop growth | Better use of machines and a shared record of field work for agronomists and advisors |
| 5. Automation and robotics | Position, load and status of feeders, milking robots and other automated equipment | Routine tasks such as feeding and milking run on schedule with less manual labour |
The applications share a purpose: turning available parameters into data a farmer can act on, so that water, land, feed and labour are used where they are needed, and so the farm is less exposed to droughts, pests and equipment failures.
Drones are a sixth branch with their own engineering problems. We cover them separately in how drones are used in agriculture.
Two real examples from our work
Sensor monitoring for livestock farms
A sensor solution provider for agriculture runs climate sensors and weight cameras on pig farms. Farmers use a web portal and mobile apps to monitor the sensors, change their settings and configure alarms. The provider wanted to concentrate on firmware and sensor production, so we took over the software: improving the performance of the Azure-based cloud, the web portal and the iOS and Android apps. Customer accounts, which need strict accuracy, sit in a relational database; device data and configurations sit in a document database.
Irrigation and lighting control for indoor plant installations
A botanic design company installs and maintains plants in offices. Its low-energy irrigation and lighting control units drive pumps and grow lights, and an app lets staff schedule watering and lighting, control units manually, read activity logs and get alerts about device status and water levels. The units had restricted, unstable network access, so we moved set-up and control to Bluetooth and added firmware updates over Bluetooth, making devices manageable even where the network is unreliable.
Field connectivity is usually the hard part
The cost of sensors is often not what holds agricultural IoT back. Coverage is. Many farms have weak or no broadband, fields are large, and barns block radio signals. The network choice shapes the hardware, the power budget and what the app can promise.
| Option | Fits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Cellular (LTE, LTE-M, NB-IoT) | Sensors and machines where there is mobile coverage | Coverage gaps at field edges; data plan cost per device |
| LPWAN such as LoRaWAN | Many low-data sensors spread over large fields | Needs a gateway and its own power and backhaul |
| Satellite | Remote pasture, water points and sites with no terrestrial network | Small payloads, latency and terminal power |
| Wi-Fi | Barns, greenhouses and buildings near the farm office | Range and interference inside metal and concrete structures |
| Bluetooth LE | Phone-based set-up, local control and firmware updates | Short range; not a substitute for remote monitoring |
Whatever the link, plan for it to fail. Devices should buffer readings and send them when the connection returns, and anything that controls water, climate or feed should keep running on local rules while offline.
What this changes for a product team
- Design offline-first. The app and the device must stay useful when the connection is slow or gone.
- Budget power for the field. Many sensors run on batteries or small solar panels; sampling and transmit intervals decide how long they last.
- Build for the environment. Dust, moisture, ammonia in barns and animals themselves are hard on enclosures, connectors and tags.
- Make set-up simple. Farmers install and configure many devices themselves; a short Bluetooth set-up flow saves support calls.
- Decide who owns the data. Field and herd data is valuable to agronomists, advisors and insurers; sharing and export need to be designed, not added later.
How to start an agricultural IoT project
Answer these before choosing sensors
- Name the decision the data supports: treat an animal, open a vent, start a pump, service a machine.
- Map connectivity on the actual site, field by field and building by building.
- Set a power budget and battery or solar plan for every device that is not on mains.
- Define what each controller does on its own when the network or the cloud is down.
- Design device set-up, alarms and firmware updates for the people who will do them on the farm.
- Agree how data is stored, shared and exported before the first pilot.
Where we've built this
Case studyTaking over the cloud, web and mobile software for Dol-Sensors farm sensorsA web portal and mobile apps for a livestock-farm sensor provider, where farmers monitor climate sensors and weight cameras and configure alarms.For how these systems fit farm operations, equipment makers and agri-tech products, see Agriculture.
Questions engineers ask
What is the role of IoT in agriculture?
IoT gives farmers continuous data on animals, crops, water, climate and machines, and lets controllers act on it automatically. It replaces periodic manual checks with real-time monitoring and alarms, and supports better use of water, feed, land and labour.
How is IoT used in farming?
Common uses are livestock monitoring with wearable or implanted sensors, climate control in barns and greenhouses, irrigation and water-level monitoring, telemetry from farm machinery, and automation such as feeding and milking robots.
What are some examples of smart control systems used in agriculture?
Greenhouse climate controllers that manage ventilation, heating and lighting; irrigation controllers that run pumps on schedules or soil-moisture readings; barn climate systems with alarms; and automated feeding and milking systems.
Was this useful?
Apply this to your product