By Hanif R Houston
UC ANR Innovate, the innovation arm of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, invites farmers, researchers and industry partners to participate in the UC ANR Connect Field Day on June 30 at the Hopland Research and Extension Center in Mendocino County. Eight agricultural technology companies will put their vineyard management tools to the test and hear directly from farmers.
“Field days are where the abstract work of agricultural innovation becomes concrete,” said Helle Petersen, director of UC ANR Innovate. “When you get a startup, a farmer and a researcher in the same field looking at the same piece of equipment, the questions get sharper and the feedback gets more useful. That’s the kind of exchange this format is built for.”
The featured companies work across autonomous robotics, aerial spraying, precision irrigation, in-field sensing, and computer-vision crop intelligence. Each company was selected with guidance from UC ANR Innovate’s Industry Advisory Board. Made up of farmers and industry representatives, the board shapes which technologies enter the program, sets the priorities the work is measured against, and informs how field demonstrations are designed.
This cohort includes:
- Saga Robotics has developed Thorvald, an autonomous robot that treats grapevines with UV-C light at night to control powdery mildew, without chemicals and without disrupting daytime vineyard work.
- CropMind is an AI platform that turns field imagery from a phone, camera, drone or satellite into block-level readings of yield, crop load and disease risk.
Source : ucanr.edu