Transforming Wool Farming: The Role of AgTech in Sustainable Yields

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Wolf farming is a timeless industry, and it's time for

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a technological evolution.

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How do we modernize wool farming

for better, more sustainable yields?

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What are the current methods farmers

rely on to determine wool micron?

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And what's the actual payoff

for knowing this data?

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With me today on the show is Danielle

Morton, CEO and founder of Zondi,

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and in this episode we delve into the

existing challenges in wool farming

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and how technology aims to solve them,

the critical role of real time data

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in making informed breeding decisions,

and how Zondi's solutions are being

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received by the farming community from

handheld devices to smartphone options.

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Collaboration starts with a

conversation, Team AgTech.

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Let's make it happen.

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/ With me today on the show is Danielle

Morton, CEO and founder of Zondi,

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who are making technology to provide

instant micron testing on farm using

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AI and smartphone technology, helping

farmers quickly determine wool quality.

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Which can significantly impact

culling decisions, profitability,

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and livelihood of wool growers.

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Hey, Danielle, how you going?

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danielle: I'm great, Peter.

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Thank you.

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pete: Great to have you on the

show look, I know it's only an

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audio podcast, but it looks like

chilly Armidale for some reason.

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You're wearing a jacket while

I'm sweltering away in, uh, in

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this unseasonable 35 degree, uh,

Sydney springtime on this side.

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But, uh, it's great to have you on

the show and, uh, I would love to

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firstly know a little bit more about.

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You learn what you do, please.

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danielle: Great.

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Thank you.

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So I have come into the world of

Zondi, um, from something that's

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quite interesting because it connects

between HealthTech and AgTech, which

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I know you're very interested in.

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and so we have two children who were born

with gut health issues and in looking

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to heal them, uh, we discovered so many

Positive benefits to food as medicine.

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And so as a result, my first iteration of

Zondi was actually connecting farmers of

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healthy produce with families like ours.

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And the farmers were asking us

to authenticate the produce.

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I was one person, so I went looking

for tech solutions to do that.

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pete: Hmm.

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When you say you authenticate the,

the solutions, tell me a little

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bit more about what that would

look like in the ideal world.

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danielle: Yeah, so just imagine the

future where you can pull out your

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smartphone and look at three different

apples and tell, using your smartphone,

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which one's organic and why that organic

apple is better for your body and why

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you should spend extra money on that, or

why a different apple at a lower price.

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might be where you want to spend your

money today, but it gives you more

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information about why that apple, has

the nutrients, has it been frozen?

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Has it been, harvested in the last 14

days when it's got the most nutrients?

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All of those types of things that

help you as a body absorb as many

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nutrients as you can to grow and excel.

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pete: Yeah.

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Well, I want to get into the, the other

stuff that Zondi do in a bit, but just

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on that, like, I think about, I go

to any grocery store and I, and, and.

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Apples are there and, and I have

no concept of how long those, those

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apples have been there, , but the,

like, they sure do look shiny.

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And I've seen stories where some

might've been there for quite a while

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and I've seen plenty of, of apps and

solutions that can scan barcodes,

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tell you macro like macros of people.

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'cause that's been like a, you

know, a lot of people have, have

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contributed to an app over years.

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I'd just love to learn a little

bit more about how you picture

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it working in the, produce side.

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Mm-hmm.

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danielle: Yeah.

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So what's really exciting

about this technology is it's

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actually looking at the produce.

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So depending on how that produce was

grown, we actually have, the ability

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to analyse the surface of the produce.

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So where a barcode may or may not

have, you know, the correct information

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linked with it, or there is a real...

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Huge amount of work to

actually create that database.

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Wonderful solutions, amazing.

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And it would be where we would integrate

with, but we're just one extra step where

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you could actually scan the surface of the

produce and actually find out real time

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information about that produce that then.

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It impacts you as the consumer eating it.

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So think of like a muesli bar is,

you know, a square, centimeter

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of, advertising space to talk

about how good that muesli bar is.

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What does it do for you?

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What are the nutrients?

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What's it's, heart start rating.

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if you pick up an apple, it

has no advertising space on it.

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And so it's basically, you know,

leveraging that and bringing it up.

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So that consumers can learn more about

fresh produce, why it's good for you.

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And then within the fresh produce

industry, what's the produce that could

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actually impact their health even more.

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pete: Yeah.

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And is that, so, so essentially

taking a picture of a, piece

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of produce and is it using AI?

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Is that, is that how it does it then?

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danielle: It goes even further.

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So it's actually nothing

that the human eye can see.

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It gets into the spectral range.

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And so it's patented technology

that actually opens up information.

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So we talk about it as

enhancing human senses.

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So it kind of gives us that.

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ability to enhance human senses when

looking at produce or in the case of

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wool, which is another application,

it's enhancing human senses in terms of

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their What someone can touch and feel

or what they can see with the wool, we

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can also, enhance that, I guess, vision.

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pete: Yeah.

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Well, nice segue then to, move to,

you know, something very deep in the

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agriculture and ag tech space, which

is, you mentioned the wool micron.

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Tell me a little bit more

about what you're doing there.

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danielle: Yeah.

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So farmers, this has come direct from

farmers, which is really exciting.

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It's something they needed, they

wanted, they asked us to solve for them.

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And so using the same spectral technology,

uh, we've created a smartphones get thrown

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around and whereas a handheld device.

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The sheep kicks it out of

your hand, then it's okay.

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Uh, lots of dust, lots of

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pete: I need one of them for my

children, by the way, can I just

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say, but that's a side note.

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I'll have to write that one down

for another time, but anyway,

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sorry, sorry to interrupt.

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danielle: that's okay.

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So yeah, so, um, a device that enables

farmers to know real time what the micron

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is, and like you said in the intro, it's

incredible information that enables them

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to decide what sheeps are most productive.

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It creates sustainability on their farm.

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It's creating more.

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ability for these wool farms to, um,

succeed and therefore create sustainable

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clothing for us as a global planet.

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So it's, it's an amazing, I guess,

ecosystem to work in and the

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farmers are just so welcoming.

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pete: Yeah.

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Oh, that sounds fascinating.

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And I love that that's come

straight from the farmers.

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I want to understand that problem a

little bit more though, particularly

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not being deep in the ag space myself.

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I'd love to really know why that

was kind of top of the list for them

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and maybe trying to understand a

little bit more, like without that

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technology, what farmers would be

doing to solve that particular problem.

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danielle: Yeah.

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So I think the reason for such a

market that needs it is that, um,

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currently they are either snipping wool

off and sending it away in the post.

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And so what that means is that.

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It's labor over a number of days to

get all those samples, put them into

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envelopes, mark them, send them off, wait

three days to three weeks for the results.

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Then you have to go back and

match them with those individual

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sheet and make a decision.

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So there's that aspect.

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So that's one way.

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Another way is visual.

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So, eyes and fingers,

and yes, that's amazing.

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There are some incredibly

skilled people who can do that.

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There are other people out there

that we're working with who

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aren't as skilled and would like

some help with that technology.

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And then there is technology out there.

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It's amazing.

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It's amazing technology considering

it was developed over 25 years

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ago, but there's only, you know, a

handful of those for 26, 000 farmers.

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So only a small select, um,

amount of farmers actually get the

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opportunity to bring that technology

on farm to use during breeding

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decisions or to use when plasting.

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pete: Yeah, yeah.

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I get that.

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That would be remarkably more efficient.

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And I'll.

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I would think, because going from my

experience in other industries like

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healthcare, if you're The more people

you're getting involved, and if you're

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physically sending stuff, I guess you're

more prone to error, and stuff falling

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through the cracks, and things, samples

getting lost, and people punching

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data into the wrong, bits, I guess.

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Is that kind of similar

in this space as well?

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danielle: You bring me back to

one of the farmers we worked on

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last year and she's like, you kept

transposing this number wrong.

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I had to go back and

correct it afterwards.

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So I'm, you know, there were four of

us there and we made so many mistakes

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because you've got, you know, sheep

that you're trying to navigate.

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You've got people that you're

trying to navigate and you've

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got unskilled labor coming on.

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So Anything that we can do to help the

farmers, they work such long hours,

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they work really hard and they really

care about the sheep and the wool.

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If we can help their profitability,

then yeah, it's fantastic for everyone.

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pete: Yeah, I definitely see that in terms

of being able to do that more efficiently.

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That makes a lot of sense.

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I think about then, whether it's, you

know, uh, different skilled workforce

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and busy farmers that are trying to

do this, I imagine one element for

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you would be to make sure that you're

creating something that's not a burden

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or an extra step for them to do.

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So if anything, you'd

want it actually to be.

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Easy, an easier process, like they,

they can't be standing there hovering

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over a device, for half the day.

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They need to be quickening.

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Is that, am I kind of on the right path?

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danielle: Absolutely.

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Which is why we've segued

into that handheld device.

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So for usability, it really needs

to be robust, quick, and it can just

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sit on their, their belt, pull it

up, do a test, put it back on their

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belt and get on with their day.

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They've got their hands free.

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Um, so yeah, you're spot on.

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pete: Yeah.

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Excellent.

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And we also talked about some of the

benefit in, the, the data that's, taken

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from say the samples if done in the

traditional way, but is there benefit

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in having this information in real time?

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danielle: Yeah, so when you get to

actually sale of wool, the, difference

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in micron, um, groupings essentially

can actually influence how much

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money they make at wool harvest.

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Now, bear in mind, they've grown

this wool with the sheep all year

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round, so they've worked hard to

feed them, look after their sheep.

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They have one chance to make revenue

before those sheep go back out into the

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paddock and start the whole process again.

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So The more information we can give

them at that stage, the more help we

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can give all classes, anything that we

can do to help them get that grouping

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the best it possibly can be for sale

could mean the difference between one

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bale being worth a couple of thousand

dollars to one bale being worth 10, 000.

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You know, there could be such a big

difference depending on the micron.

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pete: Wow.

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And surely, we're talking about a, quite

a specific use case, an important one,

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but a specific one around wool micron.

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Does it, is there application

for this outside of wool?

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danielle: I was just on a phone

call yesterday with a lady

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who has Angora goats, so that

would be in the mohair space.

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We already have people on our wait

list, so what's really exciting is we

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actually have over 2 million sheep on

our wait list, so we count sheep, not

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people, and we have sheep, but we've

also attracted goats, um, and yeah,

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so it's not just in the space of wool.

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We're starting with wool.

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We're going to succeed there first,

but we already have in our future

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roadmap multiple applications in that.

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pete: Yeah.

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Interesting.

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And so, Danielle, there's lots of

really cool problems to, to solve

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and, and it's exciting to hear about

the potential to broaden it out.

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Zondi and where you're at with the whole

journey, um, is it that you need to, to

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actually realize some of these things?

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You know, you've got the big

sheep weight list and you've got

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all these other kinds of things.

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What, what needs to happen for

you to start kind of scaling this?

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danielle: Yeah.

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So, um, the first thing I'd say is if you

know any sheep farmers, um, just let them

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know about Zondi and they can go on our

website and find our waitlist and join up.

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We're growing it every day.

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And then secondly, you know, we have

lots of conversations, currently

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with investors and we have gained

investment to date and we're growing.

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exponentially.

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And so we're talking to

more investors currently.

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So yeah, in that space, if

anyone, you know, is interested

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in Zondi, then very exciting.

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pete: And it's a.

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It's interesting hearing that journey

too, like traditionally from the

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food and the health side and then

moving across into, deeper into the

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agricultural space, listening to farmers

and getting that engagement early on.

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So I think that's a really

important element with getting

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those stakeholders involved.

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pulling all this together and it

must be an inspiring vision for

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you about that list of things

that are possible and can be done.

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But what, what, what's on the

priority list for you, Danielle,

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over the next 6, 12, 24?

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danielle: Yeah.

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So we've got focus on wool right now.

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We want to just get that absolutely

amazing for the farmers and something

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that actually makes a difference for them.

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And then in the background, we've

already been running a whole heap

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of food related trials and products.

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And so in the next, you know, 24 months,

I want to see that app out there, for.

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customers and buyers of produce so

that they can validate that produce,

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authenticate it, even, you know, find

out where it was grown, which is really

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exciting in that traceability space.

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pete: Lots of cool opportunities there.

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Well, look, Daniel, we'll put the details

for Zondi in the show notes of this

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episode for people to check out and get

in touch if they're keen to learn more or

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know of those that might be interested.

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Daniel, appreciate your time.

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Thank you so much.

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danielle: Thank you, Peter.