ASTUR Straškov a.s. was established in the Ústí nad Labem Region in 2001. It is the result of a gradual evolution of the Straškov Agricultural Cooperative, which itself was a merger of several previous cooperatives, such as Straškov, Bříza, Račiněves, Přestavlka and Nízkébohy. The organization currently holds 3330 ha of land. One notable buyer of their production is the Plzeň Brewery, which buys malting barley from the farm.
‚‚We save on material costs because the app helps us apply the principles of Precision Agriculture to our fertilization process.’’
Astur Straskov is located in the Usti nad Labem region of the Czech Republic. Their crop production includes malting barley, sugar beets, wheat, sunflowers, as well as some others. They also raise pigs and cattle. Other commercial activities include mechanization, construction consultancy, and joinery.
The farm is located in one of the driest areas inside the Czech Republic. In 2016 they began their cooperation with CleverFarm to help improve the cultivated land and natural conditions. The main goal was to be more efficient, so they implemented IoT sensors as well as meterological stands in the fields and inside their storage areas. They also streamlined their land management with the CleverAssets application.
Cooperation with CleverFarm led to the installation of 2 meteorological stands (equipped with leaf- moisture sensors), 3 temperature sensors, several sensors installed in their fields, and 17 rod sensors in their post-harvest storage halls. As with any post-harvest storage, they used to have a high risk of developing pests or mold. But by adding the 17 rod sensors, they were able not only to fight against this problem, but were able to replace their existing system of conventional thermometers and hygrometers.
Because the sensors are automatically monitoring important measurements (e.g. temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, atmospheric pressure, etc.), the farm was able to set up their irrigation system much more precisely. By having sensors spread across different cadastral areas, they were able to calculate total amounts of precipitation and set up smart fertilization systems (calculating how much fertilizer to apply, and where). The CleverFarm sensors are transmitting their measurements to the cloud every 15 minutes, which can be conveniently viewed inside the CleverFarm app. Our sensors measure changes of temperature, which can be a major indicator that some problem may be developing. This allows Astur Straškov to investigate and resolve the problem quickly – before major damage occurs. Not only is this a more effective solution, but it also saves them time because they can monitor the measurements in the app instead of having to go through each hall to check manually (which often results in insufficient harvest protection). This allows them to store a harvest longer, which often leads to higher selling prices. Another important factor in Astur Straškov’s comprehensive IoT solution are the metreological stations which we installed out in their fields. Among other things, they can measure the amount of moisture on the leaves of the crops. This measurement can predict important risks such as the occurrence of fungal diseases on wheat, which when left untreated, can wipe out up to 60% of the entire crop.
