XpertSea, a Canadian aquaculture technology company, has announced the launch of the XpertSea Growth Platform. The platform automates data collection and provides insights so that shrimp farmers can make informed data-driven decisions and maximize farm profitability.
The XpertSea Growth Platform allows farmers to collect animal data easily and often, discover and address problems early, optimize feeding regimes, predict growth, and choose the best time to harvest.
Unlike solutions that require manual data entry, the XpertSea Growth Platform builds on the capabilities of the XperCount, a portable “smart bucket” that uses optics, computer vision and machine learning to count, size, weigh and image aquatic organisms, at the press of a button. The Growth Platform leverages this data to provide actionable business insights, on a web-based dashboard that shrimp farmers can access from any device, anywhere.
The XpertSea Growth Platform tracks growth from Day One in the hatchery through nursery, grow-out and harvesting. Taking no more than a few minutes per day, the XperCount feeds automated organism data such as size and weight to the AI platform, which results in precise data about daily growth rate, feed conversion ratio, stocking density and survival rate, among others.
Leveraging deep learning and AI, the Growth Platform predicts future organism size, their weight distribution and pond composition. The harvest optimization tool then calculates factors such as average weight, weekly growth rates, and current market prices so farmers can better plan harvest times. There is also a function to add the cost of staff and feed to get a complete profit forecast for the season. This results in a data-driven scientific approach to picking the best harvest date based on peak time to sell organisms to obtain maximum revenues, while respecting engagement with food processors and end clients.
"Most importantly, this program provides you and your technicians visibility into the weight distribution that will impact your harvest,” said Sim Ing Jye, Senior Manager at Sea Horse, a fully integrated supplier to hatcheries, farms, processors and international customers. “By understanding this variation earlier, you can focus on adjusting feed parameters to increase profits for each pond, and you will have the peace of mind that there will be fewer surprises at the time of harvest."
XpertSea has accumulated millions of data points on shrimp growth, provided voluntarily by farmers around the world. By benchmarking their growth against this anonymized, aggregated data, producers get a better understanding of what they can change to improve their performance.
”The XpertSea Growth Platform is a new concept in aquaculture that has the potential to unlock significant yields for farmers,” said Valerie Robitaille, CEO and Co-Founder of XpertSea. “It replaces manual data entry with smart aquaculture equipment, artificial intelligence, and industry benchmarks. Many farmers are still using their ‘best guess’ to decide when to harvest. With the XpertSea Growth Platform they can use reliable data and growth predictions to plan the best harvest date and maximize revenues. It’s all about making more with less.”
The XpertSea Growth Platform is now available for farms and hatcheries for both shrimp and fish. It’s also configured for health, feed and genetics companies that wish to gain insights on their product efficiency at the field level. The platform is currently deployed successfully in more than 250 sites in Ecuador, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Vietnam, among others.
