Animal feed travels a very long and winding supply chain, and up to 70% of the total cost of raising commercial animals is directly tied to the simple task of feeding the herd.
In a world where there are literally cameras and sensors everywhere that are able to measure everything, and artificial intelligence running in the background to make those cameras and sensors “smart,” it just doesn’t make sense to keep animal feed inventories on paper or Excel spreadsheets anymore.
That’s what BinSentry CEO Ben Allen, who grew up in farming on his families’ Iowa farm outside Ames says, adding: “Too many people are still taking feed inventories the way my grandfather used too.”
His company has been on the animal ag scene for seven years and has grown over 100% annually for each of the past three years, he claims, as large commercial feedlots and multinational processors like Cargill add the companies’ bin monitoring technology to automate the logistics of refilling feed bins. Allen says BinSentry’s tech is capturing imagery 24/7/365 on more than 40,000 feed lots across the U.S. and Canada.
BinSentry recently secured a $50 million Series C investment round, led by the No. 1 growth equity fund in the U.S., Lead Edge Capital. Allen says his company will use the funds to, among other projects, expand its technology and operational reach further into South America and Brazil, where BinSentry has an exclusive distribution agreement with Cargill.
“We install a camera sensor at the top of the bin, it’s solar powered and has cellular connectivity and only takes 15 minutes to install, and we can start getting high accuracy inventory reports throughout the day,” Allen says. “That data goes directly into our software where we do a lot more than just inventory.”
Allen says the company uses the real-time bin monitoring data to run analytics mainly to inform the logistics side of the feed operation, and it can also send preventative maintenance alerts if it sees something happening inside the bin that could potentially be a problem. While not as inherently dangerous as climbing into large grain storage bins in the row crop world, manual monitoring is a laborious and risky task that would be better left to technology components if possible.
“We have been working with AI since the founding of the company, and we use it in a very tactical and operational way,” he explains. “Our consumption forecasts are always updating with our AI algorithms; it’s constantly adjusting to conditions like the biological variables of animals and the weather. We can really dial things in and get precise, so you can take better care of your animals, burn less diesel fuel, and then you need less workers.”
Besides Cargill, BinSentry is also working with Wayne Sanderson Farms, The Hanor Company, and Maple Leaf Foods. The company is moving at a breakneck pace, installing between 2,500 and 3,000 new sensors per 30 days, and it has its own service and maintenance teams to keep systems running and the customers happy.
“Our focus is to scale up now — because we’re growing like crazy,” Allen says. “That’s because we solve real, operational problems and we cut costs immediately. Our customer ROI is high and fast; the only way you grow this quickly (in agriculture) is by solving real problems for real people.
“We’re excited about our progress and excited about what we can do in the future, and that excitement centers around being more efficient within the animal feed supply chain, we feel like that’s a good story, because we’re helping create economic and environmental sustainability.”
You can read more about BinSentry’s funding raise here and learn more about the company at BinSentry.com.
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