TECHNOLOGY: The Lille start-up Sencrop, has already installed some 500 weather sensors throughout the Gironde
- These weather sensors placed in the vineyard plots make it possible to anticipate episodes of frost or hail, and above all to refine the treatments with phytosanitary products.
- These sensors can operate in a network, with winegrowers being able to share information with each other when their plots are located close to each other.
- Some 1,700 sensors have been installed throughout Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Anticipate the risk of frost, intervene more quickly to fight against diseases … “With the precision of the data, we can also act on such and such an area, and more necessarily on the whole estate” assures this winegrower. The Bordeaux wine producers adopt more weather stations solution developed by the start-up Lille Sencrop.
Launched in January 2016, Sencrop today claims to be the French leader in weather sensors for agriculture and viticulture. With 80 employees, it is even expanding throughout Western Europe.
Territorial network
In the Gironde, some 500 stations have already been installed, including 80 just for winegrowers in the Médoc. Across New Aquitaine, 1,700 stations now equip farmers and winegrowers. Such a territorial network allows winegrowers to use the sensors of their neighbours, professionals thus sharing information between them.
Sencrop’s sensors provide finer data than those offered by traditional weather applications. “Sensors are measuring instruments, whereas the solutions you find on apps are modelling instruments, which does not give the same precision,” explains Sencrop sales manager Nicolas Maupu. Our solution allows the winegrower to make good decisions on a daily basis in his plots, knowing that the weather is a key factor and that it is really very local. In the same circle of a few kilometres, there can be variations which change absolutely everything. ”
The cost of the station of around 600 euros
In the Médoc, Château Blaignan has equipped its 103 ha estate with a Sencrop station. The operations manager, Boris Diallo explains that it allows him “to have ultra-precise weather forecasts, as well as to keep a precise history of the rainfall or the wind” on his vineyard. “This will allow me to show what treatment I applied on such day, with much wind, which is important to show that I am complying with the regulations. “The operations manager believes, however, that” it is above all a decision-making tool to best position such processing. For example, this prevents me from treating too early in the day if there is too much humidity, that is to say at a time when the products may not adhere and be washed out. »The cost of the weather station is around 600 euros,
Responsible for Nouvelle-Aquitaine at Sencrop, Damien Philipon specifies that the start-up “equips wine growers directly, or wine groups, who will mesh a territory and share all the information” to their members.
