The Cropify team from left: Grain quality officer Bec Spence; senior machine learning engineer Antonios Perperidis; grain quality manager Jade Saunders; grain quality officer Lachlan Dyer; principal engineer Grant Osborne; chief technology officer Aaron Lane; chief operations officer Andrew Hannon and CEO Anna Falkiner.

SOUTH Australian start-up Cropify is preparing to run the first commercial trials of its AI grain-sampling hardware and software in May.

Initial trials will visually grade red lentils at three sites in Victoria’s Wimmera: ETG’s Wimpak at Minyip, and Shannon Brothers and PB Seeds, both in Horsham.

Started by husband-and-wife team Andrew Hannon and Anna Falkiner in 2019, Cropify is looking to expand its trials into desi chickpeas in Queensland and New South Wales around September.

“We will start approaching potential trial partners for desi chickpeas in the coming weeks,” Ms Falkiner, Cropify chief executive officer, said.

“We’re in the midst of launching in Australia, locking in our commercial trials before we start signing up customers.”

Saving time, cutting emissions

Cropify’s Adelaide-based team has grown to nine, including the founders, and Ms Falkiner said their offering promises to drastically cut the amount of time the grower or carrier needs to spent at the sample stand.

In line with Grain Trade Australia standards, Ms Falkiner said a 200g lentil sample can take more than 20 minutes to assess using the traditional visual method.

“That’s looking at what’s above and below the sieve, dehulled grain, colour, insect damage, chipped and broken grain, and mould.”

Cropify testing works through a sample being scattered on to a tray and put into the unit for AI assessment.

“The biggest gain is efficiency; we estimate it will take seven minutes.”

Cropify has done extensive in-house testing of its red lentil software. Photo: Cropify

Cropify is expecting to lease its units to customers, who can then select testing modules from a suite which is expected to include faba beans and field peas, as well as chickpeas and lentils, further down the track.

“It will be hardware as a service, which will include the software.

“We’ve had interest from corporate farmers through to end users.

Ms Falkiner said Cropify’s ability to lower the carbon footprint of sample testing was a plus for the broader industry.

“It reduces a lot of those diesel emissions from trucks idling at the receival site while the driver waits for results to come back.

“That’s a big get for the ag sector, and Cropify can also eliminate the need for single-use plastic bags to store samples.”

Cropify chief operating officer Andrew Hannon, Emmertech partner Rob Russell, Canada, and Mandalay Venture Partners co-founder Mark Gustowski at EvokeAg 2025 in Brisbane. Photo: Emma Alsop

With their high per-tonne value, and the crucial role they play in SA and Vic rotations, Ms Falkiner said lentils have been the obvious place to start.

“Pulses are worth so much more per tonne than cereals, and they’re much harder to grade.”

“We will get to cereals, but it’s not a priority at this stage.”

Cropify initially received some funding from the SA Government-funded Australian Institute for Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide.

It also received support from the SA Government’s AgTech Growth fund to develop a classification system for small red lentils as the prototype for objective measurement of other pulses.

The company’s initial investors were SA and Victorian pulse growers, as well as some agribusinesses, and Brisbane-based Mandalay Venture Partners and Singapore-based Hatcher+ came on board last year.