Originally sceptical about the need for Artificial Intelligence (AI) tech to help inform disease management in his vineyard in Orange in the Central West of NSW, Charles Simons is now a convert.

And at the 2024 Digital Agrifood Summit in Wagga Wagga in late October shared his experiences of implementing AI on his property and others.

Four years ago, Charles began working as a consultant with agtech company BioScout, trying the automated disease detection system in the vineyard. 

Fungal diseases such as botrytis, powdery mildew and downy mildew reduce the yield and quality of grapes, impacting the quality of the wine – and spraying is used to prevent infection and to control disease.

BioScout sensors collect samples from the air, the microscopic particles are photographed, then AI compares them to a database of pathogen images.

Throw in real time environmental data and weather forecasts plus some more AI, and growers can track the risk of fungal diseases in crops, allowing for more timely spray applications.

“My first reaction, like many other farmers who use AI, was I don’t need this,” Charles says.

But he explains the system has helped in cost saving and crop saving across the vineyard.

“In a particularly bad year for fungal disease I probably saved about four spray rounds. It might not have been the most expensive chemical, but the cost involved in time, machinery, labour and diesel in spraying every single row in the vineyard adds up,” he explains.

“Last year I managed to save my grapes by spraying more often because the system was telling me it was needed.”

While other growers lost crops, Charles was able to harvest, make wine and ensure continuity of supply.

Charles is now the chief sales officer for BioScout.

“I realised AI’s not here to take my job away as a viticulturist, but it is there to give me another bit of ammo which I can use in my arsenal to make constructive, environmentally conscious decisions.”