Digital farming: For the organic farmer Georg, IT plays a major role

Georg Ostermaier is one of our new farmer partners this year. Like 65 other farmers, he too cultivates oats and spelt for our Krunchy. An electrical engineer with a PhD in business administration, he runs his farm in Garching as a side job. For his day job, the Biokreis farmer manages a Munich-based IT company. Decision trees develops software and mathematical models for the energy sector, particularly in the domain of hydroelectricity.

However, technology plays a major role beyond in his company. Georg Ostermaier also makes use of various systems in agricultural work – because high-tech processes help him with his organic farming. ‘IT is playing an ever more crucial role in farm management’, explains the farmer in an interview with Focus.

When it comes to planning field work, Georg relies on weather apps. He utilises online databases to assess the prices and availability of seed. But he can also research the demand for wheat, spelt, and soya beans using such databases. He offers his own crops for sale on online platforms for organic products. For Georg, therefore, quite a few things are digital.

Farmer partner Georg Ostermaier’s digital farming

But he is not alone. Digital farming is becoming more and more popular and an increasing number of farmers are employing technological aids. The next thing our farmer partner would like to do is install webcams along the fields and sensors in the earth, so that he can keep an even better eye on his farm. Because while his girlfriend Marianne tends to it full time, Georg spends most of his time at his company in Munich. In order to keep close track of everything, he employs modern technology.

‘At my main job, I do energy optimisation. My company, my staff, and I contribute to making the energy transition succeed. We will only manage to maintain our basic conditions of life if we rely much more on sustainability in such key areas as agriculture and the energy sector. That is my main motivation in everything I work on, not just in agriculture. However, this goal can only be achieved by harnessing cutting-edge technology. This spans from highly efficient optimisation algorithms and artificial intelligence for the operation of pumped-storage systems up to using camera control systems for soy hacking devices. I want to make the world more sustainable through the use of modern technology’, he explains to us.