GreenSight Agronomics acquires TurfCloud

GreenSight Agronomics, a 3-year-old drone services and solutions provider, has acquired Turf Cloud, expanding GreenSight’s ability to deliver more data, actionable information and efficiencies to turf managers across North America.

GreenSight’s primary business centers on remote sensing and analysis. Daily drone flights, using thermal and multispectral cameras, deliver actionable data that helps course superintendents reduce water consumption, improve irrigation task labor and achieve better outcomes with fewer fungicide, pesticide and fertilizer applications. The firm’s proprietary software also interprets drone-gathered data related to thermal mapping and soil temperature.

“This system was developed in conjunction with some of the most respected golf course superintendents in North America to help turf managers make better, more nuanced decisions,” said GreenSight CEO James Peverill. “Our primary emphasis here is the delivery of practical, time-sensitive data every day — to help identify and prevent turf issues supers wouldn’t otherwise detect for a few days.

“We’re equally focused on creating efficiencies, which explains our new partnership with Turf Cloud. Superintendents need a practical way to store and apply GreenSight data — in addition to all the other data turf managers gather and rely upon. The Turf Cloud dashboard enables superintendents to store that data in a single place, organize it, make it accessible for analysis, then deploy it effectively.”

Turf Cloud was founded in 2015 by a pair of working course superintendents, Jason VanBuskirk and Stephen Ohlson. Turf Dash, the firm’s proprietary dashboard, now integrates GreenSight’s drone data into the company’s three core programs:

• CourseTrakk: a digital job board embedded right on the Turf Dash that helps supers manage and monitor ongoing labor allocations;
• EquipTrakk: a digital log book that allows superintendents and equipment managers to keep tabs on equipment coming into the shop for routine maintenance or emergency repairs; and
• AgTrakk: which allows supers, their assistants or any staff member to input and monitor all agricultural practices performed each day, each week, each month, each year.

“This is the sort of a data that most supers attempt to gather, analyze and deploy right now — but superintendents know better than anyone just how much time that requires,” said Ohlson, now GreenSight’s vice president of product development. “Turf Dash streamlines the process for entire crews by digitizing the data and storing all of it in a single accessible place. This technology (and the time it saves) enables far better analysis of this information.

“The data GreenSight is now providing to course superintendents is such a game-changer. Integrating that information into the Turf Cloud dashboard and partnering with GreenSight made all the sense in the world.”