Meet The Cohort
FarmBiddy
FarmBiddy
As part of our AI Venture Forge “Meet the Cohort” series, we’re excited to introduce FarmBiddy, a smart assistant built specifically for the day-to-day realities of modern farming. Designed to reduce the burden of paperwork and streamline daily operations, FarmBiddy acts as an always-available companion that fits naturally into the farmer’s workflow. From live weather updates to real-time market price feeds, it keeps users informed and ready to act – so they can spend less time on admin and more time in the field.
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Company | Farming AI
What motivated you to create a virtual farming advisor?
The idea came from watching my brother and his buddies struggle. They work part-time but still run their family farms managing cattle and land in the evenings and weekends. I’d see them trying to remember what needed doing, juggling different websites for weather, cattle prices, and grant compliance deadlines. That’s when I realised farmers who know their trade inside and out are being held back by technology that doesn’t work the way they work. They need information when their hands are dirty, when they are walking fields, when they are actually farming. They are bogged down in administrative paperwork and yet they are mostly not using planning tools and they tell me everything is in their heads.
I considered how easy it was to use Alexa, getting answers and controlling appliances while moving around the house. Why couldn’t farmers have that same natural interaction where they could just ask Biddy “What’s my priority today ?” or “What fertiliser do I need to put on the back field ?”
I am motivated to give farmers a connected inteligent technology that works alongside them integrating many data points, so they can spend less time on their laptops and more time actually farming.
How does FarmBiddy transform decision-making for farmers?
FarmBiddy turns scattered information into instant decisions. Instead of farmers spending time checking weather apps or trying to remember how long cattle have been in a specific pasture, they simply ask “Hey Biddy, should I move the cattle?” and they get a complete answer in seconds.
Biddy combines weather, pasture rotation, market conditions, soil samples and farm specific knowledge into one recommendation. She knows his cattle are due for TB testing next week and that its time to sow his corn. What used to be multiple decisions based on different data sources becomes one conversation.
The real transformation is from reactive to proactive farming. Instead of discovering problems after they happen, rather than worrying about GLAS deadlines, farmers get proactive reminders: “Your GLAS application is due in two weeks, and you need to complete the habitat survey first.” It’s decision making that matches how farmers work, hands-free, contextual, and based on deep understanding of their specific operation.
What’s the biggest challenge you solve for the agricultural sector?
The biggest challenge is that farming has become an information management job instead of an agricultural job. Farmers are spending more time organising their farm than actually farming.
Farming has become more sophisticated, requiring farmers to plan more and trace and track various inputs and outputs on the farm. They need to track weather patterns, monitor market prices, manage cash flow, create farming plans, manage compliance for multiple schemes, coordinate with contractors, schedule veterinary visits, and maintain detailed records for everything. They’re juggling with different apps and drowning in paperwork, all while trying to make time sensitive decisions about livestock and crops.
FarmBiddy solves this by giving farmers back their time, making it possible for farmers to focus on what they trained for and love doing like reading the land, caring for animals, and growing food.
What support do you hope to gain from the Venture Forge Accelerator?
We’re looking for four critical areas of support that will accelerate FarmBiddy’s path to market.
1. AI expertise and mentorship. The programme’s network of AI Mentors are helping us avoid costly mistakes as we train models on Irish farming data and optimise voice recognition for outdoor conditions.
2. Go-to-market strategy refinement. We know farmers need FarmBiddy, but reaching them effectively is challenging. We need guidance on building trust, pricing strategies, and distribution channels that actually work in agriculture.
3. Investor readiness and connections. We’re building something that could transform Irish agriculture, but we need funding to scale beyond our initial development. The programme’s investor network and pitch refinement support could help us articulate FarmBiddy’s potential to investors who might not immediately understand agricultural markets.
4. Finally, we want to be surrounded by other founders solving hard problems with AI. The peer learning and accountability that comes from a cohort of ambitious entrepreneurs pushes us to think bigger about FarmBiddy’s potential, not just as an Irish solution, but as a platform that could serve farmers globally.
What resistance have you faced getting farmers to trust AI ?
The biggest resistance isn’t about AI, it’s about being burned by technology before. Farmers hear “AI” and think it’s either Artificial Insemination or another tech solution built by people who’ve never stepped in cow dung. I reassure them I have many times.
They want to know how they can save money or make money. I remind them that their time is money and Biddy can mostly save them time and reduce their paperwork overload. As well as support them to stay compliant with the various schemes they are part of so that they can avail of maximum grant subsidies. When I mention that FarmBiddy knows the difference between a heifer and a bullock, or understands GLAS requirements, they start listening. Farmers want control. They don’t want AI making decisions; they want better information to make their own decisions.
What is your long-term vision for FarmBiddy 12–18 months from now?
In 12-18 months, I want FarmBiddy to be as natural to Irish farmers as Alexa is to families. When farmers meet at the mart or the co-op, they’ll be sharing stories about their Biddy. “My Biddy reminded me to check the back field yesterday, saved me from a broken water pipe” or “Biddy told me to hold off selling cattle for another week and made me an extra €200 per head.”
I envision farmers developing their own inside jokes about Biddy’s personality. Maybe she’s a bit too eager about reminding them to do paperwork, or she’s got strong opinions about when to cut silage. The kind of relationship where farmers trust her advice but also give her grief when she’s wrong about the weather forecast.
I want farming families talking about how Biddy gave them back their evenings and not worrying they had forgotten something critical on the farm. The real success will be when young farmers choosing to stay on the land say Biddy made farming manageable alongside their other commitments. When the technology becomes invisible and farmers are just farming again. That’s when we’ll know we’ve built something that truly matters, not just another app, but a farming companion that’s become part of Irish agricultural culture.
