Case Study: Organic Valley boosts pasture utilization with Planet satellite imagery

How Organic Valley Leverages Planet Data for Sustainable Ag Practices

Organic Valley, a national organic food cooperative of small family farms, needed to modernize its pasture management. The traditional method of manually measuring forage for its intensive rotational grazing system was extremely time-consuming and prone to error. To help farmers meet USDA grazing requirements more efficiently, Organic Valley partnered with vendor Planet to find a technology-driven solution using satellite imagery.

Planet provided its satellite imagery and Professional Services to develop an automated solution. This system used Planet’s Data and Orders APIs to select the best daily imagery, which was then used to generate paddock-level reports on pasture health and estimated biomass for farmers. The solution removed the subjectivity of manual measurements and saved farmers significant time. As a result, Organic Valley expects its farmers to achieve at least a 20% increase in pasture utilization. The pilot program was so successful that the cooperative is planning a major expansion of the technology to its entire membership.

Organic Valley

Greg Brickner

Veterinarian and Grazing Specialist