WOODSTOCK – Startup companies developing products for the farm sector need to keep two important things in mind, says Matt Stevens, chief executive officer of a robotics firm and a commercial Norfolk County apple grower.

The startups need to focus on making it easy for farmers to integrate the innovation into their operations, and they need to make it affordable for farm customers to buy from them.

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“Sometimes those things are forgotten,” Stevens said during a panel discussion on technology at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show. “Sometimes someone builds a really, really cool product that is nearly impossible for a farmer to buy.”

Stevens said his company, Finite Robotics, kept these principles in mind when it decided to concentrate on developing a robot for thinning fruit tr

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