Alterra Innovation is testing and validating their GrainTracker system at EMILI’s Innovation Farms powered by AgExpert, allowing them to develop the technology more quickly and foster collaborations with agtech companies like Phason, Elmer’s Manufacturing, and TheoryMesh.
Alterra Innovation’s GrainTracker is both a traceability and crop management system. It allows farmers to track every movement of their grain, from field to bin to market. It also uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to optimize crop production year over year, making it easy for farmers to record the value and quality of their crops each season and adjust their input plans as needed.
Before this digitization, farmers relied on paper records and whiteboards to track their inventory and crop management, which comes with the risk of human error or lost files. GrainTracker makes it possible for farmers to capture real-time inventory movements and collect integral crop data with minimal manual entry. Farmers have the ability to access everything through the GrainTracker app.
Ellery Burton demonstrating GrainTracker at EMILI’s Innovation Farms.
When first building the technology, Alterra Innovation Founder and CEO, Ellery Burton, understood his strengths and limitations. Burton grew up on a mixed farm in Central Manitoba before studying mechanical engineering at the Royal Military College and working as an engineering officer and pilot in the Canadian Armed Forces. Along with his co-founder, Colin Rosengren, Burton knew they were solving a real problem, but neither he nor Rosengren were electrical engineers. They needed to find the right partners to build durable hardware that could withstand the elements of the farm.
That’s where Phason came in, an agtech company specializing in electronic control systems for the agriculture sector. By collaborating with Phason, they were able to design and build a durable electronic control system that could be attached to farm equipment like combines, augers, grain trucks, and bins.
Alterra Innovation’s GrainTracker control system installed on equipment at Innovation Farms.
To validate the GrainTracker technology, Burton brought their product to EMILI’s Innovation Farms to test it in a commercial farm setting. Through this collaboration, Alterra Innovation was able to partner with Elmer’s Manufacturing, a farm equipment manufacturer with over 40 years of experience. During the 2024 season, GrainTracker was installed on an Elmer’s Manufacturing Haulmaster grain cart and Hive Motherbin carts to track the movement of harvested grain.
“We were able to integrate with Elmer’s and have open discussions with them about what it might look like working together moving forward,” Burton said. “That’s probably my favourite story… having different industry partners and the chance to bump into each other at Innovation Farms.”
GrainTracker control system installed on an Elmer’s Manufacturing grain bin.
GrainTracker was further enhanced by partnering with TheoryMesh, another EMILI collaborator. TheoryMesh’s platform tracks commodities at the point of sale, and provides data to buyers on how a crop is grown and stored. By integrating TheoryMesh’s software with GrainTracker, the system is able to provide a full picture of the grain value chain.
“I think of these partners as part of our team because we’ve worked so closely together,” said Burton.
The collaborations have paid off. Once the seed of an idea, GrainTracker has developed into a scaleable, commercialized technology that has been fully deployed on three Canadian farms. They have also deployed individual components of GrainTracker on a fourth farm in Manitoba. Burton is proud that GrainTracker can provide farmers with both immediate and long term value. Right out of the gate, farmers have the benefit of tracking the movement of their crop and automating inventory records. In the long run, GrainTracker can help farmers optimize the value and quality of their crop to improve their bottom line.
For the 2026 season, Burton is excited to continue building momentum around GrainTracker. He explained how GrainTracker can be adapted to most crops grown in Canada, and could be used in European markets where the EU Deforestation Regulation is tracking whether food products are produced on deforested land. Burton said they are considering expanding into vineyard operations, and have even heard from a company wanting to trace ethically sourced cotton.
“It’s exciting,” he says, “to know that people are interested in the product and that we’re solving problems. We’re bringing solutions to problems that we didn’t even know about.”
Visit EMILI’s Innovation Farms to learn more about this project and other activities. EMILI hosts field tours and demonstrations on Innovation Farms throughout the season to showcase new agricultural technology, expand innovation opportunities, and increase understanding and adoption of digital tools.