Colin Brown came up with a product to solve a specific Kiwi problem: how to accurately map and report the efficient spreading of fertiliser on New Zealand farms.

So what is he doing talking to Unlimited down the line from North America? Brown, who has been touting his GPS products to audiences as diverse as aerial sprayers and spreaders in Canada and firefighters in San Diego, says he always planned a broader sell.

Brown set up agricultural GPS company TracMap in 2005 after seeing a gap in the market for a hard-wearing, easy-to-use GPS guidance and mapping system specifically designed for New Zealand conditions. The initial focus was on fertiliser contractors, and around half the trucks spreading fertiliser in New Zealand now use TracMap systems. Ian Gilliver, operations manager at the country’s largest fertiliser spreading business, Wealleans, says using TracMap systems has boosted drivers’ productivity by about 15%. Drivers previously spread material by eye and it used to take new drivers a couple of years to become sufficiently experienced, says Gilliver. TracMap systems, however, allow new drivers to work efficiently straight away, and have also improved the accuracy and efficiency of experienced drivers. “It has sped up and improved the spread patterns out of sight,” Gilliver says.

Brown says growth at the Mosgiel-based company is presently occurring among pastoral farmers, particularly large dairy farms employing several staff, and in the agricultural aviation industry. And more recently the company has been making inroads into markets outside agriculture, looking more broadly at those operating machinery in challenging outdoor environments — the guys that mow or spray grass verges for local councils, for example.

Ease of use differentiates TracMap products from those of its competitors, he says, and that’s helping the company break new ground as many customers are not computer literate. “It doesn’t matter if you’re driving a four foot-wide mower at four miles an hour watching out for cars, or a 15-tonne truck driving at 30 miles per hour around the side of a hill or a helicopter flying at 80 knots above a crop — it’s a hazardous place to be and you need to be focused on what you’re doing and not be distracted by the technology.”

TracMap’s fast growth emphasises the opportunities for the company. Staff now number 18 and Brown expects this year’s turnover of around $2 million to double next year. Last year it was listed as the country’s eighth fastest-growing company, with 560% revenue growth over the three years from 2007 to 2009.

Before setting up TracMap, Brown was a senior agricultural consultant for Wrightson (now PGG Wrightson). The role afforded him a helicopter view of the pressures and trends facing New Zealand farming and, in particular, he saw a need for us to up our game in the efficient and appropriate use of fertiliser.

“Overseas customers are increasingly requiring our farmers to prove their farming systems are environmentally responsible,” explains Brown. “I saw that if we were to prevent these requirements becoming an important non-tariff trade barrier, we needed to have a simple and low-cost method of electronically capturing and reporting fertiliser and chemical applications to our farms.”

And like many industries, the need to boost productivity was also pressing. Existing GPS guidance systems came from overseas and were designed for broad acre cropping rather than the hilly paddocks of New Zealand. And modern trucks were capable of spreading fertiliser much more accurately than could be judged by the eye.

As an agriculturalist, Brown didn’t know anything about electronic design or programming. But he had experience in technology transfer projects, market knowledge and some money behind him to take advantage of the market opportunity he saw.

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