July 8, 2026 • 7 mins
It’s Innovation Week thanks to Herd-i. Today, we catch up with the managing director of Prism Earth on using AI, satellite imagery and geospatial data to measure natural capital on farms. Plus, unlocking carbon, biodiversity and market access opportunities for farmers.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Innovation Week on the Country with Heard Eye Score, Leaneness
and BCS Every Cow every Day powered by AI. Welcome
back into the Country. Of course, Technology Week with a
Heard Eye. Prism Earth took home the Technology and Innovation
Award for developing a system that helps New Zealand's primary
(00:21):
sector comply with European Union strict deforestation regulations. And look,
it helps with the export market there, but that's not
the only thing. There's so many other things here that
they do. They have this capability to a document in
some detailed landscapes, catchment scale, farm scale, all that sort
of thing, and really look at the land use problem.
(00:42):
To look at this further, We're joined on the show
by Managing director Matt Lithe.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Goody, Matt, Hello, very good to be here. Thanks for
your tom.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Great have you fairly comprehensive, isn't it this prism Earth.
You've got a lot going on, sort of if you
can sort of I guess cut to the chase of
what it is that you're really targeting.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, sure thing. Look it is a big it is
a big space. We really I guess look at the
meatural capital across New Zealand farms and by natural capital
I'm talking you know, vegetation, your shrublands, your waterways, your
pasture land, eu Ropeian margins, or your agro forestry assets,
and how they can be best used by the farmer,
(01:24):
you know, to enhance productivity in production, but also help
the processor or the dairy company, the commodity seller attribute
those products with the assets from the from the farm
that they're sourced from. So that requires us really looking
in detail at those farming landscapes and provide ready that
(01:45):
inventory capability to help both sides of the equation the
farmer com better with the land management, but also then
use that as a sale attribute.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Here we're going with the farmer uptake of technology, like
that's what's the response being to. Doesn't mean it's about
sort of like getting every last dollar out of every
square meter, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, it is. It is. Look the greater terms of
our having farm management systems for farmacs farm like you Trev,
there's there's good systems out there where a lot of
this based data exists. However, a lot of that data
there is more inputs, you know, nutrient looking at stock
counts and herd sizes and stocking rates and and sort
of you're fencing definitions. What we either sort of provide
(02:31):
the texture within those systems and that allows us to
look at is the farm kind of I guess working
in balance with nature in many cases and on our
farms are the best in the world. Right, We've got
probably the most integrated landscapes where there's there's you know,
good riperian margins, there's good waterway protection, there's shout abouts,
there's erosion control plantings, there's shade availability. But those things
(02:55):
have often gone unmeasured or not really use so much.
So to answer your question, a lot of the farm
is increasingly now understanding those parameters and enabling the supplier,
I guess the process that they might supply to to
take that information and roll it up to a larger scale.
(03:17):
Which is a sort of example that deforestation system you
touched on earlier, where we can tell the Europeans which
farms in New Zealand have had natural forest loss, and
I can get it's a very small amount, but that's
quite a key ingredient. That's a market access play for
New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's fascinating. So I'm a cocky I'm interested
in what I'm hearing I'll pick up the phone and ring.
What's the sort of what's your sort of base picture
as to how I can help you in its simplest form.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, sure, So we'd probably say to you, do you
know how much sort of carbon removal you know, CO
two removal sequestration that might be occurring on your farm.
You may you may have some pine forest, right, you
may have some ets blocks already. If you don't, there's
opportunity there. We can help you understand the signs of
that opportunity. If you supply those silver firm and farms
(04:12):
who have a net zero product range, or Fronterra who
are looking to report to Nestle emissions intensity reductions, those
companies may effectively buy your capital level as what's called
an inset, so that's an insect against their total emissions
production cost as a cooperative. Equally, the merging is biodiversity.
(04:33):
So if we find some interesting fragments of natural ecosystems
on your property, we say, look, there's potential value you
could get from those, and in fact funding to help
the fence or or remove the angulates, or or do
some weed control. They thought that's that area. Sort of
merging a weaver in terms of where the money comes from.
(04:53):
But the measurement of the assets is really the first
place to start because it gives as farm of the
control to go to the market and understand how to
then get some leverage.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Ye, how cost effective do you think this would be?
If you're describing it to me the farmer.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Look, I would say that the measurement cost is the
smaller part of the equation. Take an example of let's
say you want to restore and improve the condition of
a one hecta remnants you know, old podocarp forest within
your farm. Fencing, stock exclusion, pest control, weed control, those
things can run into the five six figures, can't they quickly?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Absolutely, so we would say, you know that the measurement
cost is probably sub sub one thousand dollars to do
a detailed measure and assessment of all that to then
say to a bank, a cooperative, or a nature investor,
and a number of the bigger corporates. You take a
Microsoft or an Amazon or an HSPC. They're looking to
(05:57):
position their services they're lending, or their you know, their
impact if you like, in the context of the positive
work you're doing as a benefit side of the ledger.
So they're offering for good nature based projects globally to
invest in. So the fifty k restoration project might be
investable you.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Know on the global fantastic So using censor data, geospatial
analytics and that visualization software and of course I guess
AI has a bit of a roll into the mix
as well.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, that's right. All that we kind of it's an
all all in type scenario. So quickly we would use
satellite imagery, aerial photography occasionally you know UAV or drowne data,
but that's pretty high, high cost. You've got to get
people on the farm and get the drone up and
manage battery time and all those things, so we try
and avoid that sort of higher cost measurement. We light
(06:51):
ours are often in the New Zealand context, there's a
lot of light around which is a laser data flown
from aircraft sometimes maybe four or five years ago by
city council or Land Information New Zealand. That's really useful
too because that gives you a three D map of
the farm landscape, right. Yeah, you can pick out your
critical source areas and look at you If the canopy
is nice and structured. It's a sign of a healthy
(07:13):
forest ecosystem. So we bring all that into an AI
framework is then sort of interpreted, and then at the
other end of the chain we put we put some
human experts to sort of hold the AI to account
if you like, right and check the quality and the condition.
And before we sort of sign off on a on
a let's say, an ecosystem service value, we put that
(07:34):
human at the end of that process to validate.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Great stuff. There we go. There is Matte Liveing, managing
director of Prison Mirth, who won the Technology and Innovation
Project Award at PINS this year.
Innovation Week on the Country with Heard Eye Score, Leaneness
and BCS Every Cow every Day powered by AI. Welcome
back into the Country. Of course, Technology Week with a
Heard Eye. Prism Earth took home the Technology and Innovation
Award for developing a system that helps New Zealand's primary
(00:21):
sector comply with European Union strict deforestation regulations. And look,
it helps with the export market there, but that's not
the only thing. There's so many other things here that
they do. They have this capability to a document in
some detailed landscapes, catchment scale, farm scale, all that sort
of thing, and really look at the land use problem.
(00:42):
To look at this further, We're joined on the show
by Managing director Matt Lithe.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Goody, Matt, Hello, very good to be here. Thanks for
your tom.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Great have you fairly comprehensive, isn't it this prism Earth.
You've got a lot going on, sort of if you
can sort of I guess cut to the chase of
what it is that you're really targeting.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, sure thing. Look it is a big it is
a big space. We really I guess look at the
meatural capital across New Zealand farms and by natural capital
I'm talking you know, vegetation, your shrublands, your waterways, your
pasture land, eu Ropeian margins, or your agro forestry assets,
and how they can be best used by the farmer,
(01:24):
you know, to enhance productivity in production, but also help
the processor or the dairy company, the commodity seller attribute
those products with the assets from the from the farm
that they're sourced from. So that requires us really looking
in detail at those farming landscapes and provide ready that
(01:45):
inventory capability to help both sides of the equation the
farmer com better with the land management, but also then
use that as a sale attribute.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Here we're going with the farmer uptake of technology, like
that's what's the response being to. Doesn't mean it's about
sort of like getting every last dollar out of every
square meter, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, it is. It is. Look the greater terms of
our having farm management systems for farmacs farm like you Trev,
there's there's good systems out there where a lot of
this based data exists. However, a lot of that data
there is more inputs, you know, nutrient looking at stock
counts and herd sizes and stocking rates and and sort
of you're fencing definitions. What we either sort of provide
(02:31):
the texture within those systems and that allows us to
look at is the farm kind of I guess working
in balance with nature in many cases and on our
farms are the best in the world. Right, We've got
probably the most integrated landscapes where there's there's you know,
good riperian margins, there's good waterway protection, there's shout abouts,
there's erosion control plantings, there's shade availability. But those things
(02:55):
have often gone unmeasured or not really use so much.
So to answer your question, a lot of the farm
is increasingly now understanding those parameters and enabling the supplier,
I guess the process that they might supply to to
take that information and roll it up to a larger scale.
(03:17):
Which is a sort of example that deforestation system you
touched on earlier, where we can tell the Europeans which
farms in New Zealand have had natural forest loss, and
I can get it's a very small amount, but that's
quite a key ingredient. That's a market access play for
New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's fascinating. So I'm a cocky I'm interested
in what I'm hearing I'll pick up the phone and ring.
What's the sort of what's your sort of base picture
as to how I can help you in its simplest form.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, sure, So we'd probably say to you, do you
know how much sort of carbon removal you know, CO
two removal sequestration that might be occurring on your farm.
You may you may have some pine forest, right, you
may have some ets blocks already. If you don't, there's
opportunity there. We can help you understand the signs of
that opportunity. If you supply those silver firm and farms
(04:12):
who have a net zero product range, or Fronterra who
are looking to report to Nestle emissions intensity reductions, those
companies may effectively buy your capital level as what's called
an inset, so that's an insect against their total emissions
production cost as a cooperative. Equally, the merging is biodiversity.
(04:33):
So if we find some interesting fragments of natural ecosystems
on your property, we say, look, there's potential value you
could get from those, and in fact funding to help
the fence or or remove the angulates, or or do
some weed control. They thought that's that area. Sort of
merging a weaver in terms of where the money comes from.
(04:53):
But the measurement of the assets is really the first
place to start because it gives as farm of the
control to go to the market and understand how to
then get some leverage.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Ye, how cost effective do you think this would be?
If you're describing it to me the farmer.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Look, I would say that the measurement cost is the
smaller part of the equation. Take an example of let's
say you want to restore and improve the condition of
a one hecta remnants you know, old podocarp forest within
your farm. Fencing, stock exclusion, pest control, weed control, those
things can run into the five six figures, can't they quickly?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Absolutely, so we would say, you know that the measurement
cost is probably sub sub one thousand dollars to do
a detailed measure and assessment of all that to then
say to a bank, a cooperative, or a nature investor,
and a number of the bigger corporates. You take a
Microsoft or an Amazon or an HSPC. They're looking to
(05:57):
position their services they're lending, or their you know, their
impact if you like, in the context of the positive
work you're doing as a benefit side of the ledger.
So they're offering for good nature based projects globally to
invest in. So the fifty k restoration project might be
investable you.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Know on the global fantastic So using censor data, geospatial
analytics and that visualization software and of course I guess
AI has a bit of a roll into the mix
as well.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, that's right. All that we kind of it's an
all all in type scenario. So quickly we would use
satellite imagery, aerial photography occasionally you know UAV or drowne data,
but that's pretty high, high cost. You've got to get
people on the farm and get the drone up and
manage battery time and all those things, so we try
and avoid that sort of higher cost measurement. We light
(06:51):
ours are often in the New Zealand context, there's a
lot of light around which is a laser data flown
from aircraft sometimes maybe four or five years ago by
city council or Land Information New Zealand. That's really useful
too because that gives you a three D map of
the farm landscape, right. Yeah, you can pick out your
critical source areas and look at you If the canopy
is nice and structured. It's a sign of a healthy
(07:13):
forest ecosystem. So we bring all that into an AI
framework is then sort of interpreted, and then at the
other end of the chain we put we put some
human experts to sort of hold the AI to account
if you like, right and check the quality and the condition.
And before we sort of sign off on a on
a let's say, an ecosystem service value, we put that
(07:34):
human at the end of that process to validate.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Great stuff. There we go. There is Matte Liveing, managing
director of Prison Mirth, who won the Technology and Innovation
Project Award at PINS this year.
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