THE 4 FACTORS OF

VERTICAL FARM SUCCESS

BRIGHT
Bright Agrotech 2017
www.zipgrow.com
 INTRODUCTION
Rapid innovation and increases in popularity of vertical farming make for a crowded,
confusing, and incredibly noisy marketplace. Unique, fresh ideas saturate the news; but the
opinion on innovations like vertical farming range from skepticism to inspiration.

And the ideas for vertical farming do vary from dreamy to legitimate. So how does one know
which ideas are worth following?

What really matters in vertical farming (as with any farming operation) is creating an
economically viable system. Such a system is based on 4 criteria: space use efficiency (and
productivity), labor costs, profitability, and environment (plant health).

This guide will cut through the noise and give a detailed comparison of the two types of
vertical farming in order to help growers and investors make important decisions and create
[economically] successful vertical farms.

SPACE USE EFFICIENCY & PRODUCTIVITY...........................................3

LABOR COSTS........................................................................................5
PROFITABILITY.........................................................................................9
ENVIRONMENT AND PLANT HEALTH...................................................10

2
 SPACE USE EFFICIENCY & PRODUCTIVITY
The most evident advantage of vertical plane production is that it maximizes space use.
This involves not only using space above the traditional horizontal plane, like many stacked
farming systems do, but utilizes the entire volume of space, from the floor up. Stacked
farms increase density of production, but it does so at the cost of low-density benefits like
usability and air movement.

The goal of high density production should be efficiency without compromising benefits of
low density production. While farmers have been climbing closer to this goal for centuries,
vertical plane farming is the next big step.

MAXIMUM USE OF SURFACE AREA

To maximize space use, growers have to maximize growing surface area within a volume
(growing specific surface area). Plants are limited by gravity because they cant grow
upside down. They can grow on top, however, and they can grow on vertical sides. So why
waste space with a plane oriented so that one side of it is useless?

Look at a horizontal growing plane. You

can only use one side of the plane. The
lights are on the other side, and plants
dont grow upside down.

Now, flip it on its side.

You have
doubled
the growing
surface
area.

3
 So what if you did grow on both sides of a horizontal plane?

Growing Access Growing & Access

Even if you DID grow on both sides of the horizontal plane, youd still be getting less out
of your farm space than vertical because: stacked production has wasted space in both
growing space and access space, while vertical production combines growing space and
access space into one.

This wasted space can be quantified with a space use efficiency ratio (production space to
floor space) or GSSA.

sq. ft. production/sq. ft. floorspace

grow space / floor space
grow space / floor space
L x W x levels / Total floorspace & aisle
H x L x 2 sides / Total floorspace & aisle

256 ft2 / 96 ft2

128 ft2 / 42.4 ft2

=2.66
=3.02

x4
*plus fewer costs
& liabilities
8

8
8
8 4
5.3
This ratio is determined by measuring the area of growing space, as well as the area of total
space. The higher the number, the more efficient your space is.
For 8 x 8 ft grow tiers, a 320/96 ratio is very good. For the 8 tall vertical plane growing
system with 4 center-to-center spacing, we can achieve a 128:48 ratio and improve on
that with tighter row spacing.
4
 REDUCED LABOR COSTS

LAYOUT AFFECTS WORKER EFFICIENCY

A farmer should maximize the number of workers able to access a layout simultaneously and
the speed and ease with which they can access crops. This cuts out waiting time and makes
efficiency much easier to achieve.

Horizontal plane growing systems

often require a person in a scissor lift to
service one row of tiers and spend time
moving up and down. Scissor lifts are
cumbersome, expensive, dangerous,
and block access.

A vertical plane growing setup allows

workers to access any row they need
without bulky equipment. Aisle widths
and growing equipment on wheels
make it simple to accommodate
multiple workers at once. Some vertical
techniques allow workers at ground
level to access and care for crops at
all heights, eliminating the need for a
scissor lift.

USING A MANUFACTURING APPROACH REDUCES LABOR COSTS

The farm workers process accounts for much of the cost of production. Especially in
larger facilities, streamlining and simplifying the process will have a tremendous im-
pact on labor costs.

5
 In a typical greenhouse, workers and In a manufacturing process, the product is
processes move to the growing area. moved from process to process until it is done.

What if we started treating vegetables, greens, and other produce like a manufactured product,
being moved to and through processes like planting, trimming, pest control and maintenance,
harvesting, etc., instead of staying stationary and having those processes brought to the product
by workers?

VERTICAL PLANE PRODUCTION FAVORS SAFETY & COMPLIANCE

Another benefit of growing on a vertical plane is that it makes compliance processes and
safeguards easier to create and maintain, because all processes can be applied in a very
targeted way.

The product can be

moved and consolidated
for treatment, and rolled
into special areas for
cleaning.

Traditional farms grow in large growing environments with few to no partitions. When crops may
be grown in modular units, however, they can be treated autonomously. Farmers are able to log
more accurately on a unit by unit basis. This is better for compliance, better for food safety, and
better for pest management.

6
MAINTENANCE
? ?
? ?
?

?
?

Vertical plane growing also streamlines the maintenance process. In vertical plane farms,
workers can see and identify problems easier than with horizontal plane production.

Workers can also physically access and treat problems easier with vertical plane production.
Its important that your workers are enabled to easily interact with the plants, because:
Workflows and ease of labor affect product quality, and ultimately profit.

And any business owner, manager, employee, etc. knows that when a task is very
inconvenient, corners are cut. When using scissor lifts these are tasks like monitoring,
cleaning, and maintenance.

good
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Product
product

faulty
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 ? Product product

This introduces Opportunity Costs- the costs of the tasks not done, which cause losses. For
example, if a worker skips monitoring the top levels, a fungal pathogen may go unnoticed for
longer. This causes crop losses, and some inventory is lost.

7
If its difficult for people to do things, they wont do them, and quality suffers as a result. This
friction makes labor quality a product quality issue.

MODULARITY ALLOWS EASIER BUILDING & SCALING

We have already established the benefits of modularity for maintaining the farm. Another
benefit of modularity is its ability to scale up.

When a farm is made up

of modules, the scaling
unit size is smaller, which
makes it easier to grow
farms incrementally with
less cost.

unit unit

Where in horizontal plane production, scaling up entails adding pallet racks, an entire rack
structure at a time. When scaling modular vertical plane systems, scaling up is as simple as
wheeling another unit onto the production floor.

Birds eye view of growing space

This modularity also

allows growers to fill a
space more precisely.

Horizontal plane production

8
Vertical plane production
 PROFITABILITY
COST ($) / OUTPUT ($)

HEIGHT (IN TIERS) COST ($) / LEVEL

HEIGHT (IN TIERS)

More volume is not always better; how you fill your space dictates labor costs. If done
poorly and labor costs increase as a result, then more volume could represent costs
rather than profit.
Vertical plane production sets fewer limitations on the ability to fill up a volume of space, as a
function of labor use.

Most commercial horizontal plane growers use six to seven tiers, but horizontal plane
production typically break even around the fourth tier, with each additional tier losing money
as costs accumulate.

This is not because building tiers higher costs more; the reason for this is that the cost of labor
for taking care of those higher tiers increases with each tier. In other words, capital expense
might not change much with more tiers, but operational expense does.

Combine these facts, and youve got a

NET MARGIN ($)

situation in which the Law of Diminishing

Returns is very evident. As you build a
horizontal plane operation higher, for
every dollar invested, the return on
investment shrinks. You can see this by
examining the typical productivity. Net
MARKET STANDARD margin decreases by tier, finally dipping
below the market standard. You might
0$ still be making a margin at this point, but
if faced with pricing pressure from your
competitors, you will lose - you will not
have the room in your margin to lower
prices.

9
HEIGHT (IN TIERS)
 While overall revenue increases
DOLLARS

as tiers are added to a system,

Costs associated costs grow as well.
Often, costs grow at higher
Revenue rates per tier than revenue.

HEIGHT (IN TIERS)

ENVIRONMENT & PLANT HEALTH

HEAT IS REMOVED MORE EASILY THROUGH VERTICAL SPACE

Lighting interacts with plane orientation and affects airflow. Historically, lights have
been attached to the growing plane itself.

This limits airflow, which is needed to:

Remove heat produced by lights
To remove humidity,
To circulate gases such as CO2.

10
An alternative way to arrange lights is by placing them in the center of a chimney which
facilitates airflow instead of blocking it. Air can be moved less aggressively than in horizontal
plane production, which requires more intensive equipment and ventilation systems.

Light Structure

Air moves upward

naturally

VERTICAL PLANES FACILITATE AIR FLOW

Air flow is responsible for heat removal, humidity removal, and CO2 penetration to the canopy.
An efficient farm layout should facilitate air flow, not work against it.

11
HEAT TRAPPED IN HIGH PLACES MAKES PEST CONTROL DIFFICULT

The higher we go, the more plant production problems occur. Pest issues tend to be worse (heat
and humidity are typically higher in the upper growing space, and treating those problems
is inconvenient. Moreover, removing heat from stacked techniques is more difficult which
exacerbates the problem.

Air at the top is

hot and humid.

Hot air holds

more water

Heat rises

WHEN IS VERTICAL PLANE PRODUCTION NOT APPROPRIATE?

Farmers from South Dakota to South Africa are finding that vertical plane production increas-
es their profits while reducing their costs. The technique consistently offers better space use
efficiency (and therefore, productivity), labor costs, profitability, and plant-friendly environ-
ments.

But is it always the right choice?

Every farmer has a unique situation and unique goals. While stacked production almost never
pans out, there is a place for horizontal planes in the farming industry. Sometimes, real estate
is cheap. Sometimes, the market demands large-statured crops or root crops that arent
suited to vertical plane production. In cases like these, farmers must weigh all the variable to
choose the production method that can offer long term success.
12
WHO IS BRIGHT AGROTECH?

Bright Agrotech is composed of a rapidly growing group of passionate

individuals committed to empowering the farmers of tomorrow. We believe that
empowerment begins with indoor farming equipment that serves farmers and
communities in the long term, and with resources to help them achieve that
success.

Our ZipGrow vertical farming Towers are built to help farmers use space wisely
for growing high quality, productive crops with fewer costs. We want to help
farmers live better, increase their margins, and serve their communities with fresh
local food.

CONTACT US

We would love to help you get started. Call us for quotes, business and farm
planning help, or to address any concerns you might have with growing.

307-288-1188
Info@brightagrotech.com

13