With heatwaves and extreme weather placing growing pressure on livestock and farm operations, many farms are turning to connectivity to enhance and protect business.
In a bid to assist farmers in the south of England, neutral host comms provider Boldyn Networks is working with West Sussex County Council and agritech specialist Pneumonitor to deploy 5G RedCap technology to support more scalable monitoring and help farmers protect animal welfare, productivity and long-term resilience.
The deployment is taking place under the Growing Sussex programme, established by West Sussex County Council to co-develop and showcase practical uses of 5G, IoT and AI across food, drink and agricultural production.
Bringing together local government, specialist education providers and technology partners, with input from growers and livestock producers, the programme encompass “glasshouses to vineyards, nurseries and aquaculture”. Growing Sussex is working to envision a new era in food production, blending 5G connectivity and other high technology to create smarter, sustainable agriculture.
Boldyn Networks and West Sussex County Council announced plans for four private 5G networks in 2024 and all four Growing Sussex partner sites were live by December 2025.
RedCap is regarded as an ideal technology for agricultural applications, designed for internet of things (IoT) devices that do not require the full capabilities of standard 5G. It combines 5G connectivity with lower power consumption, reduced battery requirements and longer device life, helping lower maintenance needs and operating costs for farm-based deployments.
The Pneumonitor integration adds livestock-building environmental monitoring to the programme’s wider connected-agriculture ecosystem. Its in-pen environmental sensor is designed to give farmers near real-time insight into conditions inside livestock buildings, helping them to identify and respond more quickly to factors that can increase animal stress and respiratory disease risk.
Unlike sensors typically mounted on walls, Pneumonitor measures conditions within the pen, where the animals are. Connected through 5G RedCap technology, the device can share information from livestock buildings and support scalable monitoring across farms. The project also showed when heat load was building and what could be done before yields were affected. The connectivity behind the deployment allows the system to bring monitoring to more sites than before.
The deployment comes as repeated heatwaves across parts of the UK, in particular the south of England, place greater pressure on livestock and farm operations. By helping farmers understand how conditions are changing, Boldyn believes technology can support earlier action, animal health and welfare, productivity and long-term resilience.
“As the connectivity partner for Growing Sussex, we’re committed to helping shape a new era for agriculture and deploy technologies that bring a welcome boost to the West Sussex economy,” said Gearoid Collins, commercial director, real estate, enterprise and wind farms at Boldyn Networks. “Connecting Pneumonitor through RedCap shows how private 5G can support practical agritech and provide the digital foundation for many more connected applications across the farming sector.”
Councillor Yvonne Gravely, cabinet member for economy and skills at West Sussex County Council, added: “Agriculture plays a vital role in West Sussex, but periods of extreme weather are creating new challenges for the sector. Through Growing Sussex, we’re helping growers and food producers use technology to better understand changing conditions, protect animal welfare and build resilience for the future. That’s good for local businesses, good for our rural economy and good for West Sussex.”
