An ancient Chinese curse says, ‘May you live in interesting times,’ and the times have been interesting indeed for Australian primary producers. The worst effects of bushfire, flood and the COVID pandemic may be behind us but as anyone wanting to buy a new tractor, ute or other piece of farm machinery knows, global supply chain issues continue to put a brake on farmers’ productivity.

Supply chain issues coupled with war in the Ukraine continue to drive inflation leading to higher prices for fuel, energy and other inputs such as fertiliser and other agricultural chemicals. These and other issues promise to be the source of lengthy and lively discussion as delegates debate around 100 motions on agricultural and rural affairs.

Some of the major topics of deliberation will include biosecurity, a perennial topic brought into sharp focus by the Varroa mite incursion and federal government changes to funding arrangements; energy transition, another highly relevant topic in the light of skyrocketing energy bills; land planning, livestock traceability and the management of pests, weeds and water.

“Our annual conference brings together the who’s who in agriculture for three days of in-depth discussions on the challenges and opportunities facing our food and fibre future.”

Peter Arkle
NSW FARMERS CEO

An impressive line-up of speakers

NSW Farmers is Australia’s largest state agricultural organisation, representing the interests of farmers and regional communities right across the state.

That mantle justifies yet another impressive array of Annual Conference speakers providing insight on a broad range of industry, corporate and government issues. The NSW Premier, Chris Minns, will attend the conference and there will be presentations from companies and organisations including Bayer, WaterNSW, AWI, nbn co, Telstra, ARTC Inland Rail, the Biodiversity Conservation Trust and the GRDC.

NSW Farmers Association CEO, Peter Arkle, said it is exciting for the conference to be at a new venue in the geographical centre of Sydney.

“NSW Farmers is the voice of farmers in New South Wales. As a grassroots organisation, our policies are made by farmers, for farmers. From paddock to parliament, we advocate on issues as broad and varied as biosecurity, water and environmental reform, infrastructure, regional health, and farm resilience,” Peter said.

“Our annual conference brings together the who’s who in agriculture for three days of in-depth discussions on the challenges and opportunities facing our food and fibre future. Australia needs strong farms to feed the future, but they’re facing a range of challenges – from the cost of doing business to climate change and a highly competitive global market.

“It is vital to have a strong agricultural sector and robust supply chains that can stand up to these challenges, and this will be highlighted in our ‘Feeding the Future Panel’ on Monday 17 July at the conference venue.”

NSW Farmers CEO Pete Arkle

A workforce for the future

As with all industries, finding the workers of the future is a major challenge for agriculture. One organisation dedicated to meeting that challenge is the Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia (PIEFA).

Formed through a collaboration between the Australian Government, primary industries organisations and the education sector, PIEFA is the one-stop source for educational information and resources about agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food and fibre within the school system.

In past years the value of food and fibre production was top of mind in the national psyche, Australia’s prosperity rides on the sheep’s back, and PIEFA aims to rekindle this vision through a variety of web-based and real-world resources. Its Primezone web portal delivers hundreds of curriculum-aligned, high quality, food and fibre teaching resources for students from Foundation through to Year 12; while the PrimeZone Academy eLearning portal allows students to undertake free, interactive courses.

PIEFA’s national Farmer Time program allows students to ask questions, take a virtual tour of a farm and participate in live sessions with primary producers while the Career Harvest online portal provides students with a one-stop resource for career options, information on career pathways, scholarships and other opportunities.

NSW Farmers referral partner, WFI (in association with WFI)

One of the many challenges farmers face is finding an insurer who truly understands their business, WFI is one such insurer. For example, a challenge farmers often face is the risk of underinsurance. According to WFI’s spokesperson, “farmers who are not regularly reviewing their insurance coverage are at risk of finding themselves underinsured, which is where there is a gap between the true cost of rebuilding, repairing or replacing the items you have insured and the amount you are covered for under your insurance policy”.

To help farmers address this risk, WFI aims to clearly communicate with its policyholders. “At the time of policy renewal and review, we seek to ensure that farmers are promptly notified of any policy changes that could impact their coverage,” says the WFI spokesperson.

“Furthermore, we understand that each farm and business may have unique circumstances, and a one-size-fits-all approach may not always be suitable. As a result, we have Area Managers who can visit the farm or business to help provide farmers with information about the insurance coverage available to them through WFI.”

WFI

NSW Farmers is a referral partner of WFI and does not provide any advice, recommendations or an opinion about WFI’s products. If you take out a policy with WFI, NSW Farmers receives a commission from WFI of between 7.5% and 10% of the policy premium (excluding taxes and charges).

This is general advice only and does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation or needs (“your personal circumstances”). Before using this advice to decide whether to purchase a product, you should consider your personal circumstances and the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determinations available from wfi.com.au. Insurance issued by Insurance Australia Limited ABN 11 000 016 722 AFSL 227681 trading as WFI.

Look Up and Live

While electricity prices and reliability are top of mind for farmers; exhibitor Essential Energy is focused on avoiding the preventable accident of farming equipment and machinery encountering powerlines. The company looks after the poles and wires that deliver electricity to 95 per cent of New South Wales and parts of southern Queensland.

According to a company spokesperson, the greatest electrical safety risk on farm is machinery such as augers and harvesters encountering powerlines and power poles. The company is urging agribusinesses to take the steps necessary to protect the safety of themselves and their employees when working near powerlines and poles.

These measures include actively identifying the electrical safety risks present when starting work each day, installing aerial powerline markers and using the ‘Look Up and Live’ app. The app is a tool that includes information such as the location of overhead powerlines and imagery via an interactive geospatial map. The free app can be accessed by anyone from their computer, tablet or smartphone.

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As technology gets better and cheaper and labour becomes more expensive and harder to find, the return on investment for technology such as remote monitoring and control becomes increasingly compelling. For many farmers connectivity is perceived as an obstacle, however, agtech vendors are directly addressing the issue with a variety of solutions, according to Farmbot’s Head of Marketing, Elizabeth Cameron.

“With our solution, farmers don’t need additional connectivity [to deploy it],” Elizabeth said.

“Our satellite services cover the entire country. We are also working closely with Telstra to develop solutions for their NB-IoT (Narrowband internet of things) Cellular Low Power Wide Area Network which now covers almost 95% of the NSW land mass and will provide a more cost-effective solution that uses less power.”

This is an example of Telstra’s commitment to agriculture, by innovating to give farmers connectivity options through a mix of mobile, IoT and satellite networks and now also extends to their recent investment in Farmbot.

Luke Harwood, Head of Innovation & Managing Director of Telstra’s early-stage investment arm, muru-D, said this latest investment aligns with Telstra’s commitment to support connectivity and innovation in rural Australia.

“Maximising connectivity and digital innovation in rural and regional Australia is a big priority for us. We’re excited by the opportunities of technology to transform the agricultural industry and contribute to a more efficient and sustainable sector. Investments like this will also help achieve the National Farmer’s Federation’s vision to see farmgate output reach $100 billion by 2030.”

“With Australia’s largest mobile network, leading technology solutions and regional customer base, we see a unique role for muru-D and Telstra to help Farmbot’s continued growth,” said Mr Harwood.

Even though connectivity is improving, many of the issues farmers continue to be faced with are only too familiar. Farmers are struggling to find labour and constantly looking for productivity improvements to boost their bottom line. While the east coast of Australia has just come off its third La Nina event in a row, stock water remains a constant issue for farmers, particularly on larger properties.

“Instead of spending hours a day driving to check stock water, they can do it all with a touch of a button from their phone.”

ELIZABETH CAMERON
Head of Marketing, FarmBot

Time, labour and vehicle cost savings

“One of the main things that we constantly hear from farmers is they don’t have enough time. By giving farmers remote visibility of tank levels, trough levels, and control of their pump, we’re giving them time to be able to do other jobs around the property. Instead of spending hours a day driving to check stock water, they can do it all with a touch of a button from their phone.”

While there are obviously cost savings tied into labour there are other costs associated with that activity. Wear and tear on a vehicle, fuel, which has gone up in price and supply chain issues with sourcing new vehicles and parts. “That’s where it all comes back to operational effectiveness and increasing profitability” says Elizabeth.

Valuable insights provided by minute by minute monitoring

Systems such as Farmbot allow for up-to-the-minute changes in water consumption to be reported, providing valuable insights into stock behaviour and water usage patterns which further drives operation efficiency. Farmers can use this information to optimise their time and resources, such as knowing when to muster, check their cattle or when to fill water storages.

“A new technology we’ve just launched is a Pump Control. Most tanks come with a pump next to it and being able to automate and turn on off a pump based on water level [allows farmers] to be more efficient with their use of water, but again without having to drive out to turn something on and off.

“Then last of all, something we constantly hear from our customers is peace of mind. Farmers spend hours each week driving to check water, if their livestock don’t have water, their growth rate reduces substantially, and livestock health can be endangered.

“It’s not on all farms, but many have pumps that are unreliable, pipelines that have been there for a long time and being able to monitor water remotely gives farmers the peace of mind to go away for the weekend or just drive into town and watch the footy with their mates. This is especially the case with our real time alerts that can be programmed to send a message to the farmer if there is a sudden drop in water level in a tank level or if a pump needs switching on.”

Roi solid but time to understand tech still a barrier

As remote monitoring solution capabilities expand companies like Farmbot, which has over 10,000 units installed with 4,000 farmers using the platform, the return on investment is clear. This Savings Calculator simply breaks down the costs and ROI (https:// farmbot.com.au/savings-calculator/). Nevertheless, Elizabeth acknowledges there are still barriers to farmers adopting technology.

“The main one that I see is time, which is so interesting, because what we’re doing is providing a time saving tool. But farmers are always saying, ‘I don’t have time to look into this and learn it.’ There is a perception technology is complicated, but it’s not. Farmbot has been designed as a simple out of the box solution [to address those barriers]. Everybody that starts using our product just can’t believe how simple it is and says they wish they installed it sooner.

“An additional barrier is changing behaviour. It isn’t always easy, changing a process that you’ve always done, especially the process that’s been ingrained in your operation. z

“It can be particularly difficult for family farms that don’t put a monetary value on their own time. They don’t factor in their labour cost for manual tasks like checking water. Whereas larger operations with paid employees are thinking great, I can upskill this employee and use their time to add value to the property itself.”

The post Farm connectivity driving efficiency and profitability appeared first on The Farmer Magazine.

While the event has always had awards, as part of the lead up to its 40^th Anniversary in 2024, it will be announcing its Hall of Fame. This award will acknowledge individuals and businesses who have contributed to the event over many years.

According to Norco Primex Field Days managing director, Bruce Wright, COVID-related supply chain issues continue to delay delivery of product to farmers.

“However, farmers want to see the latest machinery and that’s certainly what they will get when they come to Primex this year. Exhibitors in the machinery and equipment side know what stock they’ve got now and what is coming through,” Bruce said.

“In particular, the agtech sector is going a million miles an hour and we will have more of that equipment at this event than we’ve ever had.”

“Much of the tech that will be featured is focused on measuring and recording whether its fuel or water tank levels through to pasture improvement, weed management and livestock management. There’s even a company that’s working on facial recognition for cattle.”

Primex focus on wellbeing and education

A lot of the tech is focused on animal health and Bruce adds that the field day will again feature a Health and Wellbeing hub.

“Farmer’s health and wellbeing is very topical now. It’s always been a factor, but it hasn’t been as openly discussed and resourced as it is now and we need to keep that conversation going.

A new initiative for Primex Field Days that launched just weeks before the event kicks off is the Affordable Housing hub.

While the focus on affordable housing is a response to issues the region faces in the wake of the 2022 floods, it’s also reflective of legislation changes. As of December 1, 2022, landholders can run activities such as farm stays, camping, pick-your-own orchards, cellar doors, restaurants or cafes and events under simplified planning rules.

Bruce says yet again Primex Field Day’s Education and Careers hub is set to generate a lot of interest.

“We have a lot of exhibitors who are already looking to recruit and find people to enter the job space.”

“As part of our Education and Careers hub, we’re working with the education department and our partner, Southern Cross University, to put together a whole range of different elements to offer focus and the means for someone in secondary school to work out which part of the supply chain they can fit into.”

“We want to show that someone doesn’t have to be a fifth or sixth generation farmer to work in agriculture, they might have an interest in chemistry which means that they might work in a distillery, that sort of thing. We’re trying to offer that whole broad scope right across the supply chain to help keep that next generation in the region and working in agriculture.”

One of Primex Field Day’s main differentiators has always been its Forestry and Timber hub. Bruce says 2023 will again feature the latest in forestry machinery, products and innovation and it will also host the Forestry and Timber Industry Collective.

“The Forestry and Timber Industry Collective has been on the drawing board for probably five years and a whole range of factors have seen it coming to fruition this year.

“We’ve been talking about carbon neutral for some years and now planting trees, harvesting trees, having a regenerative forestry sector that can offer that element is of interest both to farmers and the industry itself.

When you’ve got the issues of forestry in our region being decimated by fires, it’s very applicable to highlight all the advantages of forestry and timber for farmers and the stakeholders in the industries as part of an educational process.”

Double the dose of Nourish food and drink

One of the highlights of Primex Field Days for non-primary producers has been the Nourish Food and Drink Festival and Bruce says this year’s event will be double the size of last year’s.

“We were able to create Nourish because we got an Australian Government Black Summer grant but over the last few years with COVID, floods and everything else restaurant, providores, the people that are sourcing local produce and getting out to the public have been hit hard.

To assist them, we’ve been running a program that offers a special opportunity to participate at the event, create brand and product awareness and start building networks

“For anyone coming to Primex Field Day 2023, if they just want to sit down, have a few drinks and listen to some entertainment it’s all under the umbrella at Nourish.”

The post Primed for Primex in May appeared first on The Farmer Magazine.

The good news, however, is that in the past fifteen years or so, Australian farmers have been embracing a host of new conservation farming practices such as no-till/low-till, stubble retention, controlled traffic and have a huge range of products available to help them improve soil health. Nevertheless, the first step is to realise the need to focus on soil health.

Loam Bio co-founder, Guy Webb, believes farmers have always understood soil is the foundation of their cropping and farming enterprises. “But I think we have been down a few blind alleys where we thought we are doing the right thing, and it turns out we have not been,” he says. 

“When I was a young fella growing up, it was really the thing to do to plough a paddock a couple of times, and then scarify it two or three times to get a beautiful fine seed bed like a veggie garden. It looked beautiful – nice and flat and fine tilth – but we did not realise that we were completely destroying the structure and letting all the carbon out.”

Loam Bio co-founder, Guy Webb.

Loam Bio co-founder and CPO, Tegan Nock, adds “In terms of soil biology, the work we are doing is very much a new discovery space. In Australia, where you have peak saturation of conservation farming practices, the more we are learning in terms of the interactions of biology within the soil system, the more we realise there is so much we have not historically understood about the key drivers of soil health.” 

Sonic Natural Farming co-founder and Managing Director, Sonja Kallio, suggests, “We have not really understood what degrades the soil and what produces good soil. But over time farmers have witnessed soil degradation, rather than improvement, from using conventional farming methods as chemicals and fertilisers destroy the microbiological life in the soil that actually makes soil productive. 

“It has taken a long time for that to become apparent and up until recently we have not had the technology to really be able to see and learn about the microorganisms that are at work,” she says. 

Soil building for soil health

According to Sonja, Sonic’s flagship products – a Liquid Fish Hydrolysate Fertiliser and a Liquid Seaweed Biological – are based on fermentation methods that have been around for many years. Using fish processing waste, the liquid fish hydrolysate is an organic nitrogen substitute. 

“Seaweed has one of the highest diversity of minerals and trace minerals in any plant,” she adds. “It’s going to give your soil all the minerals and trace minerals that it needs, and then it’s activated with beneficial microbes, which is really the key to
soil building. 

“It’s not a silver bullet but if people are using the practices that are conducive to supporting the biology in the soil, these products will definitely help kickstart the soil biology, especially if a farmer is in the process of converting from conventional methods.”

Sonic Natural Farming co-founder and managing director, Sonja Kallio.

According to Sonja, Sonic was also concerned about the amount of plastic in our environment and has sought to address that by offering a model where the product can be produced on farm. “We didn’t want to just become another company that’s mass producing and shipping products around the country in single use plastic containers,” she explains. 

“So, we’ve worked pretty hard on devising a model that enables a farm requiring at least 2,700 litres a year – which is about the usage of a medium size farm – to produce the product on-farm. Sonic will set up the brewing system, supply all the ingredients and visit about once every five weeks to keep the system running for them.”

Sequestering carbon 

Loam Bio has a team of 62, with the majority of the team focused on Research and Development, as well as product development. 

Tegan explains, “The team has developed a biological soil carbon inoculum that enables agricultural soils to sequester more carbon. By adding the inoculum to what a farmer would typically do with conservation or regenerative farming practices, it increases the amount of carbon that can be added or held stably within agricultural soils. 

“At a high level, the inoculum increases both aggregate and mineral associated organic matter within soil and those are the components that make up Total Organic Carbon (TOC). As carbon is the basis of soil health, by increasing TOC, farmers are increasing their soil health. We’ve done a lot of work with academic partners to have third party validation of the fact that we’re increasing carbon overall so farmers also have the potential to monetise
that carbon.” 

Tegan says Loam Bio has developed the product so farmers don’t have to completely alter their farming practices. However, the potential to be able to build carbon is higher for farmers who are implementing conservation farming practices. She adds there may also be a need make changes to a chemical regime to have biologicals working at peak performance.

“For example, with about 50 per cent of the seed fungicides out there, we’re comfortable to be able to apply with and have good compatibility with,” she says. “So, the key thing is understanding the chemical regime to make sure that our compatibility understanding is strong enough to implement it into that system.” 

Monitoring is key

The key to understanding whether any change in farming practice is making a positive difference or not is through monitoring, and soil health is no different. Farmdeck enables farmers to gain better visibility and understanding of their farm’s soil in real-time and historically by collecting data remotely through remote Internet-of-Things (IoT) soil monitoring sensors. 

From a real-time perspective, precise monitoring of a farm’s soil allows producers to better predict its needs; preventing over or underwatering, saving costs, and allowing farmers to produce healthier, stronger crops seasonally.

The Farmdeck app takes the data derived from the sensors to help improve soil health and vitality by understanding its watering and temperature needs. Sensors can be placed at a single depth or multiple depths within the soil, enabling farmers to receive accurate readings of moisture levels, temperature, sensor signal strength and battery/solar voltage at each placement. 

Once a soil monitoring system has been in place over time, farmers are able to gain insight and make improvements by analysing soil history. 

Farmdeck’s Soil Monitoring feature gives farmers the ability to look back at soil temperature, humidity and moisture levels from the date of sensor installation up to the day of the sensors last reading, daily. These levels are displayed in multiple user-friendly graphs, displaying moisture, temperature and voltage of solar and batteries.

If you enjoyed this story on Soil Health, you might like to read our feature on carbon farming.

The post Soil health: the only way is up appeared first on The Farmer Magazine.

Maintaining ground cover drives paddock subdivision

According to Whites Rural national innovation manager, Brian Gray, “more and more people are starting to realise the need to work with the land – to be kinder to the land by having lots of smaller paddocks and moving the animals to maintain ground cover at all times. This is a growing trend as during the last drought some farmers did a lot better than others and people are taking notice and changing the way they do things.”

Brian noted that the trend for people to flee the crowding and traffic congestion of our cities to move to rural areas is also driving uptake of fencing. 

“As people move to rural areas wanting their own little slice of the country lifestyle, there are lots of smaller blocks that their new owners want fenced and there is a wider variety of things being kept in and kept out.”

Good fencing key for biosecurity 

“There are a lot of new farmers coming onto, or back to the land. They’ve grown up on the farm, moved away and come back or made the decision they want to be on the land,” says Whites Rural national sales manager, Matt Stinson. “These people want the lifestyle farming offers but they also very much realise that farming is a business.

“With commodity prices high, they see livestock as a valuable asset that needs to be protected from predators and there is also increased emphasis on biosecurity.”

Whites Rural national sales manager, Matt Stinson.

“Biosecurity means good fences. For example, feral pigs carry woody weed seeds across the countryside, and we are hearing a lot more from farmers about the need to keep feral animals out as much as keeping their own animals in.”

Brian adds that land use changes can also drive changes in fencing. “On a recent episode of Landline, there was a story about two major pastoral companies adding goats to their enterprise mix. The sort of fences that will hold cattle, won’t hold goats, so changes like that will also continue to drive investment in new and upgraded fencing.”

Murray Products is investing to keep up with demand and has one of only three machines in the world that can do a wide range of manufactured fencing that is a generation beyond established technology such as hinge joint and ring lock. 

“With these machines we can now design fences around what farmers are trying to keep in or out, whether it is feral animals or some of the old heritage breeds that are becoming popular again. One size does not fit all,” Brian says.

Automation proof of concept drives sales of stockyards

Clipex national sales director Stafford Olsson is seeing an upsurge in farmers upgrading their permanent stock yards. 

“We are still selling the smaller semi-permanent sort of yards, but we’re definitely seeing an uptick in people investing in permanent yards with some of the newest technology such as auto drafters and tag readers,” he says.

“People have had good seasons for the last couple of years, which is encouraging them to spend money on infrastructure. But it’s also that we now have some runs on the board and people can see a set of the latest yards in action, touch them and see how they work.” 

Clipex national sales director Stafford Olsson.

“There is also some government regulation impetus now that NSW and Queensland are phasing in mandated EID tags for sheep, so we’re already seeing increased interest in tag readers from sheep producers. 

“Similarly, we’re seeing a lot more of our automated crushes purchased to do auto drafting and the like,” he says. “It’s a similar situation when it comes to permanent yard investments. People are starting to see that other people have got them or now that field days have started up again, they can see them physically. It’s really hard to invest in that level of technology if you’ve only seen a brochure or a video and never been able to actually touch and feel the product so you can fully understand it.” 

Labour shortages force farmers to do it for themselves

Labour shortages continue to affect farmers whether they are trying to complete a fencing project, install new stockyards or just get their fruit picked or crop sorted. 

Aussie famers, however, are an innovative lot, and they’re getting on with the job and doing it themselves, a trend which is leading to new opportunities for Australian equipment manufacturers. 

Thor Rock Breakers have taken a tried and tested hydraulic power cell and produced a range of post drivers that can be run from a tractor loader, excavator or telehandler. 

At a fraction of the price of traditional post drivers, One Stop Machinery Shop managing director, Simon Taylor, says farmers – sick of waiting for fencing contractors to get to their project – are buying one of their Thor post drivers and getting on with doing the job themselves. 

“Fencing is never finished but farmers can’t get fencing contractors, unless they are prepared to wait six months, or even a year. As a result, many of them are looking to do the job themselves which has the advantage that they can do the job in their own time and at their own speed, both in terms of labour and in spending on materials. 

“Our post driver products are at a good price point, especially when you take into account the great build quality. We’re seeing a lot of families and neighbours working together to buy one of our post drivers and just get in and get the job done across a number of properties.”

All of the manufacturers The Farmer spoke to were seeing high demand for their products and supply chain issues for the most part have been managed. However storm clouds may be gathering on the horizon. 

“Talk about inflation and interest rates is having an impact on people’s outlook,” says Matt. “Confidence was sky high 12 months ago and it has now dropped as people are stepping back a bit and weighing up their options, as the cost of fertiliser and fuel means there is not quite as much money around as there was last year.

If you enjoyed this feature on stockyards and fencing, you might like our story on farming on the land and in the sky.

The post Getting it right: fencing & stockyards appeared first on The Farmer Magazine.

Here we cover some businesses with different products on offer, and stories of trends that they’ve seen recently in agriculture.

Australian-made equipment ahead on availability

The Seed Terminator is an Australian invention designed and manufactured in Australia that attaches to harvesters, where it kills off seeds before they become weeds. 

“Some farmers are feeling let down by the mainstream suppliers and dealers,” says marketing manager Kelly Ingram. “Machinery costs seem to have grown faster than normal, delivery dates are flexible at best, and the ability of the dealer to support the products is the worst it has ever been. One response to these factors is that farmers are locking in purchases earlier than ever due to long lead times on mainline machinery brands.

“Some of these situations can be alleviated by purchasing Australian-made products, that have stable local production and supplies of spare parts,” she says. “However we need to think outside the box to overcome these issues – hold larger inventories, order inputs further ahead, be inventive about finding good staff and retaining them.”     

While supply chain issues such as stock delays and staffing issues are driving many of the buying trends at the moment – as well as creating both short-term and long-term costs, Kelly says farmers’ buying decisions are still driven by the need to solve problems on their farms. 

“Seed Terminator is a product proven to be very successful at actually killing weed seeds but the drivers for farmers investing in mechanical weed control are varied,” she says. “We see innovative growers looking to diversify their weed control to stay on top of their weed seed bank, growers with herbicide resistance problems who need to diversify, or those just looking to tidy up at harvest as they don’t see the value in spreading weed seeds out the back as they harvest.”

Trend towards tough machinery farmers can repair themselves

Australian Frontline Machinery is dedicated to auctioning ex-Australian military assets ranging from trailers to helicopters, motorbikes to Mack trucks. According to marketing and sales manager, Tara O’Hara, there is a definite trend towards equipment that is tough and easy to operate, and that farmers can repair themselves. And despite the great season and strong prices, many farmers are still looking for a bargain. 

“We’re giving farmers the opportunity to buy used machinery over brand new machinery, in order to avoid paying those exorbitant upfront costs,” Tara says. “It’s particularly good for smaller farmers who don’t necessarily have the capital to be able to purchase new equipment and because they can bid on the equipment, they can determine exactly what their price point is. Unlike new equipment, where there is not always a lot of room to negotiate.” 

Tara says that the Mack R6X6 cargo trucks have been a best seller in the past, and that they come with a winch and cargo crane so farmers can use them to carry all sorts of things around the farm such as hay and livestock.

“Recently we’ve seen a trend towards the Mercedes-Benz Unimog,” she says. “They’re a 4X4 vehicle that also comes with a cargo crane and winch that is extremely capable – some farmers are even using them to pull implements.

“Just like the rest of the country we have experienced higher prices for vehicles, but it hasn’t affected the Unimog or the Mack that much,” she adds. “It’s really only affected Land Rovers, which have almost doubled in price when it comes to average auction prices.”  

Reducing input costs 

Michael Murphy of Essar Machinery, and the NSW agent for Diesel Performance Solutions, has seen strong growth in one of the company’s main services – remapping engine control units (ECUs) of tractors, harvesters and other farming machinery to bypass the need to use AdBlue. 

“AdBlue is another high-cost consumable for farmers and if something related to the AdBlue breaks down, instead of just one day to source parts as it would be for a non-AdBlue diesel engine, it can be three to four days before the parts to fix it are available,” he explains.

“I go out to the farm and take all of the information out of an engine’s ECU, download it onto a laptop, send it away to the technicians at DPS, and they remap the ECU to make the modifications they need to adjust then I re-download it to the ECU of the tractor,” he says. 

“As well as bypassing the need to use AdBlue, some farmers are opting to increase the horsepower of their machinery. By remapping the ECU, farmers can get a 180-horsepower tractor to perform at a similar level to a 250-horsepower tractor for much less investment than buying the larger unit.” 

Rollover protection regulations drives different buying

It’s not just big iron that is seeing new major trends in buying patterns. According to Justin Hoad of Electric Offroad Bikes, in the personal transport segment, a big change has been that four-wheelers now need to have rollover protection. 

“As a result, a lot of farmers are switching to side-by-sides, but they can be just as big of a rollover risk, and if you don’t have a seatbelt, they can be just as dangerous as a quad bike,” he says. “In addition, they are expensive to purchase and run compared to a quad bike, so people are going back to two-wheeled bikes as an option.”  

And so, Justin explains that they are now offering an electric two-wheel bike that runs on batteries and can be charged at home, allowing farmers to decouple from the fossil fuel industry. 

“Even if there is a fuel crisis like there is now, you can still get around your farm,” he says. “A lot of farmers have invested in solar panels to offset the cost of running items such as irrigation pumps and shearing sheds. So for them, an electric bike is very cheap to run around the farm. It’s also lightweight and so instead of a 300kg quad bike possibly landing on you, you’d have a 60kg or 80kg two-wheel bike, which you can crawl out from under if you need to.”

Electric Offroad Bikes has a range of models with ranges of 50 and 100 kilometres, or “three to eight hours of mustering type work where you’re poking around behind stock,” says Justin. “Most of them take only three or four hours to recharge and many users buy a second battery so they can have one on charge and one in the bike.”

The future of farming is autonomous and energy independent

Farmers seeking energy independence is a nascent but growing trend that is only going to gather pace with John Deere announcing an autonomous battery-powered electric tractor at Hort Connections 2022 in Brisbane, slated to be launched in Australia in 2026.

“Electrification and autonomous equipment help businesses reduce CO² emissions, improve safety and bolster productivity – all outcomes which strongly align with John Deere’s overarching goal to deliver a fleet of intelligent and connected machines to help the industry become more sustainable, productive and efficient,” says John Deere Australia and New Zealand Production System Manager, Steph Gersekowski.

“Automation is perfectly scalable, meaning farmers can rapidly scale up the use of autonomous equipment during pinch-point moments, like harvest or spraying, where labour may be scarce, and then just as easily scale down when they have less time constraints or greater access to skilled workers,” she says. 

“Rather than being a futuristic ideal, electrification and autonomous machinery has become today’s expectation.

If you enjoyed this feature on great farm gear, you might like our story on wild dog fences.

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In addition, pest animals such as wild dogs, feral pigs, deer, foxes and rabbits cost the NSW economy a further $170 million.

All farmers want to be able to pass on the family farm in a better state than it was when they took it over, but according to the report, despite the effort farmers, state government agencies and local councils have put in over decades, the spread of emerging invasive species is getting worse.

NSW Farmers Conservation and Resource Management Committee member, Craig Mitchell, says weeds are a persistent problem. Wild dogs, deer and pigs are destructive forces in their own way, but both weeds and pest animals require a coordinated management approach.

With a review of the Biosecurity Act 2015 due sometime this year, Craig says NSW Farmers would be repeating calls for landholders to be allowed to control pests and weeds on neighbouring public lands, while lobbying for increased compliance action on landholders who make no effort.

“As farmers we do our bit spraying weeds and building fences to keep wild animals out, but it’s really tough to swallow when you’re neighbouring public land and the pests and weeds keep coming from there,” Craig says.

Applying the act

The Biosecurity Act 2015 contains within in it a General Biosecurity Duty. This simply states that: “Any land managers and users of land have a responsibility for managing weed biosecurity risks that they know about or could reasonably be expected to know about. [The Duty] Applies to all land within NSW and all waters within the limits of the State.”

NSW Farmers believes the Biosecurity Act 2015 does not go far enough and would like to see the ‘nil tenure’ approach applied to weeds and pest animals more widely.

The nil tenure approach acknowledges that pest animals do not recognise boundaries and has been successful in controlling wild dogs and foxes in various parts of New South Wales. Because of this success, there is considerable scope to extend the approach to other vertebrate pests and also to weeds.

As noted in the Proceedings of the third NSW Pest Animal Control Conference 4th-7th July 2005, “The nil tenure approach allows local communities, in collaboration with government land managers, to cooperatively address wild dog/fox issues across all land tenures by collectively identifying the scope of the issue, the management technique required and the level of resources required.

“The implementation of this simple approach has negated over twenty years of poor relations between private and public land managers in the area. More importantly, it has had a positive impact on the emotional well-being of farmers in the area who now feel that something positive is being done to address the constant financial and emotional impact of wild dogs.”

Country Councils

An approach that has features in common to that used to control wild dogs is the formation of County Councils, an innovation that has been implemented in some parts of NSW. The Upper Macquarie County Council (UMCC) is a single-purpose local government authority, established as the control authority for biosecurity weed threats (formerly known as noxious weeds) in the Bathurst, Blayney, Lithgow and Oberon local government areas.

Bruce Reynolds, Deputy Chair of the UMCC, says, “We inspect over 1,000 properties per year across the council areas and each property is given a rating; One is a low level of weeds, four is a high level of weeds.”

Bruce explains that they try to work with landholders to deal with the well over 100 priority weeds in their area by pointing them towards the best ways to deal with them.

“Most landholders work with us but for those recalcitrant landholders that fail to control their weeds after reinspection, may receive a fine or worse, and be prosecuted in a criminal court,” he says. “The UMCC has resolved to prosecute some landholders under the Biosecurity Act, and this shows it is not a toothless tiger, with around 60 separate $1,000 fines already issued. We are also starting criminal prosecutions under the Biosecurity Act.”

Bruce adds that they would rather not fine anyone and that when their inspectors issue a notice, 75 to 80 per cent of landholders take action.

“It is the 20 to 25 per cent who ignore the notice that we are trying to deal with,” he says. “However, it is common to find that one property at Level Four contamination can create a lot of problems for many other neighbours.”

Digging into the problem

There is some disagreement as to why some properties become weed and pest animal hotspots. Some experts argue rail corridors and state forests are persistent offenders but for Craig, absentee landlords are a major culprit.

“Absentee landlords are a real problem. Some like to have deer on their place with no regard to their neighbours,” he says. “A few deer are not a big issue, but they only have to double a few times before neighbouring landholders have a real problem.”

When asked why councils tend to be reluctant to prosecute landholders who do not take action, Bruce explains: “Resources are tight, and prosecutions are expensive. We run the UMCC on the smell of an oily rag, however, we can focus solely on weeds. Most councils have thousands of things to do. But funding is an issue and prosecution is expensive so we have approached the NSW Government about setting up a weed prosecution fund so councils can prosecute.”

Craig believes weed authorities’ reluctance to prosecute is due to a lack of success. “You do not win very many times. There is a legal process you need to go through and it needs to be recorded accurately and it is very easy to muck up. Also, the problem is that across NSW there are a whole lot of different weeds and priorities. Which ones do you pick?”

Bruce added that it is vital that landholders and weed authorities take a holistic approach to weed management. “It is the responsibility of landholders to do remedial work but they need to realise it is not just spraying; they have to look at the bigger picture. Take for example, the herbicide that controls Chilean Needle Grass and Serrated Tussock – Flupropanate – the NSW DPI is already seeing increased resistance to that chemical.

“So, despite the skyrocketing costs of chemicals and difficulty in obtaining supply, it is important that landholders still use the recommended rates,” he explains. “But they also must look at changing their management, looking at what they can achieve with better pasture management and biological control.

Bruce points out that there are also emerging weeds such as Sticky Leaf Nightshade.

“This weed is spreading rapidly through many areas of the state and is a major challenge to control,” he warns. “There are currently no biological agents available in Australia to control the weed and limited herbicide control options. We have to examine different approaches to the control of it, and are working with government and industry to develop a systematic approach.”

Australian agriculture has a goal of achieving $100 billion in production by 2030, with NSW’s contribution to hitting that target at $30 billion. “It is an ambitious target and landholders, government agencies and local councils will need to work together to control pest animals and invasive weeds if we want to achieve the goal,” Bruce says.

Chilean Needle Grass case study

A C4 grass, Chilean needle grass is becoming a serious pasture and environmental weed in the wetter areas of south-eastern Australia. It is very invasive, due to its prodigious seed production, and forms dense stands in pastures, bushland and roadsides.

It is drought- and grazing-tolerant and produces large amounts of unpalatable flower stalks with very little leaf material in the warmer months, resulting in a severe reduction of summer stock carrying capacity. Its seeds have sharp points that can penetrate and damage the fleece, skin and eyes of livestock.

In the New England region, Chilean Needle Grass has a firm lodgement the Upper Hunter Weeds Authority (UHWA), a county council covering the Northern Hunter Valley LGAs of Upper Hunter, Muswellbrook and Singleton, it is determined the weed will not spread further south.

UHMA General Manager, Doug Campbell, says that a sharp-eyed weeds inspector noticed a plant they had not seen before on a roadside. “During drought it was hard to ID but as soon as it came out in seed, it was easy to identify,” he says.

After negotiating with landholders around withholding periods for stock, the UHWA began a program to apply a selective herbicide along the roadside using a drone. Doug says the UHWA will do follow-up programs over the next few years and there is also a plan to reseed the roadsides as the weed can be outcompeted by perennial pastures.

He adds the landholders should expect an influx of weeds when a drought breaks as the seeds come in on imported fodder and the rain creates the conditions for them to get started.

“It’s critical that landholders contact their local weeds officers if they see something unusual.”

If you enjoyed this feature on weeds& pests, you might like our story on cash for carbon projects.

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Innovation is at the heart of what Agrifutures does, and the Australian arm of the organisation – the Research & Development Corporation (RDC) is for established industries that do not have their own RDC. It supports R&D to accelerate the establishment and expansion of new rural industries. 

As well as operating as an industry RDC, its responsibilities include conducting long-term research and analysis to understand and address important issues on the horizon for Australian agriculture. 

Digitisation of everything not just farms

In some ways, the big innovation trends in agriculture are similar to those in other sectors. They are based on new technology made available because of digitisation such as the Internet of Things (IoT), sensors, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

“The opportunity this big change offers in the whole digital space is huge,” says John. “Take automation for example – it has the potential to allow farmers to develop entirely new production methods. Even for farmers that are seeking to maintain existing production systems, there is the opportunity to develop high value markets and easily provide consumers with the information they crave about the food they eat and the fibre they wear.”

Just as importantly, John argues the current wave of technology will help future-proof Australian farmers against trends in the global market such as carbon-based tariffs. 

“The vast majority of Australian farmers want to leave their land better and see themselves as custodians of that land,” he says.

“However, it is not enough for Australian agriculture to say we’re clean and green. Places like the European Union (EU) are saying ‘prove it’, so now the challenge is how to collect data. Exactly how do you measure the carbon footprint of beef? Collecting data manually is hard but when the EU and other markets start putting on tariffs based on carbon, Australian farmers will need to find a way. The current wave of innovation in agtech can help them do this and it will be vital.”

Luca Palermo, Farmdeck’s IoT Technology Lead, echoes John’s views. Founded in Australia in 2016 by a team of farmers and engineers coming from Outcomex, it is now a successful technology company that has been operating in Australia since 2006. Farmdeck provides an all-in-one offering that includes sensors, network connectivity and the Farmdeck application available online or downloadable on any Android and iOS devices. 

Luca sees three main trends in agtech. Firstly – sensor technology, which enables farmers to remotely track assets whether it is a water trough, cow or tractor. Second – satellite sensing, which has advanced to the point where it can tell how a paddock is performing, as well as its soil carbon measurement.

“The sensor technology is driven quite simply by the time savings. A farmer up near Tamworth with about 2,000 head of cattle used to take two days to do a trough run,” Luca explains. “Now he can see it on a dashboard and can track water usage to find problems. Farmdeck manufactures its own sensors for tanks, troughs and fences that all integrate directly to our software. It is virtually plug and play.”

He adds that remote sensing at the next level is about farmers looking after the land which is their main source of income by being better grazing planners, using the land more efficiently and moving animals around to avoid overgrazing. 

“But it is also about being able to pull up an app and see that the cows are where they are supposed to be,” he says. “The sensors are a GPS unit but they also have an inertial measurement unit (IMU) which tells you whether the animal is running, resting or grazing. There are companies developing hardware that is trying to detect vitals such as heart rate and temperature. 

“Indirectly, climate change is affecting farmers, but there is also an opportunity for farmers with soil carbon, and there is a lot of innovation going on with the aim of helping farmers to prove they can store carbon more cheaply and efficiently.”

State Government incubating agtech sector

Governments have identified the potential of the agtech sector both as an industry in its own right, and for its ability to drive agricultural productivity. 

The dedicated Digital Ag team within the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has identified focus areas for innovations around automation, climate change, carbon and waste, biosecurity, resilience and social licence.

According to a NSW DPI spokesperson – “DPI has identified trends for on-farm and whole-farm activity including connectivity to allow live field-based data to stream to the cloud and allow producers access to insights and decision support information in the paddock. 

“Furthermore, we have seen a trend in confidence about accessibility to innovative technology. The creation of the Farms of the Future program by DPI is an example of this, it can fast track adoption through showcasing technology available and proving supporting loans for farmers to invest in agtech today.” 

Speak to anyone in the agtech space and the problems these innovation trends are trying to solve are near universal. 

“Farmers need to remain competitive and sustainable while meeting increased demand from the supply chain and customers for more information, for example provenance systems,” says the DPI spokesperson. “They are looking to use technology to address the shortage of skill farm labour.”

Droughts such as the Millennium Drought and the drought of the late twenty teens has driven the importance of better water management. 

“Better management takes time as well as resources, and there is an innovation trend towards real time remote monitoring of water on farm from livestock management through to intensive irrigation,” they added. “Coupled with this, farmers are looking to capture in field level agronomic and environmental data to stream into support tool to aid more timely and accurate decision making.”

The DPI further identified the continuing trend of improving farm safety for workers, animal welfare and security monitoring of farm resources. It is also putting government money into solving these problems. For the past four years the DPI Global Ag-Tech Ecosystem (GATE) program has been fostering start-ups to develop targeted products for farmers with support and insights from DPI researchers and experts. 

The GATE program and its partners cover a variety of services and offerings, and have supported over 70 agriculture start-ups, generating over 100 jobs in NSW and over $150 million in investment.

Innovations in ag: energy independence 

Finn Biogas is a wholly Australian-owned company focused on delivering realistic, sustainable solutions for businesses within the Australian waste to energy sector. The company has designed and built biogas solutions for customers throughout Australia and Asia, however, its key strengths are in the adaption of technology for the Australian market, including concept development and feasibility studies, detailed design and planning, procurement, construction management and commissioning of biogas plants. 

Marketing Manager Renata Einhaus notes that at their core, the innovation trends – including automation, sensors and drones – are driving high-tech farms aimed at allowing farmers to concentrate on the bigger things such as soil carbon and animal welfare. Hand in hand with these trends is the move towards energy independence. Farmers a century ago produced their own energy as feed for horses. 

“Now there is growing interest in sustainable practices and part of that is energy independence, and a big part of that is biogas,” says Renata. “Biogas plants are very popular and well utilised in Europe but not in Australia, although that is slowly changing. 

“On top that, farmers are being affected by the cost of labour, the cost of energy and increasingly nutrient costs. Farmers, like all businesses, are looking for ways to reduce their overall cost and electricity can be an excruciatingly high cost for some farmers. Desire to reduce those costs and the quest for energy independence is driving farmers to look at alternatives and biogas is one of the few forms of renewable energy that can provide energy 24/7/365.” 

Renata says that for farmers, “having control over their own decentralised energy generation asset provides a shield from increasing energy prices, network stability issues and access to energy. The sale of by-products from the biogas plant’s digestion process – fertilisers – can also provide valuable revenue streams as well as drive down input costs.”

Beware of technology for technology’s sake

Agtech is booming and AgriFutures’ John Harvey hopes it will follow a similar trajectory to Australia’s Mining, Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector, which is a $92 billion industry, according to Industry Growth Centre, METS Ignited. 

John cautions, however, that technologists need to make sure they do not fall into the technology for technology’s sake trap. “Farmers have to be across so many different things. Agtech needs to make farming easier not harder,” he says. 

Innovations in ag: the future of drones

Prisma Technologies is an Australian tech company that focuses on the supply of drones and robotics solutions across multiple industries. Many of their solutions are at the leading-edge of Australia’s AgTech revolution. 

According to Rav Phull, CEO and Co-founder of Prisma Technologies, the use of drones has permeated nearly every industry, and agriculture is no exception. Growers, pastoral farmers, and agronomists are now using drones to promote safer, more precise, and efficient farming practices that minimise wastage and maximise productivity. Drones are now more accessible than ever as the technology has sufficiently evolved to allow smaller, cheaper consumer drones to offer capabilities that were once only available on larger, more expensive commercial systems. 

To further encourage the use of safer farming practices, and to make drones more affordable, NSW SafeWork now offers a rebate towards a drone purchase if you own or work on a NSW farm and own a quad bike or SSV.

“The main applications in which we are seeing drones being used in agriculture includes livestock management, chemical spraying, seed spreading, crop health monitoring, field mapping, and routine farm inspection work,” says Rav.

“In addition to inspecting irrigation equipment, fencing, and crops, drones can also be used for monitoring and mustering livestock over long distances. Farmers have found the use of thermal sensors on drones to be abundantly helpful when locating livestock through their thermal signatures which can be detected at any time of the day, overcoming the natural camouflage of some animals, especially those that prefer to rest in shade,” he explains. 

“When drones are used for crop health monitoring, they are typically equipped with a multispectral camera payload that can acquire images in discrete electromagnetic frequencies, which include near-infrared, and red-edge bands of light,” he adds. 

“Early signs of deteriorating crop health are detected first in near-infrared or red-edge light before they can be observed in visible light, which allows for a far more proactive crop health management approach. The drone can autonomously follow a flight path over an area of interest using mission planning software and capture multiple images with predefined overlap, height, and speed settings, while also applying accurate geotags and time stamp data for each image. This allows photogrammetry software to effectively produce crop health maps that agronomists can carefully assess.”

He further adds that “spraying drones are used to conduct precision crop spraying, and many of them can easily be swapped into seed spreading mode. They are also highly effective for targeted spot spraying in hard-to-access environments.”

When combined with multispectral crop health maps, spraying drones can be used to precisely target only the problematic areas, significantly reducing material wastage, environmental run-off, and time. “This is precision agriculture at its finest,” says Rav.

What 2022 means for goat and sheep farmers

Fencing and Stockyard company, Clipex – which announced a suite of new products and updated models in 2021 – is not positioned to deliver more industry improvements, with their new range of goat tailored products.

Following farm trends of safety matched with increased access to recording and capturing data, the Clipex R&D team are excited to be launching new goat technology designed to keep the handling of goats safer and easier. 

As stated by MLA, goat production is at its highest level in two and a half years (an 81 per cent increase on last year) with no indications of production slowing down. This creates a gap in the market of needing suitable equipment to handle goats, which is often substituted with sheep equipment requiring home-engineered customisations.

Clipex Marketing Manager Louise Olsson says that animal safety is a significant driving factor in these innovations. 

“Animal safety and welfare is one of the primary drivers in all our designs,” she says. “We’re proud to have produced a product range that can achieve this goal whilst also increasing the efficiency of farming operations.”

This drive also led to the development of the Clipex Lamb Box, which makes recording lamb data incredibly easy and efficient. By using the Lamb Box, producers can now collect data early, tracking the performance of lambs from birth and therefore future proofing their investments.

Match that with a high quality steel construction with the latest engineering techniques and lamb handling becomes stress free and simplified. 

As we weather bushfires, drought, seasons and a pandemic, promising farm trends like increasing the ability to record data better and using equipment that improves farmer and animal longevity will only continue to set up 2022 to be a bright future in farming.

If you enjoyed this feature on innovations in ag, you might like this story on Farmers2Founders inspiring red meat producers.

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As of mid-October 2021, year-to-date slaughter volumes of 234,000 head were 30 per cent stronger than 2020 levels, however, when compared to the five-year average, they were 30 per cent softer. This is an indicator the national goat herds rebuild from
drought is progressing. 

The rebuild is being positively supported by the strong average year-to-date over-the-hooks (OTH) price, which is 3 per cent, or 28c/kg cwt, stronger than the 2020 average in year-to-date prices.

Exporters continue to offer favourable prices to meet bulging order books and with producers increasingly looking to incorporate goats into their operations as a managed enterprise option, Australian goat exports are outperforming 2020 levels on the back of this slaughter volume strength. 

As a result, overall goat exports for 2021 according to MLA date “are operating 20 per cent, or 1,696 tonnes, better than 2020 year-to-August levels, driven by continued growth in the US and explosive volume upticks from South Korea, with its exports rising 97 per cent this year. Annually, the US accounts for 67 per cent of total goatmeat export volumes, demonstrating its significance for Australian red meat producers as a market”.

Rangeland goat prices booming  

Goat Industry Council of Australia (GICA) Vice President, Secretary and NSW Farmers representative, Katie Davies, confirmed that the NSW goat herd is in a restocker phase. 

“The drought really put downward pressure on numbers, however, there has been a real change in the composition of the herd as producers move from opportunistic harvesting operations to semi-opportunistic and managed production systems,” she says. 

“This is happening because the goat meat market is burgeoning and demand has not backed off despite the rise in prices. Although demand is increasing in the domestic market, 70 per cent of goat meat is exported and Australia is the world’s biggest goat meat exporter.”

GICA Rangelands representative, Sam Beven, confirmed that the soaring prices are flowing on to producers. “Price wise, goats are going really well with prices still high. When we started mustering goats in 2015, we were excited by a carcase price of $4/kg and now we’re getting $4/kg liveweight and $10/kg carcase weight”.

Sam says that the situation is not entirely upside. “Numbers are down due to the drought. In 2015 we were mustering 4,000 to 5,000 goats without any trouble, now we are only getting 1,000 to 2,000. People who would previously not be bothered with a little herd of goats, would get them when drought hit and they had destocked their cattle and sheep,” she explains.

Sam says that rangeland goats have now been recognised as a separate breed and that more people are running rangeland goats as livestock. 

“They’ve now got proper breeding and vet programs, and they’re putting them behind wire. These animals are perfectly adapted to the conditions out here,” she says. “People have bought stud billies (usually Boer goat billies) but in a lot of cases if people see some good strong rangeland billy goats with a big heavy front, they will draft them off and either sell them as breeders or use them as sires themselves.”

Huge advantages in goats for western NSW graziers

For Sam, the advantages of goats in Western NSW are clear and many. 

“They are cheap to get started on, as usually you can just go and muster a herd, put them behind wire and start managing them. Goats do not get fly strike or skin cancer like Merinos and you don’t have to shear them. The only input costs are the cost of tagging and providing drinking water and feed. Even there they have an advantage as they eat a wider variety of feed.”

Sam also explains that compared to sheep, goats are a lot simpler at sale time. 

“If you’re sending them straight to slaughter there is a blanket price per goat whether it is a billy goat or a nanny goat, or whether it is 10 years, or six months old. There is just the one price at a certain amount per kilo.

“Abattoirs will also take goats down to a carcase weight of six kilos but with sheep, they will not take anything less than 16 kilos carcass weight. If it gets over a certain amount, that drops the price, if the age is over a certain number, it will drop the price. With goats, you get a number and you just put them on the truck, they go, and you get paid.” 

Beef Central reported that according to David Russell from Landmark Cobar, “There is no doubt 

that goats have played a major role in improving profit margins for graziers throughout Western NSW over the past five to ten years. Producers who used to take a box trailer load of goats to town, get the cash and spend it at the supermarket have now turned it into a business. Properties have been improved with fencing and infrastructure and producers are making serious money.”

Infrastructure upgrades needed 

While there are numerous advantages to including goats into the enterprise mix, there are some challenges – the main one being infrastructure. 

“Goats need better infrastructure than sheep. If all you have is sheep yards, goats will jump over them or go through them,” says Katie. “Merino four wire fencing will not hold goats either – fences need to be taller and need a line of barbed wire at the bottom to stop them pushing under. What most rangeland goat producers are doing is starting with one paddock close to the yards and then moving outwards.” 

Sam adds that goats are slightly different to sheep when it comes to handling. “They’re stubborn. You will try to move them and they will just stand and stare at you.”

Goats in Western NSW are effectively organically raised, partly because the drenches and other chemicals that sheep producers take for granted are not available. “Chemical registration is virtually non-existent and what we are able to use is off-label so we need to regularly renew the minor use permit,” says Katie. “Because of this, the industry has had to spend a lot of money on parasite management, particularly for Barbers’ Pole.”

Western NSW goats reward careful management  

Goats have been accused of degrading large swathes of Western NSW due to their habit of browsing as well as grazing. In his book Managing Pasture, Dale Strickler writes “…goats prefer – and to some extent – require – a diet rich in forbs and the leaves of woody species, which are higher in protein and minerals than grasses. 

“Grasses may be a portion of the pasture composition, but it is important that forbs, legumes and woody species compose a large portion. Because… goats are capable of very close grazing they can easily eliminate many legumes and forbs from a pasture with uncontrolled grazing. Use of rotational [or adaptive multi-paddock] grazing with frequent animal moves makes the maintenance of legumes… forbs [and woody species] much easier.” 

While acknowledging that goats do need to browse, both Katie and Sam argue that goats have had a bad rap. “Graziers in Western NSW are much more aware of the need for management of total grazing pressure. Where previously we relied on ground tanks, we have transitioned to tanks, poly pipe and troughs. By being able to turn water off, we can manage total grazing pressures and we can lock country up when it needs a spell. As a result, the landscape is healing. That’s our role and responsibility as landholders.”

If you enjoyed our feature on goat farming, you might like to read our story on the dairy industry.

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On-farm take up of agtech on Australian farms has been slow – partially caused by our poor telecommunications infrastructure – but now more farms and agricultural operations are relying on both ground and sky technology including drones, farming software and remote sensors to keep ahead of the production game.

The sky is not the limit

Drones are one of the most obvious manifestations of agtech and the technology has advanced so rapidly that today’s high-end consumer drone is more capable than a commercial drone of several years ago. 

Bralca is a Central West-based company that provides unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone pilots, training and consulting services. It has recently partnered with NSW Farmers and Tocal Ag College to run a series of UAV field workshops to help farmers get to grips with the technology.

According to the company’s founder and agribusiness specialist, Ben Watts, sensor capabilities are constantly improving, and farmers are collecting increasing amounts of data. “A broad trend we’ve noticed in agriculture is that it’s all about collecting data on a landscape scale, that is using interconnected sensors otherwise known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Information such as Elders weather, weaner prices etc. can be obtained from Google by farmers – however what they really want is what’s happening on their farm.

“We can collect very high-resolution crop maps at any stage of the crop’s lifecycle – it’s being done in Western Australia, the USA and parts of NSW – and that technology will be the difference between good yields and good profits or high yield and high costs. 

Farmers are taking almost real time, high-res crop maps, processing the data in the cloud and downloading a shape file to MyJohnDeere within 12 to 24 hours to produce a spray map.”

Ben says UAV technology is now pushing into horticulture and it is “working brilliantly in citrus, vineyards and macadamias. Interestingly it’s often just a few trees in a row so the UAV is saving time, money and pesticides because the grower is not paying for a machine to go up every row for a few trees.”

UAVs are also proving to be a boon for farmers implementing adaptive multi-paddock grazing and other regenerative ag practices. 

“The tasks for most livestock producers are pretty simple,” says Ben. “Check my stock, check my water, check my fences and a good quality consumer drone meets 90 per cent of that need. However, livestock producers at the cutting edge are using thermal cameras on drones to check on the welfare of their stock. And as a side benefit, thermal cameras can find water leaks as they show up as a cool area in summer and a warm area in winter.”

Actionable information

At a more micro level, the MEQ Probe gives meat processors the ability to make objective measurements of the quality of the meat whilst it is being processed. 

MEQ Probe is a new solution that utilises spectral analysis to determine the eating quality of meat on a carcase-by-carcase basis. The technology utilises a blend of physics, chemistry and biology coupled with Machine Learning to provide meat processors with an objective measure for meat quality. MEQ Probe provides real-time information to meat processors which can be shared up the supply chain (distributors, butchers, consumers) and down the supply chain (on-farm growers).

MEQ CEO, Remo Carbone, believes that a key element of the AgTech revolution is that information must be actionable. “If information is actionable, it creates a loop of value. Good information drives better decisions, which in turn drives more information and better decisions. Objective data that can be relied upon is key to providing the proper signals to drive better on-farm outcomes. Supply chain demands for higher transparency, faster information and tighter margins are also pushing this trend. 

“MEQ Probe provides objective IMF data on a carcase-by-carcase basis and this feedback enables farmers to understand their product at an individual lamb and mob level. Their performance informs decision-making on-farm and improves productivity. This data is objective information that, when paired with our newly launched producer portal, will enable better management of their mobs and help to inform breeding plans. Our producer portal brings together not only the MEQ IMF value from the lamb processed, but 

several other data points collected to give a proper overview of the performance of the mob. It also allows the farmer to benchmark their own performance over time and see how they are faring relative to their peers. We expect to do the same as we deploy our probe to the beef industry in 2022.”

Meaningful data

While farmers are getting better at collecting data whether it is from UAVs, paddock sensors, crush side tools or in-field/paddock sensors they are lagging when it comes to using that data in meaningful ways. BlackBoxCo co-founder, Emma Black, puts it this way: “Data is like garbage – it’s useless until you know what you want to do with it”.

Founded by Emma and research vet, Shannon Speight, BlackBoxCo is a cloud computing powered web-based app that uses the latest machine learning and predictive algorithm technology to interrogate an expanding database of animal records and display the results on an interactive dashboard.   

“A lot of producers ranging from family farms to large corporates have been collecting data for years, but they get a bit overwhelmed when they think of trying to do something with that data because they’re thinking of Excel spreadsheets and the like. 

“Our app ingests raw production data from a range of sources including crush side units, Excel spreadsheets, data from feedlots and abattoirs. It then cleans the input and links and analyses fragmented data sets to display a range of metrics on an interactive dashboard that producers can use to drive productive actions.” 

Emma adds that the dashboards have been built with beef industry and producer input specifically to produce the insights the industry needs. “Our aim has been to take away the pain. We take raw production data as well as feedlot and abattoir performance data, analyse and display it all back in a visual chart.” 

Users can set alerts around that data – for example a shift in calving pattern or change in average daily gain (ADG) – so they’re notified as soon as the trend is starting to show. All dashboards are interactive so producers can filter by different data points which vary according to the operation. A breeding operation will focus on metrics such as calving loss and foetal age while a fattening operation will focus on data points around ADG and discounts through the supply chain which meant they didn’t achieve optimum spot on the grid. 

Connectivity issues

While Australian farmers are making strong progress when it comes to adopting agtech, a major factor holding back adoption of the technology is poor telecommunications in rural areas. According to the NSW Farmers Telecommunications Survey conducted earlier this year: 72 per cent of respondents indicated that the quality of their internet service limits their ability to adopt new farm productivity technologies while 55 per cent of respondents are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their internet service.  

The majority of respondents rated quality, speed and reliability of their internet service on their property (outside the main residence) as very poor to poor. In addition, the majority have invested in technology such as boosters and aerials to enhance their signal. Of these, 41 per cent have invested in 3G boosters, 58 per cent in 4G boosters, and 74 per cent in external aerials. Over the last two years respondents have spent $90–$15,000 to improve the quality of their service (mobile and/or data) through technology boosting products. 

Over the last 10 years affordable satellite connectivity has improved in both speed, quality and download allowance. This significant improvement is primarily down to huge government investment in NBN satellites.

“Due to the increase in connectivity and smart technology, there is now even greater need for accessible satellite solutions. For example, farmers using agtech to monitor water levels, stock prices and compliance reporting, not to mention normal home internet usage such as streaming and video calling. The message is clear – the need for data is here to stay,” says David Townsend, 

Head of Commercial at IPA Group which includes IPSTAR, ReachNet, and Orion Satellite Systems.

David adds that providers such as IPSTAR are not standing still – they’re constantly providing new offerings and refining the technology available to farmers and their families.

“Delivering connectivity to rural and remote Australians is the core focus of IPSTAR. We understand the challenges farmers and their families face and we are constantly working to provide an experience as similar to that in the city as possible,” notes David. 

“Remote communities across Australia have had a particularly tough three years with drought, fires, floods and COVID-19. Technology can help Australians maximise potential output, whether that be improved crop quality or better pricing at market. But to do this, you need a reliable connection supporting the tech,” David says. 

With the global population set to grow to 3 billion by the end of the century, there is pressure on farming to step up and produce more food. 

“One way to significantly increase efficiency is the application of 21st century technologies. At IPSTAR we are championing this notion, whether that be smart water management, drone crop monitoring or anything that requires internet connection. Essentially, we want to support the government’s mission on the growth of Australia as a global food bowl,” says David.

Sought out solutions

While telecommunications are a major factor when it comes to implementing agtech on Australian farms, companies such as Farmdeck have accepted the reality of Australia’s poor telecommunications infrastructure and have sought to provide solutions that don’t require 3G/4G in the field. Farmdeck provides an all-in-one offering that includes the sensors, the network connectivity and the Farmdeck application available online or downloadable on any Android and iOS devices. 

Farmdeck’s IoT Technology Lead, Luca Palermo, sees three main trends in AgTech: software to replace paper-based note taking and help gather information in one place; sensor technology which enables farmers to remotely track assets whether it’s a water trough, cow, tractor – whether an electric fence is up or down; and satellite sensing which has advanced to the point where it can tell how paddocks are performing and taking detailed measurements of pasture.

“The sensor technology is driven quite simply by time savings. A farmer near Tamworth installed our solution in 2017/18 and he has 17 tanks and about 2,000 head of cattle. It used to take two days to do a trough run. Now he can see it on a dashboard and can track water usage to find problems. Farmdeck manufactures its own sensors – tank, trough and fence etc – so they integrate directly to our software. It’s virtually plug and play.

“Note taking may not sound very important but it is important for new generations who are taking over the farm. They’re very tech savvy, they know how to use a computer and phone and they want to get the information out of dad’s head so they and everyone else who needs it can access it. Once the farm goes electronic it’s easy to go back in time and see if there is a trend or check if something was done and where, and there are big-time savings when it comes to going through paper records.”

When it comes to the barriers affecting agtech take up, Luca cites awareness and connectivity. 

“Agtech is becoming more common, but connectivity is an issue or more correctly connectivity is perceived as a barrier. To solve that problem, we use LoRaWAN – a form of Low power, Wide Area Network which means one station can cover an entire farm, for connectivity to the outside world. If the farm doesn’t have 4G it can use satellite.” 

Energy independence

With farms becoming increasingly reliant on technology, there is a concomitant reliance on electricity, and farmers are looking more and more at the possibilities of energy independence. 

Red Earth Energy are specialists in the field of energy storage, engineering and assembling affordable battery systems to improve sustainability for retail and commercial clients. The company prides itself on being Australian owned and operated with all its products designed and manufactured locally. 

Red Earth Energy CEO, Charles Walker, sees electrification as a major trend in agriculture. “Everything is electrifying, there are electric tractors, trucks, utes, ATVs that are either already available now or coming soon. There is the spread of the Internet of Things which is leading to sensors being everywhere. Even if the sensors themselves are battery powered, the stations receiving the data aren’t.

“By the same token power on the edge of the grid – or on SWIR lines – which most farms are on, is unreliable with the grid delivering inconsistent dirty power that has lots of voltage variation which is bad for equipment. Farmers have solar or see other people that have solar and can see the merging of the two in the future. They’re asking the question: ‘How do I run the farm on solar panels’.”

Charles identifies capital cost as an issue for farmers, but adds that the advantage of solar is that it can run a farm anywhere. “With diesel generators costing $100 or more a day to run, plus the challenges of getting fuel to remote locations, replacing a genset with solar and batteries can pay for itself in as little as four years.

“Another issue is trust. Farmers ask: ‘When it breaks, who is coming to fix it, and how long will it take them to get here, and then how long before it breaks?’ Our systems are remotely monitored and controlled and have a 10-year no questions asked warranty.”

If you enjoyed this feature on agtech in Australia, you might like our feature on biofuels.

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