About AgTech

Tom Arnott (Fairfield Farming Co.): Certainly, I would advise all farmers that the future of AgTech is going to be crucial for everyone, and if you're not using it, certainly start looking at it, because it will be a big part of our future.

My name is Tom Arnott. We're predominantly an irrigated cotton farm, and we grow winter crops in a rotation. We've been farming here for 27 years.

As an irrigated cotton grower, over the years, we've faced a lot of pressure on our water resources. We've been driving to get more efficient with our water use, to better manage our water and better manage our crops for higher yields.

When I first started here, we were using the neutron probe moisture sensors. They were pretty old technology, having been around since the 1980s. So, we were always on the front foot, looking for faster, better technology.

Goanna Ag came along in the early 2000s and started with this technology, and we started using it then.

Tom Dowling (Goanna Ag): We developed Goanna to supply, initially, weather data—real-time weather data—and soil moisture data to our clients. Tom's got most of our products on his property. With the connectivity and sensors on Tom's farm, Goanna Ag is able to present that in a simple app.

Tom, at any one time, anywhere around his farm, is able to pull up his information in real time, on his phone or his iPad, or his desktop computer.

Tom Arnott (Fairfield Farming Co.): The channel sensors we find really handy—instead of having to physically drive down the paddock every 2, 3, 4 hours during the night, you can just wake up at midnight, check it on your iPad, and go, "Oh, it's right, no worries," and go back to bed. That has certainly streamlined our labour.

20 years ago, I used to ring my mate at Mungindi and go, "How's the weather look out there this arvo, mate?" Whereas now, you just look at the radar and say, "Storm's coming, I'll hold off on that irrigation." It's certainly enabling us to make a lot better-informed decisions.

Tom Dowling (Goanna Ag): Their water use efficiency has improved by over 50%. The return on investment is high. I think the future is very bright.

Tom Arnott (Fairfield Farming Co.): With how quickly the technology is moving, with what we've seen come in the last 5 years, I'm pretty excited about what's coming in the next 5 to 10.

Kym Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): I'm Kym Harrison. I own and run Oakwood Dairy here with Torie Harrison, my daughter. It's a 245-acre farm that's pasture-based, in the beautiful Mount Kilcoy Valley, South East Queensland.

We've been farming here for 20+ years, and we're up to a herd average of about 250 cows milking.

In the 20 years that we have been farming here, we've adopted a lot of new AgTech. And our latest one is our collar monitoring program for our cows.

Torie Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): We've installed over 300 collars here at the dairy, and it's a device that is worn around the cow's neck like a pedometer. It measures how much they walk and how much time they spend eating each day.

It captures the data on the cow 24/7, and as they come back to the dairy, it feeds into the aerial that can read up to 500 metres away. Analysing that data it can indicate how healthy they are and whether they're in oestrus for breeding.

Kym Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): Before we had the collars, we used to have to manually just check on the herd. We would go out and check to see how the health was, how the reproduction was. Then, after implementing the collars, it just picks it up so much quicker and so much easier.

We can see the cows are becoming ill, and then we can treat them before they become really ill. All-round general health keeps our cows healthy and happy, so they produce good, clean milk for us—good quality milk.

Torie Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): This technology has improved our timing of artificial insemination for the cows. It's saved us time in staff training as well. It's a lot easier for them to look at the computer or the app on the phone and know that green's good to go, and red's no go.

We've been adopting technology here on the farm for the entire 20 years that we've owned it, and it's always about improving efficiency, minimising workloads, and increasing productivity. I've got to stay on top of the ball and keep the farm producing.

Letisha Johnson (EastAUSmilk): My name is Letisha Johnson. I'm a Project Officer for EastAUSmilk. We’re an advocacy body for dairy in Queensland and New South Wales.

I think adopting AgTech is really important for the dairy industry. Obviously, everything's moving forward in that area, and I think we need to keep up with the times on it.

Torie Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): Adopting AgTech here on the farm has helped the younger generations get involved, whether it's in the irrigation, feeding the cows, or monitoring their health and behaviour. It's been super positive, and we look to do more in the future.

Wade McFadgen (Moreton Bay Rock Oysters): I've been farming for 22 years. We have 45 hectares of water lease area, and I have about 18,000 bags—about 3 million oysters.

With the new monitoring situation, we've got sensors put out in the water, which give us temperature and salinity readings. This is helping us to understand what's happening out there.

The system is surprisingly simple. It uses what’s called a 'gateway' that's powered through our internet service here. Then we have a weather station that's connected to the gateway via Bluetooth. We also have a sensor out in the water, which sends back messages to the gateway. The data is then put into the system and displayed on our dashboard. It’s a great time saver.

Sandy McFadgen (Moreton Bay Rock Oysters): It's been good to integrate the technology into the business—I check it every morning.

Previously, before having the sensors and the data we use now, a typical farming day would involve going out and physically checking the oysters, opening them to check their condition.

We never had a way to measure salinity. Now, having that information is so valuable. I can sit in the kitchen or in the processing room and check the data. Sometimes I’ll look depending on whether it’s high tide or low tide because water temperature and salinity change. It’s been extremely interesting and will benefit us well.

Tim Prowse (Queensland Oyster Growers Association): From my perspective, the benefits of technology are enormous.

We can now set up remote sensors to measure water quality data, which we can see live on our mobile phones. We now get continuous information, with sensors reading 24/7, 365 days a year. Having that much data at our fingertips is hugely beneficial for our farming business.

We’ve reached a point now where the limitation isn’t in the science or the technology—it’s in our ingenuity, in how we apply it.

Wade McFadgen (Moreton Bay Rock Oysters): When it comes to technology, I look back and think: I’m old enough to remember a time before mobile phones. Now, you can’t live without them because you have all the information right there in your hand.

Tim Prowse (Queensland Oyster Growers Association): With the information we’re getting from using technology, we’re able to farm better and better predict the quality of product we’re taking to the market.