V.DIG.2022 - MLA Digital Farm: ICT International sensors providing better outcomes in environmental monitoring

Summary

The MLA / Romani Pastoral Company Project, covering Windy and Warrah Stations, applies new and emerging technologies of remote sensing and low power wide area networks to transmit data to decision makers. In November 2019, ICT International installed a network of LoRaWAN enabled weather stations, soil moisture stations and tank and trough level sensors at Windy and Warrah Stations.
The collection of this data can enhance operational efficiency and product quality of a farming enterprise; the monitoring of rainfall and soil moisture provides data which can inform pasture growth modelling for grazing management and pasture growth forecasts, whilst the data collected from weather and microclimate monitoring can be used to reduce the risk of heat stress in livestock. The introduction of remote monitoring for tank and trough levels has the potential to reduce both the labour and fuel costs associated with farm staff physically checking these assets.

Objectives

The objective was to demonstrate the capacity of digital technology on a working farm and show how the property owner can benefit from accessing and analysing data collected remotely.
Specifically, ICT International supplied, installed, and made operational the following digital components:

1. 5no. Water trough sensors
2. 5no. Water tank sensors
3. 1no. Weather station
4. 1no. Rain gauge; and
5. 3no. Soil probes

Key findings

1. In day-to-day farm operations the most user value was gained from fixed asset monitoring of water levels in tanks and troughs.
2. When monitoring systems go offline, an automatic notification is critical in proactively notifying the relevant site personnel that maintenance action is required.
3. Hardware performance is largely hinged upon the support infrastructure being adapted to the site and considerate of any site-specific risks that may arise.
4. For basic troubleshooting resource material needs to be adapted to incorporate consideration for support infrastructure.

Benefits to industry

Digital AgTech providers often make fictious claims about where their technologies and solutions are up to. Digital farms play an important role in vexing these claims and determining what Red Meat Producers can deploy today and the value proposition behind each.
Clearly demonstrated applications of available technology, combined with accessible exemplar sites will enable further projects to be pursued.
The pursuit of these further projects will ensure an increasing awareness of the digital solutions available to the MLA membership and the industry as a whole. Demonstration sites such as Romani encompass a diverse range of agricultural operations, and as such provide the ability to transfer learning across the varied sectors (grains, fodder, beef and sheep) in Australian agriculture.

MLA action

The learnings from the Romani Digital demonstration farm project has helped shape the MLA Digital Agriculture business plan. A need has been identified to further test AgTech which is market ready with producers in real world situations to identify the use cases and value propositions of the solutions beyond the simple demonstration of them. This is guiding the current and future MLA investments in this space.

Future research

Continuing these projects will ensure that the agricultural sector responds to both Federal and State policies surrounding water use. In the proposed strategy for New South Wales Water, there are clear intentions to continue to invest in water use management through R&D programmes (NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, 2021, p105):
• NSW DPI Farms for the Future Pilots
• Improving the understanding of how changes in agricultural practices surrounding pasture and zero-till cropping increase rainfall capture.
Adoption of new and emerging technology will support agriculture in this period of change