Smart money is on farm technology

Sheep producers are now able to choose from a range of smart farm technologies to adapt to their enterprise, saving them valuable labour time and input costs.

Department of Primary Industries and Research Development research scientist John Paul Collins and Albany-based Stirlings to Coast Farmers smart farm co-ordinator Phil Honey presented smart farm technology case studies at the Sheep Easy forum last Thursday at Williams.

Mr Collins said a 2015 case study at an Eneabba farm, where camera technology was used to monitor water trough levels, showed beneficial cost analysis in both labour and vehicle input savings.

“The farmer, Chris Patmore — who runs 4000 sheep at Eneabba, Morawa, Perenjori and Three Springs — drove 400kl every second day to monitor water points,” Mr Collins said.

Mr Patmore installed 15 cameras at $1500 each and now he does the 400km drive every fortnight, leaving more time to dedicate to farm infrastructure projects.

“We estimated he saved $21,000 per year in both labour and vehicle costs,” Mr Collins said.

“Over 10 years, the benefits outweighed the costs by $140,000.

“For every dollar invested, Mr Patmore had $5.30 returned,” he said.

Mr Honey said Stirlings to Coast Farmers, a grower group with a focus on improving farm productivity in a sustainable way, was behind the testing of a wide range of devices from a broad range of suppliers across all different connectivity types.

“Recently, we have been testing weather stations,” he said.

“We are also looking at bio-security risk technology via managing vehicle traffic on-farm with licence plate recognition as well as water tank level sensors.”

Mr Honey suggested farmers should first identify the problem before they invest in smart farm technology.

“Technologies that are well built will last longer,” he said.