Agtech to drive labour efficiency now a must

From drones doing water runs, fence checking and mustering to spraying weeds using artificial intelligence or remote devices removing the need for on-the-ground water and animal monitoring, the need for technology that replaces or improves labour has never been more intense.

Consultants and livestock agents say labour shortages are arguably the single largest issue producers are currently facing.

"It doesn't matter whether you are in the rangelands or in a high rainfall area close to services - labour shortages are real," said NSW farm business consultant John Francis, Agrista at Wagga Wagga.

"This suggests the immediate opportunity for agtech is anything that replaces or reduces labour or improves labour efficiency."

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Prominent livestock enterprise management platform AgriWebb has just released an inaugural State of the Farmer report, which is drawn from surveying more than 400 Australian cattle producers - the majority from family farms - along with producers from the United States and United Kingdom.

It found 67 per cent of Australian respondents now regard agtech solutions and increased access to data as key pillars to ongoing industry success.

Optimism levels had been bolstered by the digital agriculture revolution already well underway down under, the report concluded.

Australian producers now firmly believe in the power of technology, a major shift in sentiment following the tech sector's historically lacklustre record of servicing the livestock industry, according to AgriWebb.

This is evidenced by the high volume of local respondents who reported using technology in a broad array of categories compared to their US and UK counterparts, which in comparison, remain at the earlier stages of agtech adoption.

The majority - 85pc - of Australian farmers said they use tech solutions for things like record keeping accounting, 80pc use it for finance and 50pc for business planning.

But there has also been tech adoption for broader practises across the farm including soil measurement (21pc), water monitoring (23pc), genetic assessment and selection (29pc) and team communications (17pc).

"Early adopters of tech in the agri-space were once branded technophobes, because they didn't embrace technologies specific to their needs or robust enough to handle the tough working conditions," said John Fargher, co-founder and chief revenue officer at AgriWebb.

"This has changed with tech-savvy producers now demanding products that work offline in the paddock and deliver on the bottom line.

"Local producers want one easy solution to implement that provides various data insights on everything from grazing, land usage, unique animal management and traceability."

Victorian producer James Knight, The Sisters Pastoral Co at Cudgee, said livestock businesses in the future would have a better understanding of their impact on the environment, and would have better practises in place to support its continuous improvement.

"This is where having visibility across all aspects of your business is vital and technology is the way to do that," he said.

There were some particularly good news stories in the water monitoring and remote automated technology space, Mr Francis said.

"The cost benefit analyses show high returns on investment in water monitoring largely because you are replacing a labour-intensive job with a technology that isn't too expensive," he said.

"360 degree cameras, water depth sensors and flow meters are just some of the technologies.

"One of the issues is that the more remote the harder it appears to be to get connectivity.

"I've been told of a rangelands producer who is now using a remote camera and remote hydraulically-operated trap gate to trap rangeland goats. This allows for opportunistic goat harvesting without the need to open and close gates in person."

Value the agtech based on the return it can generate and assess that against the upfront and ongoing cost is the advice from the experts.

The value may be convenience, time, efficiency or productivity.

"Think about how many of the knobs/buttons/gadgets in your car that you have never used - they are great for a sales and marketing spiel but if they don't get used they carry little utility," Mr Francis said.

"In other words, don't be wowed by the number of outputs, functions or reports on offer - try to think about whether the agtech meets your core requirements."

Follow the tech but perhaps be cautious around the leading edge.

Letting others solve the problems first can pay dividends.

Mr Francis also said those in agriculture should be looking for cross-sector opportunities and applications.

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