Technology aids decision making
By Nick Dykes
4th March, 2024
With Summer coming to an end and Autumn upon us, growers along the east coast have turned their attention to the 24/25 season and are beginning to put their cropping plans in place. With commodity prices fluctuating more than ever, the decision-making process around how growers decide to sow which crops, has become one of great interest.
Cropping plans were traditionally defined in a single decision occurring once a year or once a rotation. Nowadays, the industry has evolved with the introduction of more and more sophisticated technology, combined with the development and reliability of smart devices, such as cameras, satellites, drones, sensors, and Global Positioning Systems. Growers now have more data than ever at their fingertips to aid in their decision making. Such technology also allows for growers to have a system in place for maintaining accurate, easily retrieved and well organised records.
It is well known that preparation and putting the work into planning, ultimately provides for more successful outputs. In the planning phases, growers are reviewing their harvest records and determining yield projections for each crop and where applicable for each variety.
But how much does technology influence crop planning? Are the once used traditional methods a thing of the past?
Anecdotal evidence would suggest that up to 90% of farmers are now using technology and farm management software such as ‘Agworld’ to deliver improved results and establish more efficient and sustainable farming practices. These kinds of programs allow the grower to collect data on a number of levels, analyse the data against historical results and market trends, and then use the data findings to produce maximum profitability applicable to their own circumstances.
In conversation with Griffith based agronomist, Barry Haskins he explains the benefits are truly seen when dealing with a number of stakeholders. “The crop planning programs allow us to work with transparency and efficiency between the agronomists, farm owners, farm managers and 3rd parties such as sustainability and carbon emissions programs, such as Cargill’s “SustainConnect” for example. We can just rip the data straight out of the system and provide 1 message to all of the stakeholders involved”.
With advances like this, is it any wonder that we are seeing more and more accurate and concise practices being implemented throughout the agricultural industry? Of course, there will always be the uncontrollable factors such as weather and global markets, but growers are more so now than ever using the information available to them to give themselves the best chance of success in an ever-competitive market.
So where does that leave the other 10%? Technology is certainly not the be all and end all. There are still some very good farmers that get the same results without all the bells and whistles. Is it luck? Maybe it’s just in their blood!
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