PRECISION agriculture has been the focus of a series of workshops hosted by the Grower Group Alliance (GGA) around Western Australia this month.
The workshops form part of a wider project which is being run by the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the Society of Precision Agriculture Australia, with GGA acting as the WA co-ordinator.
However unlike in other States, GGA has teamed up with the nine different WA grower groups to tailor the workshops to each area.
Farmanco agricultural scientist Alice Butler, who presented the workshops in the southern part of the grain growing region alongside colleague Blake O'Meagher, said precision ag was a pretty vague term that involved anything from autosteer to controlled traffic.
"The obvious benefits are a better utilisation of fertiliser and ameliorants, as well as identifying the responsive soils for soil renovation work or soil wetters," Ms Butler said.
"In Lake Grace, one of the big benefits we discussed was reducing boundary rates, so lowering the rate of seeding fertiliser for that outside lap.
"For Jerramungup, it was spreading gypsum on sodic soils, while in Kojonup it was the ability to apply expensive wetters to just the non-wetting areas, if the seeding setup has the capabilities."
The workshops run by Ms Butler and Mr O'Meagher have focused predominantly on variable rate.
That includes understanding the variability within paddocks, utilising data layers to better explain and understand that variability and then trying to manage inputs to meet soil type requirements and/or increase overall profitability.
"In regards to variable rate, there really aren't any consequences," Ms Butler said.
"Adopting variable rates isn't critical to a business, but more one of those tools that you can use to refine your business and increase profitability."
In the northern half of the grainbelt, the workshops have been presented by Agrarian Management precision agriculture specialist Bindi Isbister.
Together, Ms Butler and Ms Isbister tried to design the workshops so growers would walk away having seen the information and data layers required.
"We wanted growers to have seen how to use that information to create and ground truth maps," Ms Butler said.
"We discussed platforms you can use to translate that into a prescription map and then how that map is inputted into the machine.
"From the start we highlighted that you should be going into variable rate to solve a clearly defined problem that will increase profit."
At each of the workshops, a local grower who is already on the precision agriculture journey was brought in to share their own experiences.
"They were able to take the information we were delivering, context it to the region and really hit home the headaches involved, but also some of the great results that you can get with a little perseverance," Ms Butler said.
"If growers are thinking of getting into variable rate I think the local grower contacts in your area are the best place to start."
Attendance numbers at all of the workshops were solid and from the feedback received, the majority of growers are wanting to attend the second round of workshops.
While the first workshop was an introduction to what precision ag is and where growers can make money from it, the second round will focus on the next phase, including making a prescription and doing the hands on work.
The content in the second workshops will differ depending where in the State they're being held and will likely take place in August and September.
