PRECISION agriculture (PA) was the focus of a recent workshop hosted by the Liebe Group in early February.
The strategic use of PA technologies in broadacre farming can provide a flexible tool for growers to maximise their productivity by helping put the right inputs in the right place.
Participants were given training to help get hands-on with PA by experienced PA consultant Bindi Isbister, from Agrarian Management.
Local grower Daniel Birch also joined in to discuss his experiences using PA on his farm in Coorow.
"Daniel's presentation was great," Ms Isbister said.
"It really reinforced my key messages and it was good to hear it from a grower's perspective with the opportunity for other growers to ask questions about the practical use of the technologies.
"The workshop also highlighted a challenge in PA in that everyone has different hardware/software."
With a variety of machinery, software, imagery options, inputs, data, providers and integrations, the technology can seem like a minefield to navigate.
Bringing these aspects into some useful tips and tricks, Ms Isbister highlighted important advice such as not letting PA compromise seeding and to always ground truth the outputs.
Growers completed interactive exercises using an aerial paddock on their farm and their own knowledge to illustrate soil types and constraints, as well as drafting their own PA implementation plan.
Farmer Todd Carter, from Xantippe, found the workshop very valuable.
"The workshop showed how much information we as farmers are collecting and how much more there is to learn to optimise our input management moving forward," Mr Carter said.
"I look forward to the next workshop later this year."
This workshop was supported through the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the Grower Group Alliance and the Society of Precision Agriculture Australia.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark https://www.farmweekly.com.au/
- Follow us on Twitter: @Farmweekly
- Follow us on Instagram @Farmweekly