Innovation changing the view of agriculture towards a future of tech savvy farmers
6/12/2017
By necessity and nature, rural Australians are innovators having always had to create solutions quietly while working with constraints with resources as well as with their geographic isolation
By necessity and nature, rural Australians are innovators having always had to create solutions quietly while working with constraints with resources as well as with their geographic isolation. However, this kind of innovation most often goes unnoticed. But there are so many instances where farming and technology go together making farming so far better. There are many exciting things to celebrate and which will encourage creativity to help us move away from the traditional view of agriculture.Embracing technology in farming can help us to work smarter and get more out of our farms while being efficient and protecting what we produce. There are many ways and forms in which innovation can come into agriculture. There are auto-steer technologies, GPS, Robotic dairies, virtual fencing, drones for property management and so much more. And farmers with operations of all different sizes can benefit from technology even if just on a small scale.
There are some simple innovations that smaller farmers can use to ensure they are operating more efficiently and thereby help them save money over the long term. One such example is a "Shuttle Gauge" which was designed by a Bencubbin farmer. This little innovation helps you to measure chemical requirements more efficiently.
Climate change is a very hot topic, and the Australian agriculture sector is feeling the effects of global warning. Ecological accounting and business models help innovative farmers to lead the charge of using ecosystem services to ensure that their farms are being managed with the use of best practices. Maximizing nutrient productivity and cycling while working with natural landscapes. More low-tech endeavours such as pasture cropping and tree planting are also a great way to innovate in an environment that can quickly be challenging in more than one way.
There are so many emerging agriculture technologies that can make farmers and farms better. The field is expanding rapidly, and grazers and farmers alike can benefit from things such as monitoring remote solar pumps from their homesteads, managing soil moisture and mapping pasture growth rates.
The future of farming is a dynamic one. The industry is exciting, and there are tremendous amounts of opportunities for innovation. With changes in the market, Australian farmers can now be more efficient while developing their products as they bring them to an ever growing market. Farming will continue to flourish while innovations are being embraced by the agriculture sector.
