Affordable technology for Precision Agriculture

As a drought mitigation strategy, the Condon family moved from the semi-arid southeast Gulf to the Wet Tropics to raise their cattle on the lush pastures of what was once part of the iconic King Ranch cattle station empire (Texas, USA) in Muro Plains.  

Located near the sugar town of Tully, the wettest town in Australia with over 4 metres of annual rainfall, rather than develop the land purely for optimal livestock production as planned, the Condons diversified their operations. Since 2002, their business has evolved and expanded to what is now a 4,000+ hectare sugarcane and cattle property and one of Tully Sugar Mill’s largest suppliers. 

The family-owned farm is operated by parents Neville and Heather, and son Chris and Tammy. Their operation is known as one of the most progressive and large-scale farms in the district.  

While over 20 years of experience is still considered new to the industry, the Condons employ more contemporary practices than many long-standing farms, and maintain a strong desire to deploy relevant technologies, both established and emerging.  

The farm enterprise was facing significant challenges when looking to adopt Precision Agriculture to ensure profitability, sustainability, and protection of the environment. Precision Agriculture uses information technology to ensure that crops and soil receive exactly what they need for optimum health and productivity. It reduces input costs and environmental impacts through lower use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilisers, less spray overflow into waterways through reduced spraying time and real-time wind and weather data. This in turn reduces soil degradation and stress and ultimately has a positive effect on the quality of water in the local waterways. 

The Condons participated in the LAND Hub research project that identified barriers to the adoption of Precision Agriculture in the Great Barrier Reef catchment areas, funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (RTP).  

Through this process, several challenges facing the farming enterprise were identified. Access to labour is an ongoing issue in the farming community. Equipment theft and site security had become a major problem with over $10M of Capital equipment spread over three sites (spread over 30km). 

The biggest challenge identified was poor connectivity resulting in an inability to: communicate effectively within and between farms and equipment; utilise cloud-based software tools; access accurate local real time weather data available for planning of activities such as spraying; and adopt Precision Agriculture practices. 

The current and future need for connectivity was identified as beyond simple internet access and includes RTK (Precision GPS), IoT (sensors & remote equipment control), Fixed Wireless (intrabuilding/vehicle and wide-area access), however reliable, high bandwidth internet is a prerequisite for related applications. 

Funding was provided through the RTP-funded LiquaForce Land Hub project to investigate practical solutions that would work on an operational farm under the local environmental conditions including severe rain, frequent flooding, wind and heat. A technology compilation was manufactured and installed on-site in two key locations on the Condon’s farm. Installation comprised of easily transportable, prefabricated pole units which enabled all equipment to be mounted at an optimal height of 7 metres for wide area (line-of-sight) coverage of broadband Wi-Fi (10+ km), camera and lighting.  

Broadband connectivity via Starlink Satellite Broadband is now providing approximately 300Mb/s broadband speeds at two sites: the primary work shed housing most of the high-value equipment and the main site for farm workers doing equipment maintenance; and the homestead with multiple dwellings, office space and all business activities including finance, payroll, scheduling, purchasing and communications. 

Highspeed broadband access has provided a major improvement in the efficiency of operations with voice communications now possible; you no longer need to go to a particular spot to make or receive calls. “Reliable access to very high-speed broadband on both of these sites has been a game changer,” said Chris Condon.  

Chris believes that the lighting and very visible camera coverage have been a major deterrent for further theft and the ability to remotely view activities such as deliveries and contractor arrivals adds to the convenience and management awareness of day-to-day activities.  

Chris and Neville saw immediate benefits with the technology and installed additional units to operate seamlessly across the four farm sites. The remaining gap in this connectivity solution for Condon farming is connecting to farm vehicles and drivers once they have left the proximity of the four main sites

To address the ongoing labour shortage, the Condons believe there is a strong business imperative to upgrade all farm vehicles with self-steering capabilities. Due to competition with the mining industry, labour hire is extremely expensive. Drivers are becoming increasingly hard to source and the turnover can be high. Inexperienced drivers pose an Occupational Health and Safety risk and can often damage expensive equipment.  

Driving can be extremely monotonous and lonely with a typical 12-hour driving session consisting of going up and back on AB lines in blocks. An AB line is the imaginary reference line for each paddock set via GPS that a tractor/sprayer/harvester guidance system is set to follow.  

The aim is to have most activities conducted autonomously without the need for a driver with all vehicle movements monitored and controlled from a single farm location or even remotely. Current equipment is brand-specific and very expensive. 

Valid8 and Land Hub are working with the Condons to develop a prototype unit that can be mounted on any farm vehicle and will include five cameras (four external and one inside the cabin), an RTK (Precision GPS) Rover unit, Wi-Fi, LED lighting (for night activities), video recording, and a full self-steering system that enables the vehicle to be self-guided or fully remotely operated.