Ensuring consistent network connectivity no matter how rural your farm is
Spend on “AI technologies and solutions alone in agriculture are predicted to grow from $1 billion in 2020 to $4 billion by 2026, attaining a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 25.5%,” states market research firm, Markets and Markets. While the agriculture industry is undergoing a dramatic tech transformation allowing farms to become smarter, work more efficiently and streamline operations, traditional farms who battle to employ agtech may find their output and productivity suffering as a result of not being able to keep up to those tech-savvy smart farms.
Often, one of the biggest barriers of ag-tech adoption on-farm is poor to no connectivity, primarily due to the lack of infrastructure because of a farm’s rural location. Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) reiterates the fact that “digital connectivity is often a challenge in rural areas where it is unavailable, slow, unreliable, and/or expensive.” To address this issue, some farmers resort to building private networks, while many other farmers rather go without due to the expensive nature of the network setup. Farmdeck, which was created by farmers (who also happen to be engineers) for farmers, have become experts in deploying solutions in remote areas with low connectivity and limited power options without the need to build expensive private networks.
“Even in the remotest areas, Farmdeck uses numerous connectivity options to get farmers connected,” says Shervin Fathinia, Farmdeck expert and farm owner. This means that because of the ability to utilise different technologies, Farmdeck can cover 100% of Australia, no matter how remote a farm’s location is. Once a farm is connected, Farmdeck’s IoT sensors are extremely beneficial in providing farmers with insight and a deeper understanding of their land’s requirements, livestock’s movements, grazing habits and can even reduce time spent on timeous time-consuming farm activities, like going for a water run or checking electric fences.
“Since installing Farmdeck’s electric fences and rain gauges, I have discovered faults and irregularities with my solar fencing that I was unaware of.”
“From my own personal experience,” explains Shervin, “Farmdeck sensors notify me when my tank water level has dropped so that I know then that my tanks need filling. It also has the capability to take this a step further and when the tanks level drops a certain amount, it automatically turns the pump on to fill up the tank, and then switches off once it’s hit a certain level. This means that no more water runs are needed and that cattle don’t have to suffer going without water as the tanks will always be full.” The return on investment is huge because you’re not only saving thousands of litres of water, but your not having to move your cattle saving you time. By having this daily data at your fingertips, you can see how much water is consumed by your cattle per day and based on temperature.
What I’ve also noticed since putting a GPS tracker on my bull, he explains, is that he didn’t like to go into certain areas of my paddock to graze. While I thought there was enough feed there for him, there actually wasn’t because he didn’t like that specific feeds. The use cases for IoT solutions on-farm are extremely beneficial.
No farm too small
Another barrier perceived by farmers is that smaller holdings and farms won’t necessarily benefit from agtech adoption. second barrier Smaller operations can benefit just as much, if not more than bigger farms. By streamlining farm activities, and understanding exactly what your land needs, when it needs it, means that you are effectively giving your farm the best chance to produce optimal crops and healthier livestock – exactly like Shervin has done.
Let us help you get connected and stay connected. Reach out to Farmdeck and we can provide a custom-made solution to fit your farm’s requirements. You can even download Farmdeck for free.