Digifarm Project
Background
The Digifarm Project is funded through the Australian Government Smarter Farming Partnerships Program which is run as part of the National Landcare Program. North West Local Land Services and the University of Sydney have teamed up to run a series of demonstration sites across the North West region to showcase the latest in agricultural technology and how it can be adopted into North West farming systems.
A component of the project is looking at livestock technologies, specifically in paddock systems for weighing cattle, and how the information collected can be best utilised to improve management and decision making on farm, providing real time return on investment within local grazing systems.
Another component of the Digifarm project is the cropping component, particularly looking at technologies focused on agriculture measurement of variation in soil moisture and spot spraying technology.
Broadscale agriculture has resulted in widespread clearing of native vegetation and loss of habitat for native fauna, and this project has a component that looks into wildlife on farm.
How does it work?
Through this project we are evaluating two in-paddock weighing systems for cattle, the Optiweigh which is commercially available, and a Walk Over Weigh (WoW) unit. WoW systems are commercially available but the unit we are working with is fitted with new back end software that the University of Sydney is developing which is not currently available to the public.
The Optiweigh system is a transportable in paddock weighing system that accurately measures and records the weight of cattle. It was developed by Bill Mitchell, a grazier from the New England who saw the need to monitor stock weight and daily gain from the paddock within their own grazing enterprise. For more information on the Optiweigh you can visit their website at https://www.optiweigh.com.au/.
The WoW unit is designed as a static unit that is fixed in the paddock with cattle yard panels, generally around a water point. Cattle are scanned and weighed as they walk across the scales each day, sometimes multiple times a day, giving an accurate daily weight for each animal in the mob. It is possible to move the unit if necessary, however it does take additional time and manual handling. We are in the early stages of the WoW project so we have less data to report on at this stage.
You can find a detailed Digifarm Livestock Project update, including further information on the Optiweigh unit and next steps here.
If you have any questions around this project, please contact Naomi Hobson, Senior Land Services Officer - Livestock on 0407 936 140 or naomi.hobson@lls.nsw.gov.au.
Digifarm Project Case Studies
Walk over Weigh (WoW) Demonstration Site, Manilla
The Walk over Weigh (WoW) unit is designed as a static unit that is assembled in the paddock with cattle yard panels, generally around a water point. Cattle have their EID tag scanned while simultaneously being weighed as they walk across the scales each day, sometimes multiple times a day, giving an accurate daily weight for each animal in the mob.
The Lockrey’s at Manilla was the first site in our region to trial a WoW.
Read the full case study here.
Walk over Weigh (WoW) Demonstration Site, Warialda
For this demonstration site, the WoW unit was used in a mob of maiden heifers that the property owner, Ken Barnett had retained as future breeders.
Read the full case study here.
Optiweigh Demonstration Site, Maules Creek
The site at Maules Creek is owned and operated by Ron and Jil Ison. Ron was running 128 trade heifers grazing subtropical pastures on rotation across eight paddocks. We monitored the performance of the heifers over a 16-week period, taking bi-weekly pasture cuts to monitor pasture quality.
Being one of our first demonstrations sites, one of our objectives for this Maules Creek site was simply to test the functionality of the unit, set-up, teething issues and the response of the cattle to the unit in the paddock.
Read the full case study here.
Optiweigh Demonstration Site, Willala
This demonstration site was run at Alistair Donaldson’s property near Willala, NSW. During the trial the Optiweigh was in with a mob of 70 Droughtmaster steers grazing a 12 month old stand of sub-tropical grasses on rotation; pastures were predominantly digit.
Alistair routinely provides ad lib access to loose lick throughout the year in a custom built lick trailer that can be easily moved between paddocks with the livestock.
Read the full case study here.
Optiweigh Demonstrate Site, Werris Creek
One of the objectives of this site was to determine if older cows would attend the unit in a standard commercial cow/calf operation and what value we could gain from having the unit in with them vs having it in the shed until weaning for example.
We placed the unit in with a mob of 51 cows with calves at foot near Werris Creek, NSW.
Read the full case study here.
Optiweigh Demonstration Site, Boggabri
An Optiweigh and a WoW unit are currently in a side-by-side trail in a commercial grazing and trading operation at Boggabri that is owned and operated by the Avendano family.
This is a great opportunity to evaluate the data output each unit gives from the same mob, and to provide real world comparisons of the two units which we hope will help producers considering investing in an in paddock weigh system, determine which unit has the potential to provide the best ROI for their operation.
Read the full case study here.
Cropping component
Another component of the Digifarm project is the cropping component, particularly looking at technologies focused on agriculture measurement of variation in soil moisture and spot spraying technology.
Use of capacitance probes in dryland cropping, Mullaley
Cropping in Australia is limited by moisture supply and in northern cropping areas stored soil moisture is of particular importance. Measuring soil moisture assists decision making in cropping.
Capacitance is defined as the amount of charge a substance can hold. Capacitance probes work by measuring the change in capacitance of soil related to changes in moisture content. This can be used to monitor changes in soil moisture over time.
We placed capacitance probes in a dryland canola crop and a fallow at Mullaley in NSW.
Read the full case study here.
Use of capacitance probes in dryland cropping, Manilla
We placed capacitance probes in an established tropical pasture and a fallow paddock at Manilla in NSW. The probes are used to monitor stored soil moisture as well as observe the depth to which rainfall is infiltrating into the soil profile.
Read the full case study here.
Soil water mapping
In this project a paddock was surveyed using Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) and the resulting map used to split the paddock into three moisture zones (low, medium and high). Soil coring revealed that these three zones represented differing soil depth.
Read the full case study here.
Weed mapping
Spot spraying technology has become increasingly popular over the last several decades for maintaining fallows. This technology senses green plant material as a spray boom passes over and triggers a spray nozzle (s) to selectively spray fallow weeds leaving bare ground unsprayed. This can allow large savings in herbicide as only a small proportion of the paddock is sprayed which may in turn enable the use of higher rates of more expensive chemicals (where label requirements permit) to be used on hard to kill weeds.
In this project an attempt was made to expand the use of this technology on the Liverpool Plains and apply the technique to a wider range of farm technology systems. We collaborated with the University of Southern Queensland who are developing software to produce weed maps from aerial photographic surveys.
Read the full case study here.
Wildlife on farms
In this project, camera monitoring was carried out on one commercial farm on the southern Liverpool Plains near Bundella near Quirindi and another commercial enterprise in the Maules Creek area near Narrabri.
Motion activated infrared cameras were set up on fence posts near timbered areas and water sources in paddocks in the absence of stock.