In this ‘200 More Seasons™’ series, a common thread is legacy – whether it’s a parcel of land, a piece of equipment, some great advice, or a ‘can do’ attitude passed down to the next generation.
This photo is my grandfather harvesting wheat in the late 1920s, with our beloved Catombal Ranges in the background, driving his Case tractor with an HST harvester and platform. This photo appears to show how tough farming was back then, but what it actually shows is my grandfather’s great ingenuity at work.
What’s not obvious at first glance, is the HST harvester was designed to be horse-drawn, so with a blacksmith shed, some scrap metal, minimal tools and a heap of ingenuity he converted it to tractor-drawn – a massive technological step. I can’t say everything went smoothly on the first attempt of the engineering, but persistence and commitment to making it work, ensured they could get the crop off.
‘200 More Seasons’ wants to start a broader conversation around the inevitable march of progress towards modern technologies on farms, and how making decisions now will pay dividends for generations to come.
Buying a tractor, working out how to keep it running and converting old machinery designed for horses, wasn’t an easy choice. Those skills weren’t taught by their fathers. They had to make smart decisions on the fly, formed by knowledge that was proven, and a willingness to try something new while keeping an eye to the future.
Of course, not all new inventions work. Plenty of farm equipment has filled gullies with good intentioned, but poor, design. My grandfather didn’t leap in and buy a new harvester straight away – partly because he couldn’t afford it, but also, he had a harvester that worked, even if it needed some modifications to ‘modernise’ it.
Agriculture today is full of producers who know that digital agtech is the way forward, but for now they’re happy to keep doing things the way they always have.
This ‘kick the can down the road’ type decision-making could come at a cost to future generations on your property. The old farm book full of notes, and all the spreadsheets of the past few decades, have minimal value for the future because they are filled with ‘unstructured data’, that can’t be easily used in the new farming programs and apps.
The digital tools of the future, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), that will deliver better automation, modelling and decision support will need good, clean data, collected over as many seasons as possible, to deliver the best results.
Your trusted advisers will be key to ‘training’ AI and translating the technical implications of suggestions. Agronomists will still be invaluable, as their training and regional exposure can quickly ensure that decisions for your farm, fit your budget, plan, rainfall, risk appetite and a range of other considerations.
For those who use it, agtech already makes it a hell of a lot easier to share reliable data that delivers a big picture understanding of what’s happening, in a way that allows third parties to deliver real-time, operation and property specific advice.
Sharing as-applieds and real-time data with your agro, lets them more accurately predict whether frost will impact you, or whether you’re likely to have a pest/disease issue or to decide the best timing for fertiliser for yield or protein. In some cases, they won’t even need to drive out to the property to update their advice, because the key data will be delivered in real-time and at their fingertips.
Similarly, knowing your cattle stocking rate, along with a satellite image showing food on offer, average weight gains, weather forecasts and current market prices also lends itself to active management.
‘Active management’, rather than ‘reactive management’ is not based on the plan at the start of the season, but based on what’s happening right now, and what’s likely to happen next.
Farmers don’t need to fully digitise their operation in one fell swoop, but should start to build their digital assets and legacy at their own pace. ‘200 More Seasons’ promotes understanding the value of agtech, data sharing and decision support and how each piece forms part of the farming operational puzzle.
Pairtree collaborates with 100+ agtech companies committed to allowing farmers to share data through different channels if they choose. This includes weather stations, soil moisture, tank levels, GPS, farm and livestock management software, satellite imagery, financial records and a range of public data sets.
Agtech adoption is about finding tech that helps manage your operation today, while collecting as much data as possible for future generations to learn from.
Our long running conversation #collaborativeagriculture is about leading agtech companies collaborating, rather than competing, to create partnerships and connections that deliver real value for farmers and agronomists.
We make it possible to start your digital journey, even though you’re not certain about the destination. Any data you collect now from any agtech can be ‘Connected’ through Pairtree, to create a valuable digital asset for now and the future.
You can then safely share information with whoever you choose, in the format they need, and safely store it to use in the future in ways that may not be invented yet. Good, clean data is key and pulling everything together into one spot is the start of future-proofing your legacy.
Now is the time to start preparing for what a digital future requires and think about the big picture by making small daily changes to collect and use data with agtech, knowing it’s value now and as a legacy for the next generation. Get into the habit of filling in every field when digitally recording activities. This is a simple change of behaviour that will pay dividends.
Check out other stories about how we’re helping farmers, agronomists and industry today.
200MoreSeasons™ – ©Kindly reproduced in collaboration with The Lightwood Consultancy.
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