Resources
Connecting a farm
Will Bowden, a fifth-generation farmer in Tasmania, leveraged irrigation and digital tools to remotely control 17 pivots, pumps, and reservoirs, reducing downtime and improving water management.
Case Studies
Variable Rate Application – the basis of an agtech adoption journey
Name
Duncan McDonald, Partner & Operations Manager
Location
Macdonald Dairies
A 385-hectare mixed cropping and livestock farm in north-west Tasmania with red ferrosol soils adopted VRA to manage paddock variability and improve fertiliser efficiency. The farm implemented GPS guidance, yield and soil mapping, and variable rate-capable spreaders to deliver precise inputs and reduce wastage on uniform soils.
What was the challenge?
- Variability in paddock performance was not fully understood, limiting opportunities to improve yields and profitability.
- Fertiliser and other inputs were applied uniformly across paddocks, wasting resources on areas that did not need them and under-supplying others.
- Poor integration between hardware and software made implementing precision agriculture challenging and time-consuming.
What was the process?
- Started with a VR-capable spreader and GPS guidance to improve efficiency and reduce overlap.
- Added grain yield mapping, grid soil nutrient mapping, and paddock zoning to quantify variability and guide input decisions. At this stage, integrated farm management systems were not available, making it difficult to actually implement the insights from the data.
- Upgrading to integrated farm management software and Claas grain harvester (2017) with yield mapping capability and proprietary software for data analysis and map generation proved to be a game changer. Michael was able to resolve equipment and data communication issues.
Results
Started with a VR-capable spreader and GPS guidance to improve efficiency and reduce overlap.
Added grain yield mapping, grid soil nutrient mapping, and paddock zoning to quantify variability and guide input decisions. At this stage, integrated farm management systems were not available, making it difficult to actually implement the insights from the data.
Upgrading to integrated farm management software and Claas grain harvester (2017) with yield mapping capability and proprietary software for data analysis and map generation proved to be a game changer. Michael was able to resolve equipment and data communication issues.
Savings from VRA easily covered the mapping costs.
Michael is saving approximately $20,000 per year on fertiliser without taking into account improved yield from previously underperforming areas.
Variable Rate Application
Other Case Studies
