14 minute read
Technology
Breaking tech barriers
By Tony Benny
Research shows there are numerous barriers to the uptake in technology by farmers and many of these are interconnected.
Farmers’ reluctance to share data is slowing the adoption of technology that could help transform New Zealand’s food production systems to be more sustainable, resilient and consumerfocused, a study by researchers from
AgResearch has found.
The study was part of the New Zealand
Bioeconomy in the Digital Age (NZBIDA) project, which aims to test if digital technologies can provide new solutions to many of the issues that farmers face today.
The research team reviewed academic literature and identified at least 22 different barriers to the uptake of technology that NZBIDA project lead
Mark Shepherd says includes data collection, new analytics, models, robotics, Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning.
“Research shows there are a whole range of barriers,” Shepherd says.
“For example, the technology has to fit in with the farming system and I think there has to be a demonstrated value from using it. I think at the moment there’re not that many proven value propositions.
“There need to be more examples of where the tech has made a difference so that people have got the confidence and can see how it can work for them.”
He says many of the barriers are interconnected and overcoming them won’t be straightforward.
“You might think ‘if we crack this barrier, that’s the solution’, but there might be underlying issues. First of all, you need to understand the interconnectivity and then the opportunities that we’ve got,” he says.
One surprise finding is a feeling among some farmers that the adoption of hi-tech farming affects their sense of identity.
“There is a sense of potential loss of connectivity with the land or just loss of identity as a farmer and the fear of being at the mercy of a big technology provider where you don’t have much say other than using their technologies,” he says.
Other barriers are technical but one of the biggest is reluctance among farmers to share their data.
“The real value of tech is the ability to collect data, the ability to combine different types of data and get more out of combining those data sets but the concern is how will this data be used? ‘If I share it, will I lose control of it, could it be used against me?’,” he says.
“Of all of the barriers, I think that’s the key one and it’s one of the most
Technology for farms is being developed at pace, but uptake has been slower than expected.
difficult ones to resolve. Somebody made the point to me that actually it’s not a technology problem, it’s a people problem. We can share data now, we’ve got systems, but it’s really how do we make sure that it’s used fairly and people will get recognition that they’re sharing data and get the benefit from it.”
He believes progress is being made on data sharing though pointing to the Trust Alliance New Zealand (TANZ), a primary industry consortium working to find ways to safely share data, with a view to preserving and enhancing the competitiveness of NZ primary sector.
TANZ aims to provide a safe space to share data and enable innovation through data interoperability, the organisation says on its website.
NZBIDA is working with DairyNZ to develop “use cases”, effectively case studies, to demonstrate to farmers and others in primary industries the value of new technology.
“At the moment it’s almost like we’re in a phoney war with technology. Everyone’s saying technology’s got this fantastic potential but there aren’t that many successful examples of wide-scale adoption that we can point to and say ‘we’re on our way’ yet,” he says.
“The work of the team illustrates what a huge undertaking it is going to realise the transformational potential of digital technologies in the New Zealand agricultural sector.
“It’s as much about people as about the technology: farmers, processors, society (consumers and citizens) and the technology companies. These stakeholders, and in our New Zealand livestock systems, the animals themselves, have different and, at times, competing needs.” n New Zealand Bioeconomy in the Digital Age project lead Mark Shepherd says that study has identified 22 barriers to the uptake of technology on farms.
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Connecting farmers
By Tony Benny
Connectivity in rural areas has always been a challenge but there are plenty of service providers and networks, including satellite, available.
Fonterra’s new milk vat monitoring system could save the co-op nearly $5 million a year in transport costs alone, implementation manager Jimmy
McCreery told an agritech connectivity event at Canterbury University recently.
“Small gains in how efficient we are with space on our tankers means a lot less kilometres driven and if we can get 1% more efficient, that’s worth $4.5m to $5m a year to us in milk collection costs,”
McCreery says.
He was one of six speakers at the event who discussed issues and options for the connectivity that’s needed to enable the
Internet of Things (IoT) and other hi-tech agricultural developments.
One fast expanding option for connecting with small devices like moisture and temperature sensors or collecting simple data like water tank level, as well as broadband, is satellite communication. Elon Musk’s Starlink network already has 1500 low-orbit satellites circling the earth and that’s just the beginning, John McDermott of the NZ IoT Alliance says.
“Their target is 42,000, which I can’t comprehend, but when you look at the potential volume of the traffic they could serve, it’s going to need some big numbers and huge investment to achieve that,” McDermott says.
Low-orbit satellites generally fly about 500km above earth and travel at about 7.8km/sec, which means they cross our piece of sky in about 10 minutes.
“That speed is why they need so many satellites, so they’ve enough looking down on every point on the Earth as they orbit,” he explains.
In 1960, there were just six satellites in space. By 2020, there were 3368 and some estimates suggest there could be 100,000 by 2030.
But Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) chairperson Mike Smith says the connectivity needed for IoT in New Zealand could be provided by a ground-based network.
His organisation represents 37 independently operated networks that provide wireless broadband in areas not covered by the big telcos and he says that coverage could be harnessed to provide connectivity for IoT devices too.
A new company WISPA Networks has been formed with the intention of adding long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN) services over the whole country.
“What we see as the future is we have a network of networks; 37 networks throughout the country who have coverage that covers more areas that mobile operators don’t get to where
Mike Smith
Fonterra tankers travel about 1.4 million kilometres over their lifetime of seven seasons and now that vat monitoring systems are installed on 9000 farms, they can reduce their fleet size for greater efficiencies.
there is nothing else. The intent is an IoT broadband network that’s available throughout New Zealand,” Smith says.
“WISPA’s already in 75,000 rural homes and businesses, so we have a massive footprint and we want to take that to the next step.”
Spark is harnessing its cellular network to deliver IoT connectivity and IoT solution consultant Micheal Lightfoot says the Rural Connectivity Group, formed by the Government in 2017, comprising the three large telcos, has expanded 4G coverage to most of the country and work is still being done to improve this.
Additionally, Spark has added CAT-M1 technology to its cellular network for IoT connectivity. Spark says it expects there will soon be more than 2000 IoT devices added every week.
Fonterra is using NZ’s cellular network to deliver its milk vat monitoring programme, taking advantage of the fact that all but eight of its 9000 farms have a connection.
Over the past two years, working with partners HALO, Levno and DTS, Fonterra has installed four or five sensors on all 11,300 vats on its farms around the country.
“There were about 700 farmers out of our 9000 that had some sort of milk monitoring system before the project, there’s now 9000. How we sold it to them was they’ve got that information 24/7 in the palm of their hands to supply the best quality of milk possible,” McCreery says.
Knowing what’s in the vat and when the cows were milked has allowed Fonterra to tweak its tanker timetable to collect on a peak day in early October, 85,000 litres of milk from 9000 farms in 24 hours.
That’s meant they can trim seven tankers from their fleet of 500.
“That’s a lot of money to buy and build and then man those tankers. They do about 1.4 million kilometres in their lifetime over seven seasons, so it’s good to get those out of the system,” he says.
Milk vat monitoring will also get Fonterra closer to its goal of traceability from grass-to-glass.
“The reality is, it’s traceability from the tanker to the glass so we’re trying to bridge that gap between the farm and the tanker. We’re good at measuring quality once we get the tanker on-farm, but we’re trying to step behind the farm gate a little bit and just manage how well our farmers are doing and measuring that,” he says.
“Once that data’s in the cloud, the farmer has full visibility of it through the vendors’ app so they can see what’s going on with their milk at all times.”
Fonterra receives some of the data too, including whether farms are going outside MPI cooling regulations for extended periods.
“The co-operative is taking that first step to paying some farmers more for the higher-quality milk than our lower ones and this is a good tool to be able to monitor that.
“That’s the key thing for them, they can monitor that and intervene early onfarm,” he says. n
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Rob Crothers is a dairy farmer at Cheltenham, just over 12km from Feilding in the Manawatū.
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Predicting soil behaviour
By Ross Nolly
Farmers are continually facing new rules and regulations, but technology will help them rise to the challenges.
The synthetic nitrogen cap (190kg N/ha) that came into effect in July dictates that all dairy farmers must record the amount and where they have applied synthetic nitrogen fertiliser on their farms.
Farmers now realise that they must be more mindful about limiting the water and nutrient wastage on their farms and eliminate any leaching into farm waterways. Technology such as the CropX soil sensor is coming to the fore as a powerful tool to help farmers navigate these changes.
The CropX app helps farmers determine the exact amount of water or effluent needed to irrigate their paddocks, by providing an irrigation prescription that is constantly adapting to the changing soil conditions.
It provides soil analytics in a large data platform. Their sensors measure soil moisture, temperature and electrical conductivity at two specific (20 and 46 centimetres) soil levels. Those measurements enter the data platform where models and algorithms use the data to begin understanding the soil type and how it behaves when water moves through it during rain events or irrigation. The app then predicts how that soil will behave during those conditions.
Algorithms separate the conductivity of the soil’s particles (soil particles and water particles) into solely the water portion of the soil. The conductivity of that water portion in New Zealand is primarily driven by nitrates.
“Sensors give you an indication of the nitrate concentration in the water portion of your soil at two levels, how they change over time, the impact when applying fertiliser and how it changes in those concentrations. You can determine if it has remained in the profile or leached through it,” CropX chief sustainability officer Bridgit Hawkins says.
“Not only does it continually add to the farm’s data, every one of the approximately 15,000 sensors deployed in the world contribute data. All information goes into a background AI model that is constantly strengthened by everything it’s learning. The more measurements you have, the more accurate your insight is going to be.”
Soil nitrogen levels change throughout the season. Sensor information enables farmers to learn over time if a nitrogen deficit or other factor may be limiting their pasture growth.
Information gained from sensors gives farmers more confidence when applying fertiliser.
“The sensors are installed on your farm, the information is gathered, analysed and the results viewed on the CropX app on your phone or PC. This doesn’t replace going out onto the farm and looking, but the sensor’s information is something you can’t get by just going out to look,” she says.
CropX gathers data from their sensors but also uses weather forecasts, satellite imagery and soil information to complement the gathered information. That information is run through analytics to provide water irrigation recommendations.
“How do farmers use less water and become more efficient when irrigating? It’s not that farmers don’t want to, they need something that helps them understand where they sit and what changes make sense for them because each farm is different,” she says.
“Rather than saying ‘we’re doing well’, farmers who use sensors have actual measurements that demonstrate what they’re implementing, the outcomes of those actions, and an evidence base to show that they’re achieving those goals.”
Usually, farmers only view into leaching occurs when they undertake their annual nutrient budget in May. Sensors allow farmers to gain back some control by obtaining a view of what’s actually happening between those two dates. It gives them another level of detail and understanding of what steps they need to put in place.
“Soil sensors measure the moisture content in the higher levels of the soil, but also deeper down. You can see the numbers reduce before you see a change in the pasture.” she says.
“It makes you understand how much moisture you need added back into your system to return it to where you need it to be.
“For example, even though a farmer may see that rain is coming, the sensors can show that it won’t be enough to make any difference. This gives farmers time to implement drought coping practices.” n
Soil sensor technology will help farmers meet new requirements around leaching and give them a better picture of what is happening below the surface. CropX general manager Eitan Dan with a CropX sensor.
