Tech

The push for Australian farmers to have the right to fix their own machinery has been in the headlines since a leading manufacturer reached a deal with farmers in the United States of America in 2021. AgriFutures evoke^AG. 2023 workshop presenters, Andrew Cooke and Andrew Skinner argue ‘the right to repair’ shouldn’t just apply to farm tools like tractors and headers, but also to data. They say while few producers are also technologists, every producer deserves to control and re-use their own data.

Enabling farmers with greater connectivity and driving productivity on-farm are key priorities for wireless networking company Zetifi, that’s just scored a $12 million Series A investment round to scale up production and support widespread adoption.

US space tech scaleup, Planet Labs’ fleet of approximately 200 mini satellites scan the Earth every day to provide daily high-resolution satellite imagery, and it’s arming landholders with the data to make more informed decisions. Farmer-owned co-operative, Organic Valley is reaping the rewards since teaming up with Planet Labs to develop a pasture mapping tool, that’s helped dairy farmers increase pasture utilisation by 20 per cent.

‘Nature tech’ is gathering pace, offering adaptive soil microbial solutions that help scale up the planet’s ability to heal itself, and improve food security. Ben Barlow, Managing Director of New Edge Microbials and evoke^AG. 2023 speaker, is ahead of the curve – with proven biological inputs that drastically reduce a crop’s carbon footprint and deliver a host of production outcomes for farmers.

Jack Carmody is the manager of Prenti Downs, one of Western Australia’s largest and most remote cattle stations. Jack has created a system, supported by the nbn® network, that delivers high-speed Internet to the homestead — and allows him to monitor livestock in the most isolated pockets of his one-million-acre holding.

Andrew Bate has been sowing the seeds of the future of farming for the past decade, as Co-Founder of agritech company, SwarmFarm Robotics that’s now leading the world in the development of on-farm robotics. The AgriFutures evoke^AG. Startup Program success story and Central Queensland grain farmer will lead a panel of experts exploring the future of autonomous agriculture at evoke^AG. 2023.