Ag-tech adoption streamlines on-farm management

When Emma King arrived at ‘Echo Hills’ in 2021, she relied on Agriwebb’s mapping tool to help navigate the property.  

Since then, she’s been an enthusiastic adopter of ag-tech for the south-east Queensland cattle enterprise she manages with husband Angus. 

The couple work with Peter and Nikki Thompson, who have owned Echo Hills for more than 50 years. The Thompsons purchased the neighbouring property ‘Nugget Hills’ 13 years ago, bringing their total holdings to around 8,000ha. 

A diverse business 

“We run 400 Angus/Santa-cross breeders, as well as a small grassfed trading operation with 350 head,” Emma said. 

“Our goal is to build a really sustainable, efficient breeding herd that's providing grassfed beef to a local market.”  

Last year, the business turned off rising two-year-old steers at 650kg (liveweight) off grass. [Emma, this is from late 2023 – do you want to update this?] 

The business also incorporates agistment with capacity for 1,500-2,000 head, predominantly servicing producers who can rapidly lift or drop their numbers in response to Echo Hills’ rotational grazing methods and seasonal changes. 

Besides allowing flexibility in Echo Hills’ stock numbers, the agistment strategy also aligns to the Thompson’s soil2soul business which is focused on promoting increased soil health and stability.  

This means working with the land, not against it, and Emma said ag-tech can help facilitate this goal.  

“I think ag-tech is enabling us to use traditional methods in a new way by providing better data and more accurate forecasts, with a centralised system that makes it easier to share information,” she said. 

All your data in one place 

Echo Hills uses AgriWebb’s all-in-one livestock management system to centralise its data.  

“All our farm data is in one place, so I can see our grazing management and breeding data, as well as our Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) requirements and our livestock movements, which makes our farm audits much simpler.”  

The AgriWebb mobile app also has a GPS locator which lets our contract or seasonal workers find their way around the property without getting lost or wasting time, making their jobs safer and more efficient. 

“AgriWebb’s grazing management tools, combined with our own ground-truthing, is also helping us manage our paddocks and plan our movements more effectively so we’re getting the most from our groundcover,” Emma said. 

For more information visit agriwebb.com.au.

Remote monitoring of water  

Another piece of ag-tech linked to Echo Hills’ AgriWebb platform is Farmbot, which Emma uses to record rainfall and remotely monitor tank and trough levels, as well as monitoring and operating the property’s water pumps.  

“Across the two properties we might get a 30mm variation in rainfall between gauges, but Farmbot’s sensors have been really reliable, so we trust that data,” Emma said. 

“We still check tank levels regularly, but we can now remotely access that Farmbot data online every day and now it’s linked to our AgriWebb account, that data is automatically recorded which is really helping streamline our water management.” 

For more information visit farmbot.com.au.

In-paddock weighing 

Another useful ag-tech tool is Optiweigh’s mobile unit, which is used to remotely track the performance of Echo Hill’s herds.  

The business has been using it for a few years now, but Emma said the system’s benefits were immediately obvious. 

“It’s very simple, you just put it in the paddock, set up a session, place the lick inside and the cattle walk onto it. With our agistment herds, we could run 600 head in a mob and Optiweigh lets us identify the lead number that are ready to go,” Emma said.  

“It means we’re handling the animals much less which isn’t just more efficient, it’s also safer for us and less stressful for the animals.”  

For more information visit optiweigh.com.au.

Emma’s tips for getting the most out of your ag-tech  Don’t be afraid to trial new technologies but be patient during the implementation phase. Know what you want from a product before you start researching. Make sure the technology you choose is aligned to your business goals. Build a good relationship with your vendors and ask for help when you need it. Implementing new technology requires a lot of input and communication.

Simplifying livestock movements 

Emma also appreciates how AgriWebb can link to the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS), which saves paperwork.  

“It tracks cattle movements on the property and, when we truck them off, it links to my National Vendor Declaration (NVD) so I can see where they went and how much we made from them.” 

When her NVD book ran out a few months back, Emma decided to give the FREE eNVD a go.  

After a few teething problems she found the system made creating a consignment easy – even without service at Echo Hills’ cattle yards. 

“Creating it was easy, and even though I’d been sceptical about using it at the yards without internet coverage I found being out of a service area didn’t really matter at all.”

Emma’s top eNVD tip: Before you start your first eNVD consignment, make sure you have created and linked all your ISC accounts (LPA, NLIS and eNVD) via single sign-on through myMLA. Read this factsheet on creating and linking your accounts.

Digital consignments 

The biggest challenge for Emma was sharing the eNVD with her transporter when he wasn’t set up to receive digital consignments. 

“I think there's still a lot of truckies who either aren’t familiar with the eNVD or who are simply just not set up with eNVD accounts, and we definitely don’t want to make life harder for those guys,” Emma said.  

“Once the whole supply chain is on board, I can see how eNVDs could make the consignment process a lot easier – but realistically, I know it’s going to be a while before we’re at that stage.” 

Until your transporter and/or receiver are set up to receive digital consignments, Emma suggests printing the eNVD and handing a copy to your transporter.

You can do this using the following steps: 

• Create your eNVD online when you have internet service, then submit the consignment and print out a copy for the transporter.
• Update the final livestock numbers on the eNVD app once you’ve loaded the animals. You will be able to access the consignment via the eNVD app even if you’re in an area with no service.
• Update the information on the printed consignment by hand, then sign the paper copy and hand to the transporter.
• Once you’re back in internet range you should immediately open your eNVD app, making sure it’s connected to the internet and allow it to sync to your eNVD account. 
• Once the eNVD has updated with the changes you made offline, you will be able to sign and submit the eNVD electronically. 
• This final step needs to be completed prior to the consignment arriving at its destination.

This method means the transporter and the receiver will have a hard copy they can refer to, while also ensuring your electronic records are instantly up-to-date and accessible online. 

For more options to share your eNVD with transporters, refer to this month’s eNVD factsheet.