Clever Cattle and Cropping Systems
Clever Cattle & Cropping Systems will demonstrate, across two agricultural production systems, the value of readily interpretable, near-real-time and remotely-accessible data as a day-to-day management tool for farm managers facing a lack of appropriately skilled labour, a spatially-variable landscape and the increasing cost or scarcity of resources (e.g. water). The project will address three themes:
Making sense of paddock variability through sensor and data fusion
This theme will investigate the use of a number of remote and proximal sensing technologies for characterising spatial variability in irrigated agricultural crops, with particular emphasis on fusing multi-temporal datasets derived from EM38 and airborne/satellite multi-spectral imaging, complemented by a small number of in-situ soil probes. This theme will be conducted in 2 test fields (irrigated cotton rotated with irrigated or rain fed grain) operated commercially by project partners Twynam Agriculture and Sundown Pastoral.
Real-time field surveying
This theme will evaluate the use of unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) technology and real-time video streaming as an aid to manage crops, pasture, cattle and on-farm infrastructure (fences, water points). Regular UAV and UAV-mimicking aircraft fly-overs will be conducted over irrigated cotton fields and 2 mixed farming systems. Data will initially be provided in raw video/jpeg format, but subject to the ongoing user review process, may be post-processed into map form (e.g. weeds, crop vigour) for further GIS-based use.
Data visualisation and interrogation
This theme will integrate the multiple on-farm spatial, point and management datasets into a 2- and 3-D visualisation and interrogation information delivery package based on customisation of partner Geogenx’s MaptoolTM platform; a web-based map rendering tool with business intelligence capabilities. The 3-D visualisation component will be supported by CRCSI’s existing investment in SIEVE (Spatial Information Exploration and Visualisation Environment). Data will stored and managed within a centralised database, will be readily updateable, as demonstrated using a number of commercially-available data packages including Food-on-offer (FOO) and Pasture Growth Rate (PGR) via Spatial Environmental Systems TM and crop vigour maps from providers of airborne/satellite imagery. With the participation of PA service provider Controlled Traffic Solutions (CTF), the databases will be interrogated and interpreted locally by project partner farm managers (Twynam Agriculture and Sundown Pastoral) from day 1, ensuring an ongoing process of solution evaluation and refinement. The interaction of end-users and researchers via the Maptool interface will facilitate the demonstration of a world first in Remote Agronomic Diagnostic and Advisory Services (RADAS). This aspect of the theme draws on Project 5.2 (Applications of Collaborative Virtual Environments) outcomes.