Federated Farmers Fielday Seminar: 'Precision agriculture'

Federated Farmers Fielday Seminar: 'Precision agriculture'

Agri Innovation expert, Mark Burgess, has told Federated Farmers seminar at the Mystery Creek Fieldays this morning that automation is king amongst the technology options for farmers.

He said that automation is the primary driver for farmers investing in new technologies on-farm whereas technologies that support improved farm management are lagging.

“Farmers are at risk of being overwhelmed with more data than they can make use of, however we are beginning to see integration through increasingly sophisticated farm management software, which is removing barriers enabling farmers to use more technology in support of their farm management decisions.”

Burgess, the Director of the Institute for Innovation in Biotechnology at Auckland University said that Agritech is already a billion dollar export success, but the potential is vastly greater.

He noted the National Science Challenge for Technological Innovation was bringing research providers together in partnership with industry. “The University of Auckland is setting out to work proactively with New Zealand’s Agritech businesses and its pastoral facing research institutions to accelerate innovation and economic development in this field.

Professor Jaqueline Rowarth told the audience that understanding the consumer preference is key.

“The demand trends are excellent for what New Zealand excels in producing; high quality, minimally processed food and fibre. The short value chain that could be possible with the right technology is farm to plate assurance. New Zealand has traceability and safety at its core, which is a great brand.”

“Working with the processing and marketing arms we can ensure that New Zealand food and fibre captures the imagination, and therefore the premium price, which is the path to on-farm profit.”

Precision agriculture specialist, Armin Werner, predicted that the high technologies in agriculture that are most likely to be accepted by the industries within the next five to 10 years will mostly be in favour of ‘information based production’, using the ‘right data for right decisions’.

Graham Smith, Federated Farmers Chief Executive, said “Today and yesterday’s seminars have been all about Federated Farmers helping to facilitate, educate and challenge ones thinking. There is a strong technology pipeline available to farmers today and we want to highlight what’s available.”

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