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Reliable, farm-wide, high-speed internet is necessary to enable many of the on-farm, technical innovations heading our way. In addition to providing the necessary connectivity to support not just the commercial operations but also teaching and learning and research on the farm, the Global Digital Farm is also a testing and proving ground for some of the latest in telecommunications innovations.

Automated, in-paddock, livestock weighing systems offer the potential to remotely track and forecast animal liveweight gain. This is fundamental to livestock producers for tactical decision making around paddock/feed allocation, management interventions and for planning around market readiness. Getting the best out of such technologies requires substantial work in understanding the intrinsic variability between animals in a herd as well as between measurements over time. These challenges can only be met by a multidisciplinary approach involving livestock scientists, data analysts and farm management.

The ability to remotely and continuously monitor the location and disposition of livestock in fields offers producers enhanced ability to manage herds (including for security) and their feed-base. Such technologies also offers significant additional validation capability for other value chain participants including feedlots, processors and ultimately consumers in terms of lifetime traceability, provenance and food safety.

Remote and proximal sensing and surveying technologies create data layers that provide greater understanding of spatial variability of plant-soil-water interactions. Devices like mobile electromagnetic induction soil conductivity sensors provide insights into the physical-chemical characteristics (including constraints) of the soil at multiple depths in that all-important plant rooting zone. Like on-the-go yield and quality mapping, such sensors are a ubiquitous part of precision agriculture - creating data that when coupled with remote sensing (photosynthetically-active biomass), static sensing devices (soil moisture probes), and detailed soil sampling pave the way for site-specific management of crops and pastures.

Innovations in long range telecommunications (both on-ground and via satellite) are providing opportunities to connect more ‘things’ on our farms. On-farm the Internet of Things (IoT) is the ‘internet of assets’ and producers seek to be able to monitor them for a range of reasons including safety, security and for informing day to day decision making. Monitoring the temperature and condition of haybales, for example, not only reduces the risk of unwanted fires due to self-combustion, but also provides insights into developing or degrading quality over time.

Remote monitoring, whether it be from satellites, aeroplanes or drones provides a unique, synoptic view of the landscape that can support management of crop and pasture inputs (water, fertiliser, seed), assessment of developing resources (pasture and crop yield) as well as management of pest and diseases and weeds, and for day to day operations like mustering. Significant advances in large data capture, analysis through machine learning and other advanced analytics, along with an array of new digital technologies for measurement offers new possibilities to better assist land mangers understand the changing farming landscape. Innovations such as spray drones offer the ability to manage fertiliser and pesticide applications, and seeding drones can be used for planting crops and pastures as well as tree lines.