Considerable technology and business opportunities exist in the red meat industry using spatially-enabled tools for managing pasture biomass. The missing ingredients are calibration and data management tools that can be easily used by producers. Mobile devices (MD’s) such as smart phones, i-pads, and tablets are now readily ruggedized and associated mobile device applications (MDA’s) are increasingly being used by Australian farmers. More than three quarters of Australian farms are connected to the internet and much of the data handling and analysis associated with spatially enabled agriculture can be taken out of the producer’s hands by a growing ‘smart-services’ sector. Biomass Business I investigated the use of commercially-available, hand-held, active, optical sensors (AOS) for quantifying the green fraction of pastures; a key driver of animal productivity. In this project, we will develop an internet-connectible MDA to convert AOS output data into a measure of pasture biomass. When connected to the internet, the MDA will facilitate the updating of calibration algorithms, serve as an upload point for user-recorded calibration data (crowd sourcing) onto the server, and provide critical state advisories recommending target biomass thresholds for given management scenarios. For more information contact Dr Mark Trotter or Prof David Lamb.
