UNE’s SMART Farm last week provided the location for a showcase of cutting edge primary production technologies, from a range of industry leaders and innovators.

The occasion was a managers’ conference for one of NSW’s most prominent agricultural companies, TA Field Estates, which operates five fine wool, cattle and farming operations in the New England, North West, Riverina and Murrumbidgee regions.

Guest speakers included representatives from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), CSIRO, Sheep Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI) and UNE.

UNE’s Prof David Lamb started the program with an overview of monitoring sensor networks and other technological tools being employed by the SMART Farm, while Dr Karl Andersson Associate Professor Andrew Robson from UNE’s Precision Agricultural Research Group (PARG) outlined the remote pasture and livestock monitoring technologies developed by PARG.

SMART Farms Industry Engagement Officer Rachelle Hergenhan gave an overview of UNE’s SMART Farms, while Jamie Barwick spoke about PARG’s livestock monitoring systems.

Other speakers included Lu Hogan who presented on the Sheep CRC’s AskBill livestock prediction app; Hugh Nivison (ABRI) on cattle matters, Sean Starling (MLA) on the DEXA rollout; Jane Weatherly (MLA) on integrity systems; and Ian Colditz (CSIRO) on NumNuts, the castration and tail docking pain relief tool.

Photo: Meat and Livestock Australia General Manager R&D, Sean Starling, and CEO Integrity Systems, Jane Weatherly, with SMART Farms Industry Engagement Officer, Rachelle Hergenhan, during the TA Field Estates managers’ conference last week.