.svg){kind=small}
Agribusiness
No More Guesswork: How Gleeson Farms Keeps Two Headers From Overlapping
Scott Gladman, Farm Manager, Gleeson Farms, Australia
Scott Gladman is Farm Manager at Gleeson Farms, an 18,000-hectare continuously cropped property about 80km north of Swan Hill.
▶ Watch Scott's story (2:53)
Phone service across the farm had steadily deteriorated over five to six years, to the point of no coverage at all - a serious problem for a farm running DataCast on displays and machinery guidance systems like Ag Leader, which depend on connectivity to function. Connected Farms deployed mobile Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity to bring coverage farm-wide.
"We can get full productivity out of our machines," Gladman says, with the improved efficiency holding up throughout the year rather than only during particular seasons.
In practice, that means DataCast running live through the satellite connection, so Gladman can check that a paddock has been fully sown before moving on, rather than relying on guesswork. It also lets both tractors see what the other is doing in real time, helping the operators avoid overlapping and save on fertiliser and seed.
Transcript
Hello, I’m Scott Gladman from Gleeson Farms. We farm 18,000 hectares about 80 kilometres north of Swan Hill, and the property is continuously cropped.
Five or six years ago, we had really good phone service across these farms in the Mallee. Since then, coverage has slowly gone backwards to the point where we now have no phone service, which has become a challenge across all aspects of farming.
This is especially difficult with modern technology, where we want to run DataCast on the latest displays, including machinery guidance systems such as Ag Leader. With the phone service we have, that becomes nearly impossible.
We moved forward by getting in contact with Connected Farms, and through that process we developed a system using mobile Satellite connectivity. It looks like an absolute game changer and a real winner, and we think it will be the way forward for the future.
With the DataCast display live through Satellite and that internet connection, we can see what is happening right there and then. Before we leave a paddock, we can quickly check that all areas have been sown before we fold up and move on.
It also makes it possible for us to see what both tractors are doing at the same time. Both operators can see what the other person has done, helping save fertiliser and seed.
.svg)
