.svg){kind=small}
Agribusiness
80% of the Farm Was a Dead Zone: How Willaroo Connected 165,000 Hectares
Will Rogers, Assistant Manager, Warakirri Cropping, Australia
Will Rogers is Assistant Manager at Willaroo, one of Warakirri Cropping's properties, a 165,000-hectare dryland cropping operation in Northern NSW.
▶ Watch Will's story (2:14)
Before reliable connectivity, around 80% of the farm had limited cell coverage, making calls and data transfer difficult across most of the property. Precision tools already on the machines - VR maps, CropScan protein monitors, live harvest tracking - couldn't reliably get their data back to the farm's systems, and staff often had to drive to a known reception spot, or into UHF range, just to make a call.
Connected Farms deployed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) devices, CommsXtend units, and a Connected Farms SIM in the operation's SwarmBot across the property.
"With reliable connectivity we get a lot better use out of our current systems," Rogers says. "The technology the operation already had in place is now being used to its full potential rather than working around coverage gaps." Live data now feeds straight back from headers fitted with CropScan protein monitors and a FarmWVE AI losses camera, giving real-time harvest tracking without needing to be out in the paddock, and VR maps and job data can be sent straight to tractors and sprayers.
The change has also cut travel time - previously up to half an hour to an hour driving to a reception spot - and given the team peace of mind on safety, since anyone in trouble anywhere on the farm can now call for help.
Transcript
I'm Will Rogers here at Willaroo in Northern New South Wales, one of the cropping farms. We're on about 165,000 hectares here of dryland cropping. About 80% of the farm has pretty limited coverage for cell service, as well as problems with that base station. It's pretty hard to make any phone calls or send any data or anything like that in the majority of the farm.
We've got a number of Satellite on the Move devices and CommsXtend Wi‑Fi units. We've also got a Connected Farms SIM card in our SwarmBot. One of the big changes now is getting live data from our machine feeding straight back to our system, so that we can have live harvest tracking on the go to be able to keep track of headers and that without being out in the paddock.
With the reliable connectivity going forward, we get a lot better use out of our current systems, whether that's planting, spraying, harvesting — any of those operations. Sending data to tractors and sprayers like VR maps and jobs and things like that increases the efficiency.
One thing at harvest that we've got this year is all the headers have CropScan protein monitors on them, and we're also experimenting with a new FarmWVE AI losses camera on the back of one of the headers. Being able to have those connect on the header means we're getting that data in real time as well.
We can call someone wherever we are on the farm. We're not having to try and get into UHF range or drive to the other end of the farm where we've got a spot that we know has reliable cell reception. It's a fairly big property, so if you're going from one end of the farm to the other, you're wasting sort of half an hour to an hour worth of driving. We can make those calls anywhere on the farm, which has definitely reduced our downtime and a lot of travelling.
Safety is obviously a big focus here on the farm, so we can have a bit of peace of mind knowing that if someone does get in trouble now, they can pick up the phone and be able to call for help. They're going to have service, they're going to be able to get someone on the phone, which puts everyone's mind at ease — especially at busy times like harvest.
.svg)
