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Everyday Farmer
Beyond Convenience: How Paddock-Wide Wi-Fi Became a Safety Net at Westbrooke Ag
Zac Glover, Farm Owner, Australia
Zac Glover runs Westbrooke Ag, a 9,000-hectare cereal and canola operation in Brooker, South Australia, and, like many farms, needed connectivity that moved with the work rather than staying fixed at the homestead.
▶ Watch Zac's story (1:57)
The property has never had reliable phone coverage, which made it difficult to run day-to-day business given how much is now done by mobile.
Connected Farms deployed its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite solution, giving Glover coverage out in the paddock, not just in fixed locations around the farm.
"The on move Wi-Fi system is a big advantage for us to be able to share data in the paddock and being able to make a phone call where there isn't signal with Wi-Fi calling, that has been a huge advantage for us," Glover says.
Beyond convenience, it's a safety matter - being able to call for help in the event of a fire or accident anywhere in the paddock is, in Glover's words, a big plus for worker safety. It's also forward-looking: as more machines rely on remote software updates and uploads, having paddock coverage means those updates can happen where the machine is working, rather than waiting for it to return to a spot with signal.
Glover sees that as a foundation for adopting higher-bandwidth technology - autonomous equipment, AI spraying, over the next five years.
Transcript
Hello, my name is Zac Glover. I’m an owner and partner of Westbrook Ag, a farming operation here in Brooker, South Australia. We farm about 9,000 hectares of cereal and canola.
We’ve never had reliable phone coverage for as long as I can remember, and a lot of business is done via mobile phone these days. Without mobile phone connection, we struggle to run the business as we know it.
The on-the-move system has been a very big advantage for us, especially being able to share data in the paddock. Being able to make a phone call where you don’t have phone signal, using Wi-Fi calling, has also been a huge advantage.
If there’s a fire or an accident somewhere in the paddock, not being able to make a phone call or reach somebody to bring assistance or get that person out of there is a serious issue. Being able to know that you can make that phone call or contact somebody is a big plus for worker safety on the farm.
As things go forward, more machines use remote uploads, software updates and other functions that are all done remotely. Without having to return to a home farm to get Wi-Fi or find coverage, those updates can be made where the machine is working.
For us, being able to share coverage where there isn’t phone signal will probably be the main advantage over the next five years. After that, who knows what sort of technology will be on these machines - whether it’s autonomous equipment, AI spraying or other systems that need a fairly high-speed internet connection.
I think having connectivity in the paddock is a big first step to getting those technologies to work for us.
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