Tech getting results into farmers' hands

The project, titled Immersive Ag, combats the time pressures faced by Australian farmers who can no longer afford to travel hundreds of kilometres to attend on-site field days.

Project partners providing expertise and funding to make this happen include Frontier Farming Systems and the Mallee Catchment Management Authority with funding from the federal government's National Landcare Program.

MSF chair Daniel Linklater said the program would take the Mallee's leading ag science innovations and insights to the world, enabling anyone to access them from their personal mobile device or computer.

"This is one of the most exciting projects we've delivered in our 22-year history," he said.

"It will save broadacre farmers across the Mallee - and across Australia - a significant amount of time, money and energy and lead to best use of their time.

"The beauty of this project is that we're supporting business outcomes for Mallee farmers by ensuring their precious daylight hours can be spent on their own farms.

"In the past 10 years, we've seen a 65 per cent drop in the number of local farmers able to attend on-site field days.

"Feedback directly from the farmers themselves has indicated that it's not the subject matter of the events keeping them away, but simply a matter of time and money.

"We wanted to support these farmers to be able to still gain valuable insights into our extension projects on things like seep management, soil salinity, sandy soil trials, deep ripping, water tables, cropping sustainability and more. Now with they can with Immersive Ag - anytime and anywhere."

The 360-degree moving videos have been uploaded to video-sharing platform YouTube, making them simple to find and view on any device.

And while this type of technology has already been used in overseas markets, such as the United States and Russia, it is the first time in Australia.

One of the drivers behind Immersive Ag was FFS owner Michael Moodie, who said the initial concept came from seeing what the real estate industry was doing with virtual property tours.

"Technology innovation is an exciting and necessary part of the farming industry's future," he said.

"What we've been able to do here is find a new way to present information to farmers, which offers a rounded experience and suits if they interact with social media, by having instant information at our fingertips.

"With the Immersive Ag concept, farmers can work through an interactive field day and simply click on the screen to pull up soil test results or crop monitoring data - all with a better visual understanding of the land they're being delivered on.

"It seems most other global industries are finding ways to get insightful training, education and vital business information delivered via online video and virtual technology, so we thought it was time we tested it ourselves - and the initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive."

Mr Moodie knew the virtual field day concept was a huge opportunity for Mallee farmers, so has partnered with MSF program manager Tanja Morgan to help lead it into 2020 and beyond.

Mrs Morgan, who has worked in farm extension programs for 20-plus years, said this was one of the best concepts she had seen and believed it could grow into a model that was used by other organisations nationally.

"Typically farmers want to see how things work up-close," she said.

"They need to understand whether some of the science on soil management can work for their properties, and often a written report and photos simply aren't enough.

"Historically, farmers also love to see machinery in action at field days. They want to kick the tyres, look at how it's put together and consider if it's right for their farming systems.

"Immersive Ag's virtual and 360-degree navigation tools allow them to get underneath and up-close to different parts of the machinery while it's in action.

"The opportunities are endless, and this is just the beginning for virtual field days."

Virtual videos are online at the MSF website.