Data collection provides confidence in decisions

The couple farm with Mr Koch's parents - Joyleen and Robert - across two properties, at Booleroo Centre and Georgetown, with about 1800 hectares of cropping land as well as 1200 Merinos.

Mrs Koch, the immediate past president of the Society of Precision Agriculture Australia, says while early on much of the focus of PA was on equipment, for them it is about doing the job "productively, efficiently and profitably".

"If the tech is available to make a job easier, and we are financially able to do so, we'll take it up," she said.

They grow wheat, barley and beans, with oaten hay sown this year, while they have grown lentils and peas in the past. They also include a pasture rotation - vetch or canola - for sheep feed.

The Kochs have been using PA since Mr Koch returned to the farm in 2008.

Each year they collect protein, yields and normalised difference vegetation index data, as well as EM38 and pH mapping every few years.

"They've all got different applications," she said. "It's about knowing what's below the surface, using soil tests to know what the plant will encounter during the season."

This data is collected into a cloud-based program.

The Koch have split the farm into different management zones, with the specific soil data helping drive decisions.

"It's giving you spatial certainty of different factors that affect yield capabilities and makes agronomy a lot more precise," Mrs Koch said.

"The data helps to know the yield capacity of the paddock, then the key question is working out, 'can I manage the inputs accordingly?'"

While access to these maps can help tailor inputs, Ms Koch said it also aided other management decisions.

"Last year we used NDVI maps and found frost, and were able to selectively cut out the frosted parts for hay, with the rest of the paddock left standing," she said.

In the past decade, Mrs Koch said their work had paid off with significant increases in yield and efficiency.

"Last year was our lowest season (rainfall) on record at Booleroo and by variably managing fertiliser inputs, we were able to achieve patches of 3 tonnes/ha on our sands," she said.

With many new technologies available, the Kochs have a system to help determine what to invest in.

The four meet quarterly with a Rural Directions adviser to talk through these decisions.

"We look at the agronomics, the dollar per hectare cost, but we also look at the personal benefits," Mrs Koch said. "We're undermanned in our business so we're looking if it makes us more efficient.

"Sometimes the financial benefits can't be seen right away but it makes us more efficient and safer."

Autosteer was an example that ticked multiple boxes.

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Mr Koch is a Top Con beta tester, so they trial new tech before it's on the market.

But Mrs Koch said the cloud-based program had delivered their biggest benefit in the past four to five years, and was regularly used both on-farm and in their PA consulting business.

The Koch also work with a school-based apprentice and say a benefit of their system is helping keep him safe and engaged.

They also welcome any chance to learn more about their soil's capability and how it will respond.

Because of this, they have been involved in hosting a number of trials on their property.

They are in their second year of a GRDC-funded CSIRO trial, which uses normalised difference vegetation index and crop sensors to predict how crops will respond to nitrogen applications.

"Anything we can learn that we can do better, we're interested in being involved in," Mrs Koch said.

She said there were benefits in seeing data from other trials in SA on similar soils and gaining an in-depth data breakdown.

"We get a lot of data and can use it to a point but to have a researcher, with a statistical background, go through this is really valuable," she said.

They have also been involved in a number of trials through the Upper North Farming Systems group.

But Mrs Koch said they also perform smaller tests.

"We run our own control strips, when we can, to validate what we're doing year to year," she said.

"With the software we use, we're able to run a yield map across the input map, and to see pass to pass if it's working."

While precision agriculture is most commonly associated with cropping, the Kochs have also begun building its use in their livestock, with electronic ear tags and pregnancy scanning, using this information for selecting and calculating field rations.