WITH an influence that spans almost 20 years, a long-term precision agriculture mouthpiece has been awarded a Society of Precision Agriculture Australia life membership for his defining impact on farming systems across SA.
Stockport farmer Mark Branson is no stranger to being at the forefront of progression in farming, and this commitment was honoured last month by Robin Schaefer at a SPAA expo at Loxton.
The former SPAA president helped to shape the direction of precision agriculture after realising there was "no direction for it in Australia".
"The technology was there and evolving rapidly but there was no collaboration between anyone to make it work efficiently on-farm, or proof that it was going to make any money," Mark said. "So my involvement with SPAA actually began out of frustration of farmers having access to top technology and not getting anywhere with it."
As SPAA's third president, Mark took on the role in 2007 to propel precision agriculture adoption forward and he ensured progress on this was made throughout his two-year term.
"I believe in the technology but most importantly, I believe in the ideology," he said. "In the beginning it was about the technology and trying to find out how to make money out of the technology. But it is really just a tool for making better decisions."
During his presidency, Mark also got the ball rolling in other areas, making headway with progressing SPAA into a nationwide body.
"Interstate executive positions were created and it really expanded us across the country," he said.
Mark said it was also a natural progression because adoption rates were lagging.
"We were standing alone in the industry trying to get somewhere with it and show farmers why it was beneficial for their farm," he said.
Prior to leading SPAA, Mark received a prestigious Nuffield Australia Farming Scholarship in 2005.
"I was probably in line to become president prior to it, but afterwards, it really cemented my farming vision and gave me the skills to perform in the position," he said.
Mark was ready to take on the "life-changing" scholarship to further investigate precision agriculture on a global scale, as well as soil conservation.
He adopted the technology in 1997 by mapping paddocks and using a yield monitor at harvest.
"Initially it just provided us with pretty, colourful maps and this was the problem and why I became so passionate about identifying the grassroots reasons for all of the technology," he said.
Mark said he could see what was happening on-farm through the maps but was unable to use it to make better decisions.
"I needed to see how precision agriculture was being utilised across the world and how it was being used practically on-farm," he said.
Mark travelled to New Zealand, Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, France and Belgium to gain a new perspective on its uses and reaffirm his passion for it.
"I have always been so passionate about improving my soils and my farming ethos has been good soil provides profit, and this falls into precision agriculture," he said. "I looked at conservation agriculture, no-till systems and controlled traffic setups overseas."
Mark was pleased to realise Australia's technology and its usage was equal to what was happening overseas.
"The trip reaffirmed by initial thoughts about precision agriculture, in particular, phosphorus replacement," he said.
Mark said it was as much of a self development opportunity as it was a professional one.
"It gave me remarkable confidence in myself," he said.
Despite recently resigning from his SPAA committee position, Mark will remain on the editorial committee to provide practical advice for publications.
He said the role fitted his ambition of stripping technology back to its grassroots and assisting farmers to make money from its adoption.
"SPAA won't run out of puff, because technology is always evolving," he said.
"There is also a great group of eager farmers coming through SPAA's leadership, it has a bright future."
Although Mark's leadership role at SPAA has "run its course", he looked forward to the next stage of his life.
He felt most of his aspirations for SPAA had come to fruition.
"The only stone left unturned was increasing adoption," he said.
"No-till and auto steering is at about 90 per cent adoption rate, even though financially, most could not see how it helped."
Mark believed that better uptake would be achieved through the education of young farmers and wider promotion of broadacre farming opportunities in high school curriculums.
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