Monitoring technology reduces water run times

At a recent MeatUp forum in Port Augusta, agriculture technology specialist Shane Oster, Keith, gave an example of how they introduced this type of technology on a remote station on the Nullarbor.

Madura Plains was like any old farm, until Mr Oster drove from the homestead to a bore, and it took an hour and a half each way.

"It is difficult to understand the scale of it - the family put in about 1000 kilometres of pipe largely based on three main borefields," he said.

"So introducing water monitoring technology here was a no-brainer."

Mr Oster said when undertaking a large-scale project such as this, properties needed to be looked at on an individual basis.

The southern half of Madura Plains could run Next G phone service, but in other strategic locations, traditional satellite was needed.

With the water run divided into six separate trips, it was not physically possible for one person to finish the run in less than six days.

"There was a lot of things that could go wrong at water points that might not be reached in six days," Mr Oster said.

But then a remote water monitoring system was installed at Madura Plains.

Mr Oster said each morning, data systems would then get checked and a prioritised plan of attack was made to establish which water point was most important to be checked first.

"If a pastoralist can look at the system and know all of the water pumps are working, it is a sigh of relief," he said.

The base station concept, which connects with the internet and can be home to thousands of devices, has been used, but does not always suit pastoral areas.

"The distance a transmitter can travel is about 15km in some cases, so for a lot of people it is not a big enough radius in the pastoral zone to connect water points too," Mr Oster said.

Low orbit satellite technology is beginning to take shape, with "suitcase" satellites, rather than satellites being the size of a truck, being looked into.

"That is a competitive space and a lot of capital is being poured into it, but it has a bit to go before it will benefit pastoralists," Mr Oster said.

But despite not all pastoralists being ready to take the leap into remote water monitoring, he said connectivity was the next "revolution" that would change property management.

IMPLEMENTING a flexible flow data system to help manage water tank levels and a number of other monitoring needs, could help save pastoralists time and offer greater awareness about their farm's productivity, according to Alpha Group's Shane Oster, Keith.

Mr Oster discussed remote water monitoring at Port Augusta last week and said flow data was a "gamechanger" for pastoralists.

"It is difficult to argue with," he said.

Mr Oster said flow meters coming in from the bores, a rain gauge tank and salinity sensor, as well as pressure levels, provide data transparency.

"The daily notifications are an easy way for pastoralists to realise how much stock water levels change on a daily basis," he said.

"Depending on what is happening in the paddock, what time of year or whether it is lambing or not, will determine if water levels will double or halve overnight."

Mr Oster said the data collection mimicked what pastoralists were doing, without having to travel long distances.

"Putting that information into the form of data for pastoralists to interpret will help save so much labour and costs - a 1600 litre an hour leakage with SA Water is very expensive - but data can alert you sooner," he said.

"Knowing something as simple as a water tank daily maximum pressure, can stop your water pipes from being blown to pieces as well."

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