ONE South East-based vigneron has made the most of newly learned behaviours post-pandemic, such as using QR codes, as the basis of a new app.
Returning to his family vineyard in Padthaway after studying IT and media at university, Willo Brown has married his love of tech with his passion for viticulture, creating a biosecurity tracking app to help stop the spread of phylloxera and other risks to vineyards.
"We had meetings with Sustainable Wine earlier on in 2021 and they were talking about doing the audit we have to do annually," he said.
"They mentioned they wanted everyone to focus on tracking people coming in and out of vineyards. but when we asked them if they had any better ways of doing it other than paper, they didn't have an answer for us."
After extensive research, Mr Brown realised there was a gap in the market, with no biosecurity tracking apps available, so he decided to create his own and from there, MyVineyard was born.
"How it works is we have a sign that contains a QR code, which is big enough to be accessed from your vehicle at the entry to the vineyard," Mr Brown said.
"That takes you to a form and you answer questions like have you been to phylloxera in the last week or have you cleaned your vehicle from caltrop or innocent weed.
"Once the form is submitted, it will automatically pop up with the site access plan and at the same time, an SMS is sent to the manager, which alerts them of any biosecurity information.
"If say, they haven't cleaned their vehicle, it'll let you know that you can get in contact with them and tell them where to go to complete that.
"That information is then available to download for audit purposes."
Launched at the start of last month, the app is still in its infancy, but feedback so far has been all positive.
"We've been using it on property since the start of the year and we've had some great feedback from vineyards already," Mr Brown said.
"It's obviously not going to remove all biosecurity risks, but it's a handy tool in stopping the spread of any pests and weeds."
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Vignerons, viticulturalists and suppliers in the Limestone Coast got a glimpse of the app during Limestone Coast Viticulture Day last week which was held at the Naracoorte Football Club.
The second annual event had about 50 people in attendance, with stalls from more than 20 suppliers and information sessions throughout the day.
Other tech advancements such as drones and mapping were also on display in addition to pest and soil management stalls.
"It's about trying to bring together a lot of different information and ideas to viticulturists and winemakers throughout the region and bring them up to speed on what is available," event organiser and viticulturalist Fil Farina said.
"With COVID, people have been unable to catch up, so no networking has been able to take place.
"That's been tough for everyone in the industry, so to get back in person and chat about new advancements was vital.
"We had a couple startup businesses as well as some long-term industry suppliers and there were plenty of ideas that are not only going to benefit viticulture, but also other agricultural sectors as well."