Wimmera Mallee farmers can now access timely weather information from even their most remote paddocks thanks to a state-of-the-art telematics system installed to monitor water use from the Wimmera Mallee pipeline.
The Taggle M2M radio network, which has been rolled out by GWMWater as part of its Rural Pipeline Intelligence Project, has been key to a BCG initiative which has seen the installation of 50 remote weather stations on farms across the Wimmera Mallee.
BCG CEO Chris Sounness said the Davis Vantage Pro2 weather stations collect rainfall, temperature, humidity and wind (direction and speed) data which is then transmitted to the farmer’s smart phone or computer via the GWMWater Taggle network.
“LX group, an Australian smart technology company, developed the system to allow the weather station to transmit the data using the GWMWater Taggle network,” he said.
“This data is then provided to the farmer via the Data Farmer website that was developed by Bendigo-based software developer Square V in partnership with BCG.”
The weather stations can be installed anywhere on the farm as long it is in the region serviced by GWMWater’s piped water supply, giving farmers the ability to know what the weather conditions are in their paddocks wherever they are.
Mr Sounness said weather information is provided to the user in almost real-time and is updated every 15 minutes.
“In the future we plan to incorporate the harvest fire risk index and Delta T index which are key pieces of information farmers’ use when making decisions about operations,” he said.
“We are of the belief that data should also be able to feed into whatever online recording tool a farmer chooses by utilising an application programming interface (API) and we are working on ensuring that our data can feed seamlessly into popular programs such as Back Paddock, SST Sirius, Ag World, PAM and ProductionWise.
“This ability for farm data to feed into the farmers preferred platform is key for digital agriculture to deliver value back to the farmer.”
To express interest in purchasing a weather station fill out an expression of interest from here. For information about BCG’s weather station project log on at: https://www.datafarmer.com.au/ or phone Chris Sounness on (03) 5492 2787.
This article was published in the Stock and Land on December 15, 2016.