[00:00:05] Intro This is a GRDC podcast.

[00:00:12] Shannon Beattie Farming technology and machinery is constantly evolving, with new options becoming available, which have been designed to increase productivity and profitability on-farm. But many of these options are released without growers having any hands-on experience with how they work or understanding how they can add value to their farming systems. That's why a GRDC National Grower Network investment for Live Machinery Demo Days was created. The first event was hosted by the Western Australian No Tillage Farmers Association or WANTFA at Cunderdin in Western Australia, with a focus on precision agriculture and variable rate technology. Hi, I'm Shannon Beattie and in this episode, I'm joined by WANTFA Executive Director David Minkey to find out more about the benefits of hands-on opportunities and practical demonstrations for growers.

[00:01:02] David Minkey Western Australian No Tillage Farmers Association, we've been around for 30 odd years. About ten years ago, we kind of decided we need to kick some tires, get the machines out in the paddock so farmers can see them working. So, this is just recently been funded by GRDC, which is fantastic. So, the main aim of the day is to get the growers to see the machines working to see if they can fit in to their farm.

[00:01:20] Shannon Beattie It's all about VRT and precision agriculture this demo day. When we're speaking about VRT, what are we actually talking about?

[00:01:29] David Minkey Yeah, stands for variable rate technology and that's a whole range of gamut from herbicide application to seed to application to fungicides to lime to fertiliser. So, it's not just one simple thing. It can be as simple as just checking out waterlogged paddocks in the paddock where your weeds are, up to really high-tech precision maps where you're varying your rate of application of a product every 20m or so. It can be the whole spectrum.

[00:01:53] Shannon Beattie This tech has been up and coming over the past decade or so really, but it's really increased in the last five or so years. A lot more growers picking it up, but there has still been sort of a bit of a lack of adoption. Where do you think that is coming from?

[00:02:07] David Minkey Good question. There's a perception that it's hard. There's a perception that I've got all these yield maps on USB sticks in the bottom drawer, what can I do with them? And then there's also farmers' perception is it could be expensive, it could be time consuming, it's hard. And so, what's happened in the last ten years is that new technology has come on board, making all that a lot easier. And there's a lot of companies now and consultants who on top of how to do that, the technology in a much easier way, much more intuitive way, and a way that you can actually pick up your mobile phone or your iPad and do it that way rather than having to have the computer trying to get a map, putting it into a machine. And also, what's happened is that a lot of the machinery dealers, every machine does it differently. And now what we're starting to see is a little bit uniformity coming in where you can get the maps talking to various amount of machines in a much easier way than we ever used to be.

[00:02:58] Shannon Beattie You just mentioned various machinery companies and various machines in general. They're all here. They all came along to this Demo Day. What's the importance of having all of these things in one place for people to be able to see.

[00:03:12] David Minkey It's essentially important. We want to be as even as possible, and we want farmers to decide and saying that was really important to get the dealers involved. And that's probably been the key to the success of these days, is get the machinery dealers involved. If they weren't here or only one or two types of machines were here, it kind of defeats the purpose. The farmers can go around to each of the machines, but it's important to get everybody on board so they can make that informed decision.

[00:03:34] Shannon Beattie What are you hoping growers actually learn at the Demo Day?

[00:03:39] David Minkey We got a subcommittee to determine what we're going to show each year, and they determined VRT is the low hanging fruit, low adoption, but potential huge upswing. So, what we wanted to do is to get farmers a bit of education around the basics - 101 of mapping, how to get the data, how to start. And we've kind of did that in the workshop we did. So, we got past that stage and now we're going to demonstrate to growers how you can use that technology in a more complex or simple way going through, but also trying to show growers, you don't have to spend a lot of money to do it, so it's a bit of a mix.

[00:04:12] Shannon Beattie I suppose a lot of the machines out there already have these capabilities; they just need to be tapped into. Is that something if you're trying to help growers understand?

[00:04:21] David Minkey Absolutely and that's what the dealers here. Live Demonstration Days are a mix of seeing the machines working but it's also the dealers explaining to the growers how it works. So, there's not much point in going away, I'm going to buy that machine because it can do that job. The farmers need to understand, okay, I can see it and I can understand how I can make it work on that machine.

[00:04:39] Shannon Beattie Growers do tend to be visual learners, it's how they learn best. So, what's the importance of them actually being able to come out here, as you say, kick the tires and just see things operating in person?

[00:04:50] David Minkey The feedback we've had over the last ten years have been fantastic days, I can see it working, I was going to buy that machine, but now I'm not because it won't do the job I want it to. Whereas that machine I think will work because I've been talking to my mates, I've been talking to the dealers and now I can see where it will fit into my farming system. Growers not caught up so much in having a new toy. What they want is to see how it fits into their farming system, will it make them money, will it work? And that's what these days are about.

[00:05:15] Shannon Beattie You mentioned not just from talking to the dealers, but them talking to their mates. Peer-to-peer learning, pretty big thing in the agricultural world. Is that part of the point of having these Demo Days as well.

[00:05:26] David Minkey It's probably the biggest point. Not only the social aspect, but farmers learn from farmers. You always get your top five or 10 per cent who will try something. They go first and they give it a go and they've got relationships with the consultants, and they can get things going. But then we've had a couple of farmer case studies today where farmers are actually implementing it. There's a lot of really good farmers here today that can talk to the youngsters, and they can talk to the other farmers about how they got it working.

[00:05:52] Shannon Beattie Having those champions, if we want to call them that, who have already done it, have already experienced it and can pass that info on. How important is that for the uptake of VRT going forward?

[00:06:03] David Minkey We tend to pick on the same people every year, year in, year out, tend to be the same bunch of farmers who are the most advanced. But saying that I think not all of them want to talk every year and not all of them are happy talking in front of a crowd. This way they can have one on ones on the side, there's lots of talking going on the side. And I'd love to be part of that conversation. But they're chatting amongst themselves and it's really good to see.

[00:06:23] Shannon Beattie To finish off with the growers in the future are wondering if they should come into a day like this, what do you want to tell them?

[00:06:30] David Minkey Come along. It's really easy, it's laid back, it's free, funded by GRDC, and you'll get to meet a lot of other farmers from around the State, not just your local area. You get to see some amazing machines in the paddock running up and down. And the social aspect is also really important to us. The farmers get to talk to each other during the day and have a few beers and a barbecue at the end. It's a quite a relaxed atmosphere and there's no high-pressure salespeople here, even though there are salespeople here. They kind of do it in a way that's informative rather than the sales pitch.

[00:07:01] Shannon Beattie Thanks so much for coming on the podcast and having a chat.

[00:07:03] David Minkey Thanks, Shannon.

[00:07:05] Shannon Beattie I'm now joined by Frankland River grower Ben Beech to find out what the benefit of the Demo Day was from a growers’ perspective.

[00:07:13] Ben Beech From a growers perspective, coming to a day like today, it allows us to see machinery in a situation that's not quite our own paddock, but it's close enough to our own paddock. You know, we all go to Dowerin Field Day and places like that which are awesome, we get to see the machinery. There's a tractor running behind me in the background, they're actually doing a demonstration on how to calibrate that seeder. I think as farmers, we spend a lot of money on this machinery. So actually being able to see them before we buy because some of these bits of equipment now it's getting astronomical how much we spend on them. So, it's beneficial for us to actually be able to see them running so that we know what they're capable of and what we're actually going to use them for. You know, there's lots of fancy specs they give us and these pieces of paper that doesn't really mean anything. But for us to sit in front of that machine and go alright, this actually means that, and that's where my dollars are going. It's pretty beneficial for us to be able to see it in front of us.

[00:07:58] Shannon Beattie So, Ben, how much are you using it basically on your own farm?

[00:08:03] Ben Beech We use bits of pieces of VRT on our own farm. Not as much as we'd like to be using. You know, input prices are going up. Our variability is going up as we're chasing yields. High areas are going up, but our low areas aren't going up as much as they should be. So, we're investing pretty heavily in the VRT space. We're not advanced as much as I'd like to be, but we're getting there slowly.

[00:08:21] Shannon Beattie What's the benefit of coming to a day like this and hearing from people with more experience in this area?

[00:08:28] Ben Beech The benefit of hearing other people that have actually done it, whether it be growers or industry people. It allows us to, I think, look at things differently. You know, we've all got ideas of what we should be doing in our paddocks, we've all got areas in our paddocks which aren't as good as what they want to be. But I think going out of that area and seeing different things being done allows us to probably implement them on our own farm. But seeing it somewhere else first, there's that many ideas out there at the moment in the world, so being able to see what other people are doing, it's pretty beneficial before we take it home and try and implement it ourselves on our own farm.

[00:09:04] Shannon Beattie That was David Minkey from WANTFA and Frankland River grower Ben Beech speaking about the Live Machinery Demo Day held at Cunderdin in Western Australia. More information on this topic can be found in the description box of this podcast or online at grdc.com.au. I'm Shannon Beattie and this has been a GRDC podcast. Thanks for listening.