Summary

1. “Producers generally learn best from others – seeing the agtech demonstrated, talking to existing users”: our project allows local producers to see the agtech used on farm, with cattle, and they can then discuss with the students that have been using it, as to ease of use, and benefits of using the animal management system.
2. “Lack of awareness of the agtech and its applicability or functionality”. MLA study found that there is a real lack of enablers out promoting the technologies, and there are not enough people trialing technologies that are willing to share information both positive and negative. Also, people in the livestock industry often do not have a strong understanding and there is a lack of extension as opposed to cropping. There is a need to find a new type of enabler to help facilitate evaluation and adoption. Our school and our Agriculture/Primary Industries students can be the enablers. Each student can promote the use of the technology within their own networks. Approximately 40% of these go on study Agriculture at university/Tocal or are employed in the rural sector. Many of our students (35-40%) are from farms, and about 50% have relatives on farms. Also, the field days, workshops and on farm demonstrations will help promote the technology to local livestock producers.

Program

AgriFood Innovation

Research Organisation

St Catherine’s Catholic College Singleton

Objective Summary

Students: ability to use the system in the cattle yards with confidence, skills in data analysis, including setting specific performance goals for each mob, and tracking that across a time period. Using that data to then make management decisions that can improve the performance of the mob. Local producers: Allow them to observe and trial the technology and give them confidence that they have the skills to use the agtech. Improve digital literacy skills. The incorporation of digital technologies into on-farm operations requires a different set of skills to those traditionally associated with agricultural production. These digital literacy skills include the ability to operate digital systems including computers and microprocessors, the ability to manage and process the data that is collected, and then make decisions based on the information generated