The adoption of precision agriculture in an Australian broadacre cropping system—Challenges and opportunities

Interest in Precision Agriculture (PA) has increased rapidly within the grain growing regions of Australia over recent years. Many farmers have invested in machinery guidance systems and yield monitors, but few are using the technology to manage spatial variability across farming zones. While this may be partly due to the cost of adopting further PA tools, other contributing factors include difficulties in integrating components, problems with data interpretation and in using this technology to apply to agronomic solutions. Furthermore, the benefits of this technology to broadacre cropping systems have not been widely demonstrated in many regions. The degree of variability present and whether PA solutions can be technically and economically used to manage different zones within a field are important questions that farmers should consider when evaluating the technology. Regional grower groups such as the Wimmera Conservation Farming Association are using focus farms to address these issues and measure efficiency gains against the capital outlay of different PA systems. An economic analysis showed the cost of a basic PA system to achieve Site Specific Crop Management with a yield monitor, 2 cm auto-steer machinery guidance, variable rate sowing equipment and computer software would add about 8% or AU$ 20/ha/year to average input costs over 5–10 years where 1000 ha are cropped annually. The justification of this extra cost will depend on the situation, particularly the amount of variation present, efficiency gains, yield increases and/or the value individual farmers place on factors like reduced operator fatigue, extended working hours and certain environmental benefits. PA technology has decreased in cost since its introduction and if this trend continues, adoption is likely to increase in the future and this will be supported by the ongoing collection of soil, yield and field data. Adoption is likely to be enhanced by farmer, manufacturer and researcher collaboration to demonstrate the benefits of this technology on a commercial scale. Before investing heavily in PA tools, interested farmers can evaluate the technology, whilst estimating the degree of variation present in fields and the potential benefits of PA by engaging contractors and consultants with the appropriate tools.