Smart farming in extensive livestock production: the Australian experience

Description

There is little doubt that agtech, and in particular connected things will play an increasingly important, enabling role in extensive livestock production systems in improving productivity, safety, workflow, sustainability and resilience in the face of climate change and market access. But the key ‘enablers of such enablement’ remain the people. Demonstration farms, and in particular demonstration smart farms, featuring, amongst other things, IoT devices in action are a key platform for education, outreach and inspiration for our producers. This chapter provides an overview of the present-day (and near future) role of IoT and data in extensive livestock production systems in Australia.

Table of contents

• 1 Introduction
• 2 The evolution from precision agriculture to smart farming
• 3 The adoption of digital agriculture and smart farming
• 4 The role of Internet of Things in extensive livestock production systems
• 5 Technologies for livestock identification and tracking
• 6 Internet of Things applications in animal health and welfare
• 7 Combining Internet of Things devices: live weight and yield mapping
• 8 Combining Internet of Things devices: water intake and water infrastructure failure alerting
• 9 Combining Internet of Things devices: feed base and stocking rate management
• 10 The rise of demonstration smart farms for extensive livestock production
• 11 Conclusion
• 12 Acknowledgements
• 13 Where to look for further information
• 14 References