Project Details
The Precision Agriculture project, conducted by the Tasmanian Agricultural Productivity Group (TAPG), in conjunction with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) and Serve-Ag, aims to help boost farm productivity by using precision agriculture technologies to enable better crop management and yield prediction. Other service providers who have assisted with the project include AgLogic (Reuben Wells) for processing and storage of data layers, and Terrapix (Neil Meadows) for aerial NDVI imagery during the crop growing season.
Contacts:
- Project Manager – Terry Brient (EO TAPG)
- Project Research Consultant – John McPhee (TIA)
- Project Technical Consultant – Danny Schoenmaker (Serve-Ag)
Site Name: Beswick Holdings, “Depot Farm”
Site Details:
- predominantly ferrosol (red/brown light clay loam over dark red/brown light clay, with patches of grey/brown sandy loam over light sandy clay)
- 21 ha paddock, linear-move irrigator
- 2015-16 crop – processing potatoes
- 2016-17 crop – processing carrots
- representative of north-west cropping enterprises with some variation in soil type within a broad red ferrosol landscape
Farm Notes:
Forth
Site Name: TIA Vegetable Research Facility, “Forthside”
Site Details:
- red ferrosol (red/brown clay loam)
- 6.5 ha paddock, linear move irrigator
- 2015-16 crop – poppies
- 2016-17 crop – fresh market carrots
- representative of north-west coast cropping rotations
- has what are normally considered to be high quality, uniform soils, so a good site to determine if PA is an economic proposition in such a location
Farm Notes:
Site Name: Gibson Agriculture, “Mill Farm”
Site Details:
- dermosol (red/brown clay loam over light red/brown gravelly clay, and dark brown clay loam over light brown light clay)
- 45 ha paddock, divided into 4 quadrants, centre pivot irrigator
- 2015-16 crops – processing peas (¼), grass seed (¼) and two varieties of seed potatoes (½)
- 2016-17 crops – poppies (¼), onions (¼) and grass seed (½)
- A yield map was obtained off the harvester for the grass seed. The other crops were hand sampled for yield estimation.
Farm Notes:
Site Name: Stephen Creese, “Rannoch Park”
Site Details:
- chromosol (duplex) and tenosol (sandy loam/sandy clay loam over clayey sand, loamy sand over sand, and sandy loam/clayey sand over coarse gravelly sand)
- 38 ha paddock, divided based on annual cropping needs, centre pivot irrigator
- 2015-16 crop – onions
- 2016-17 crop – broccoli, peas. Only the peas were sample harvested
- representative of northern midlands cropping enterprises
- two soils with different management requirements
Farm Notes:
Site Name: Michael Coote, “Marengo”, Waterhouse
Site Details:
- predominantly podosol (dark grey loamy sand over light sand, and dark brown sandy loam over sandy clay)
- 60 ha paddock, divided based on annual cropping needs, centre pivot irrigator with VRI capability
- Undulating topography with complicated drainage issues
- strategic surface drainage installed
- 2015-16 crops – three varieties of seed potatoes (¼), grass/brassica fodder (½)
- 2016-17 crops – two varieties of seed potatoes, fodder
Farm Notes:
