Reality television shows might be all the go, but it’s the rise of smart technologies that is really giving farming customers an exciting view of their farms.
Datamars Livestock head of sales Mark Peters says The Tru-Test Farm Network Fence Monitoring Solution, launched in 2022 is the third smart farming product release from Datamars Livestock.
“It follows the popular autonomous Walk over Weighing and automated Heat and Health Monitoring with Active Tags solutions for Australian producers. Now with the new fence monitoring solution, no matter where farmers are in the world, they can see real-time activity – or lack of activity, on their fence line.”
The new Tru-Test Farm Network Fence Monitoring Solution provides continuous remote voltage monitoring on multiple parts of a fence system using a mesh network of fence nodes which monitors 24 hours a day, all year round.
The full length of a wire is monitored – not just the voltage at the end, and if and when the voltage at any part of the line drops below the set figure, it sends real time alerts to one or more mobile phones.
Mr Peters said a great point of difference of the fence monitoring technology is its phenomenal reach. It measures up to 12,000V over long stretches.
“Fifty nodes, up to 500 metres apart within line of site, can span across a property as one fence network, and single nodes can be added to the main infrastructure to make it easy to monitor temporary break fencing. It also maintains voltage even when the fence condition is poor, making it ideal for remote blocks, run offs and waterways.”
Mr Peters said a key part of Datamars Livestock’s strategy is to build products and services that fill a real business need, helping producers increase their operational efficiency and maintain and increase effective sustainable production.
“Resellers can offer farming customers a valuable time-saving tool that pinpoints the location of faults to a small section of line, and it delivers absolute peace of mind.”
“With information on fence activity and performance, producers can act faster to protect stock and scarce resources, manage rotational grazing plans and high risk feed, and keep an eye on fencing around waterways or areas of concern.”
There are several ways to package the solution to suit what farmers need. They can begin with one Fence Monitoring Node and a gateway, or grab a Fence Monitoring Starter Kit. This is a shelf-ready unit of three Fence Monitoring Nodes and a gateway.
Then they can purchase more nodes and build up to more extensive coverage as they go.
Mr Peters said installation is plug and play with screw-on connections, one to earth, one to the hot wire, screwed to wooden posts or droppers. There are LEDs on each device along with directions via the Datamars Livestock App for a smooth install process.
The Datamars Livestock team is available for training and on farm demonstrations. The system can retrofit to any electric fence and pair with any energizer to add monitoring capability.
