Growers across Australia are realising the long-awaited gains of precision agriculture through services provided by Delta Agribusiness’ PA Solutions team.
Delta Ag has taken a different approach to PA - focusing less on a software platform, instead developing a team of specialists who are experts at extracting and analysing all forms of farm data to deliver practical solutions to their growers.
The success of Delta Ag’s PA offering lies in its collaborative approach with both clients and their primary farm advisors.
Adding a PA specialist alongside the agronomic farm adviser bolsters the knowledge and the capabilities of the decision-making team working with the farming operation.
It’s the PA specialist’s responsibility to collect, manage, organise, analyse, and interpret farm data, identifying patterns and trends within the operation, which is delivered to the agronomy team, allowing them to focus on the core agronomic objectives.
This PA team is hands-on.
Not only do they spend the time crunching numbers, they are also out in the paddock jumping in machinery training the operators on how to extract data from machinery and how to get prescription maps running.
Delta Ag PA specialist Gus Hogan said they have developed a team with a unique combination of geospatially technical, on-farm practical and agronomically focused individuals with a goal to make PA practical for busy growers.
“All our team come from farming operations and understand the potential of farm data to improve our grower’s profitability,” Mr Hogan says.
“Our focus as a team is to take on the burden of this data and work alongside the grower and the agronomist to make pragmatic decisions which have meaningful impact.
“We believe we have something unique in the industry that all growers can get value from.”
Another key aspect of Delta Ag’s PA service is its flexible pricing structure, based on charging for work done, rather than a fixed service offering.
This means growers aren’t tied to long-term contracts and they can choose the level of PA involvement or activities they want to focus on.
Dubbo Delta Ag agronomist David Strahorn notes precision agriculture has significantly enhanced agronomic practices for one of his key clients the Weston family, providing accurate input prescriptions based on yield potential across each paddock.
Gary Weston explains precision agriculture has allowed us to apply inputs more accurately, optimizing fertiliser and lime applications where they are needed most.
“This targeted approach has improved our overall efficiency,” Mr Weston said.
With Delta Ag’s involvement, the Weston family has experienced tangible improvements, highlighting the collaborative success of precision agriculture in modern farming operations.
Southern NSW PA specialist Joel Costello said the best decisions are made when you have growers, agronomist and the PA specialist sitting around the kitchen table.
“A flashy app is great if you have the time to learn how to use it,” he said.
“Having a person who knows your data and the software inside-out and is sitting beside you, who you can bounce ideas off and is collaborating with the agronomist is unbeatable.”
