Alex_Gartmann

Alex Gartmann: Knowledge is power and our agricultural industries have a very narrow margin for error these days, so the more knowledge to reduce poor decisions, the better.

Agribusiness will benefit from this technology. Both at the farm scale, with data to inform production models and risk management decisions, but also for industry drawing together many years of past research and knowledge for better future investment decisions.

The Soil and Landscape Grid is a huge leap forward. It’s a national data set, it has consistent and comparable data and it has huge potential for regional development informing planning and decision making.

The Grid has limitless applications agribusiness, farmers, local government, regional planners and policy makers all operate in a hyper-connected and fast-paced environment. This grid provides real-time and easily accessible soil and landscape data that can reduce margin for error and inform better decision making.

Grain farmers in particular will benefit from this soil grid. The data is really useful in various decision making models so that they can make informed decisions around time of planting, varieties, nitrogen and other input applications. So it’s all about reducing their risk and ensuring that production and profit is maximised.

Infrastructure decisions for regional Australia have to be thought through. They are generally expensive, so having the best informed decisions supported by real-time relevant and accurate data is essential and that’s what this soil and landscape grid provides.