RED MEAT 2019 SPECIAL FEATURE Romani puts Windy Station Manager David Leeand his wife Clare. ag‑tech to the test Romani Pastoral Company “Then there’s the cost if you lose a tank our Angus and Hereford bulls to ensure is boosting on‑farm of water from a cow knocking a trough they’re in the right paddocks. The tags efficiencies with digital float off and draining a tank of water. have an alarm system that will alert us if technology, and producers “Through this pilot project, we’ve they move out of their paddock.” got a rare insight into the installed monitors on every tank and The commodity and input management innovations they’re rolling out on about one‑third of the troughs so far aspect of the pilot has seen grain silo their two NSW properties during at Windy Station. Once we see which solutions are working the best, we’ll level monitors installed, as well as fuel Red Meat 2019. install more monitors on more of tank level monitors and a new fuel Romani has partnered with MLA to our troughs.” management system. implement a range of ag‑tech products Stocking rates Five weather stations, eight rain gauges and services as part of the Digital Romani has set a target to increase the and nine soil moisture probes have Livestock 4.0 pilot project. property’s stocking rate from 4 DSE/ha been installed as part of the pilot’s Technologies to remotely monitor water, to 9 DSE/ha. weather and climate monitoring. pasture and animals, map weather To achieve this, pasture monitoring and “For us, the pilot project is a great and climate, and manage inputs have animal monitoring technology is being opportunity to test digital technology been installed on Romani’s 21,500ha deployed on the property. in a commercial setting and at scale,” beef cattle and cropping enterprise, ‘WindyStation’ at Quirindi, and attheir “We’re currently running 2,500 Angus David said. ■ 9,600ha cattle, shee and croppingy stocking rate to 4,500 breeders,”p breeders and we’re aiming to lift our pproert, ‘Garangula’, near Harden in David Lee southern NSW. David said. E: dlee@romanipastoral.com.au Water wise “The animal monitoring aspect of the romanipastoral.com.au pilot has seen tags applied to 100 of Windy Station Manager David Lee said he was particularly keen to see the impact remote water monitoring will have on reducing the costs of bore running and preventing water loss. “All of our water is bore water which is pumped to tanks and reticulated back to troughs,” David said. “We spend four days a week monitoring Windy Station Manager David Lee addresses the crowd during the Red Meat 2019 Producer Tour to waters at a cost of about $100,000 a year. Windy Station in the historic woolshed. SNAPSHOT:‘Windy Station’, Romani Pastoral Company, Quirindi, NSWl Area: Enterprise: Livestock: Pasture: Soil: Rainfall: 21,500ha Beef (targeting 2,500 Angus Sub‑tropical Deep black 620mm feedlots) and breeders with a pastures, native clay, cracking 10,000ha cropping cross‑breeding plains grass, clay and lighter program utilising fodder crops granite soils Herefords 12