ON FARM NATIONAL TECHNOLOGYz Working with an eye in the sky U sing satellite imagery tolook at pastures offersnorthern cattle producersmore than just ancover weekly through the dry seasonsupports early decision making ifreduces the risk of feed shortages.Monitoring pasture status and groundwork reliably in advance.before mustering begins. They canbook trucks, develop supplementaryfeeding programs and plan dry season accurate measurement of biomass. conditions change. By participating in the satellite assisted Two experts in this field – rangeland 2. Greater consistency and accuracy forage budgeting program, producers management advisor Col Paton and Once calibrated, the satellite imagery will learn: agricultural remote sensing specialist accurately quantifies the spatial • skills to reliably estimate and record Phil Tickle – have developed a tool that variability of pasture yields and feed pasture yields enables more accurate and efficient in paddocks, with less time spent • how to combine paddock forage budgeting. manually verifying data on the ground. observations with satellite imagery Calibrating requires collecting manual to get precise paddock‑scale “Using images from a satellite, calibratedyield cuts and estimations from the feed estimates to your property, gives you more paddock which are then used to accurate information on pasture improve the accuracy of predictions • how to develop paddock‑scale yield variability and changes in the from the satellite imagery. By targeting forage budgets and assess how types of ground cover as the season on‑ground pasture assessments, users many livestock can be safely carried progresses,” Col said. can save time and be confident the each season. Col and Phil will coach producers in a satellite is picking up precisely what The training package also includes a new training package, Satellite Assisted is in the paddock. Station staff can 12‑month satellite imagery subscription Forage Budgeting, delivered through change each year, but the data from the for participating properties (up to the MLA’s Profitable Grazing Systems (PGS) imagery is consistent. value of $1,000/property). ■ producer‑training platform. 3. More efficient use of time To register for training or to find Why use satellite forage Users can assess information on out more contact: paddocks even when they can’t access budgeting? the whole paddock. For example, Col Paton While a simple forage budget takes managers can do end‑of‑growing E: clpaton@bigpond.com pasture data and determines how long season forage budgets and plan the mla.com.au/pgs the feed on offer will last with current year’s stock allocation in paddocks stock numbers, satellite imagery takes forecasting to the next level. “Combining local knowledge, simple mobile apps and satellite imagery will significantly reduce the time required to gather field data for pasture budgets and will improve decision‑making,” Phil said. Satellite assisted forage budgeting offers three major benefits: 1. Improved planning Pasture yields and quality can change rapidly and vary across paddocks, but satellite imagery picks up those changes. Updates are provided every five days, with real‑time information on how much feed is in each paddock, rather than a prediction based on growth from previous years. Sustainable stock numbers can be determined at An image captured by satellite depicts total standing dry matte(SD). the end of the growing season, which 28