The Macquarie valley is closely monitoring the smart farm and ‘automation” space, there are currently two providers in the valley who are offering new technology that the Macquaire Cotton Grower Association (MCGA) would like to trial in an “on farm evaluation”. The MCGA have been using and evaluating the Canopy Temperature Sensor (CTS) technology and would now like to trial the “LoRaWan” gateway to access the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. There are potential significant gains to be made that could lead to our overall objective of improving efficiency of our most limiting commodity - water.

The project will have a three-year life span. The sensors will be purchased outright by the

MCGA and the cost includes access to the software for a three-year period. Past trial work has outlined the need to evaluate over more than one season. The sensors easily moved, and “Gateway” access exists across the valley, farm locations can changed after the first season

to explore other irrigation systems such as drip or overhead in the subsequent seasons.

2 of 10 This project has massive scope and potential to be built upon, there is flexibility to be able to repeat it next season with very little capital inputs. It can be adaptive and will try to explore how the IoT can help all farmers to improve