New crop varieties and robotics give glimpse of the future

Farmers gathered at in Birchip to explore new crop varieties, robotics and innovative cropping technologies.

New crop varieties and technology took the stage when more than 140 people attended the Birchip Cropping Group’s Trial Review Day on Thursday.

In addition to the people who attended the field site, another 127 farmers logged in online to learn about developments that could affect the upcoming winter cropping season.

BCG chief executive officer Fiona Best said new varieties and considerations for disease tolerance were at the forefront of growers’ minds.

There was also a popular display of robotic technology, and farmers had the opportunity to see how SwarmBot technology could be integrated in agriculture.

“We always have an eye for the future at BCG, and it was good to have autonomous vehicles there,” Fiona said.

SwarmBot technology was on display during the Birchip Cropping Group’s Trial Review Day. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Bailey Kirkpatrick of SwarmFarm Robotics was on hand to show farmers the options and applications of robotics in agriculture.

“It was good to have a SwarmBot there for farmers to see, and there were discussions around how the technology could be used in the future and in a broadacre setting,” Fiona said.

“There is certainly interest from the farming community about how this technology might fit in and how many hectares it could cover or how it could be applied for summer weed control, for instance,” she said.

There was also discussion about production costs and benchmarking and how farmers could keep agriculture profitable.

The varied soil moisture profile across Victoria was discussed, and Fiona said it was clear that moisture levels in the Wimmera, in particular, were quite dry.

“We are still at that time of the year where the modelling and skill level to predict the weather outcomes for the rest of the year are relatively low,” she said.