An innovative, new $35 million, five-year investment to accelerate the adoption of machine automation and digital, intelligence technologies by Australian grain growers has been launched by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

GRDC Managing Director Nigel Hart launched the Grain Automate initiative last night (Thursday, 25 July) at the Innovation Generation 2024 conference on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

This GRDC future-focused initiative will include a portfolio of up to 30 new research, development and extension (RD&E) investments complementing GRDC’s dynamic research in ag tech, precision agriculture, digital agronomy and advanced analytics.

The decision by GRDC to invest in this progressive space on behalf of Australian grain growers comes amidst projections that the global market for autonomy and intelligent systems will reach $272 billion by 2027.

Mr Hart says it was critical growers had access and support to embrace ground-breaking technology that contributed to on-farm profitability and was designed for Australian farming systems.

“We instigated this investment in Grain Automate based on feedback from growers, advisers and the broader grains industry collected during the development of GRDC’s current five-year RD&E plan,” he says.

“Overwhelmingly growers talked to us about the need to invest in research that delivered or supported potentially transformational gains through digital technology, machine intelligence and machine automation.

“We know growers have an increased appetite for high-risk, high-reward research. This portfolio of investments is designed to enable Australian growers to stay at the front of international production efforts using economies of scale, efficiency in input use and very importantly a focus on cutting-edge, innovative RD&E.”

Mr Hart says it was critical growers had access and support to embrace ground-breaking technology that contributed to on-farm profitability and was designed for Australian farming systems. Photo: GRDC/Evan Collis

Mr Hart says a key priority of Grain Automate was to ‘pave the way’ for autonomy, preparing growers to take advantage of machine autonomy as it becomes available, from precision agriculture through to machine automation and full autonomy.

He says the initiative would focus on three primary programs:

Program one: Paving the way for autonomy which aims to ensure growers have the training, knowledge, skills and infrastructure to integrate fully autonomous machine capabilities within their farming systems.

Program two: Targeted technology development which will optimise existing and emerging technology for machine automation and autonomy and adapt or improve them to meet the requirements of Australian grain growers and their cropping systems.

Program three: Building intelligent systems which will leverage machine automation and autonomy against other innovations - on-farm and pre- and post-farm gate - to extract the maximum possible long-term value for Australian grain growers.

Mr Hart says program one had officially started and focused on providing the building blocks to create a strong foundation in precision agriculture for growers. Key activities will include training in the use of advanced technologies and creating essential on-farm geospatial data, such as paddock boundaries and yield maps.

“GRDC has engaged a national co-ordinator, AgriStart, to deliver demonstrations, training, extension and communications across the program,” Mr Hart says.

“A significant part of this first program will involve leveraging analytics to inform and drive extension and adoption. This work will be led by the Society of Precision Agriculture Australia (SPAA) and includes the development of a Grain Automate online hub and the co-ordination of a national Grain Automate expo series.”

Mr Hart says he looked forward to continuing to share developments and outcomes from this key initiative with the grains industry.

“This initiative reflects a key element of GRDC’s current five-year RD&E Plan, which is about ‘reaching new frontiers’ to deliver on-farm productivity gains beyond what growers currently see as possible, and I look forward to GRDC playing a role in this critical space.”