Snapshot
Growers: the Antonio family – Alicia, Terry, Rocky and Olivia
Location: ‘Boomerang Farms’, Salmon Gums, Western Australia
Area cropped: 8300ha
Average annual rainfall: 330mm
Soil types: range from heavy red clay to duplex sand over clay
Soil pH range (calcium chloride): 4.8 to 8.0 at 10cm
Enterprises: cropping and Merinos
Crops: wheat, barley, canola, field peas, vetch, oats
Typical crop sequence: for winter cropping, wheat/wheat/barley/canola or a pulse
While a three-metre SwarmBot towing a 24-metre boomspray is tackling weeds across the Antonios’ property at Salmon Gums, it is also helping the next generation of weed control. Terry Antonio, who farms with his stepmother Alicia Antonio, is collecting data for OpenWeedLocator (OWL) creator Guy Coleman on machine-learning-based weed recognition.
“I have a camera on our robot to collect images for Guy,” Terry says. “I’ve already sent him over 500 gig of pictures and I have another lot waiting for him – and that’s probably just a tenth of what he needs.
“Doing that has also meant I can give Guy feedback on the OWL. Open-source data is a positive thing, and I want to help see it develop.”
Terry met Mr Coleman as part of Agrifutures’ evokeAG conference and is keen to help the next generation of technology. As chair of the Esperance Zone Innovation Group, Terry wants to connect innovators and promote collaboration across the agriculture industry. As a SwarmBot owner, he is often asked about the robot.
The best thing about it is this – when we are busy doing other things, it can keep spraying. It has a weather station on it and stops when it needs to and gets going again when it can.
He says it is important to consider how a SwarmBot will fit into a farming system.
“In our system, we didn’t replace anything – it was an extra and added to what we have.”
Another hot tip, he says, is to map the farm before the robot arrives. “That way, you won’t have any dramas. And if you do it properly once, the return is infinite, the robot can use those plans forever. “It took me a week to do it – and I’ve had no dramas.”
He says software updates mean the SwarmBot, which he calls Boomerang 1, is “now 100 times better than what it was 12 months ago”.
*GRDC supports opportunities for growers to see precision ag machinery in action at events like the Live Machinery Demo Day hosted by the Western Australian No-Till Farming Association in August 2024. Keep an eye on the events page of the GRDC website for similar events in 2025.
More information: Terry Antonio, terryantonio@bigpond.com
Resources: GRDC Events listing.