Article Summary: In the ever-evolving farming landscape, making informed decisions about grazing management and stocking rates can be as unpredictable as the weather. But what if we had a reliable tool to predict pasture production and animal performance, specifically for beef and sheep farms? Enter the Grazing Intelligence model, a cutting-edge development that the Pasture.io team and our pioneering farm management platform have been pivotal in developing. It’s something our team, along with partners Food Agility CRC and NSW DPI, has been busy working on in 2023, and we’re excited to share how we’re helping to rethink and move beef and sheep farming into the future, with Australia leading the way!
In the ever-evolving farming landscape, making informed decisions about grazing management and stocking rates can be as unpredictable as the weather. But what if we had a reliable tool to predict pasture production and animal performance, specifically for beef and sheep farms? Enter the Grazing Intelligence model, a cutting-edge development that the Pasture.io team and our pioneering farm management platform have been pivotal in developing.
It’s something our team has been busy working on in 2023, along with several other key agtech innovation projects, and we’re excited to share how we’re helping to rethink and move beef and sheep farming into the future, with Australia leading the way!
The Grazing Intelligence project aims for commercial viability
In a partnership between the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Food Agility CRC and Pasture.io, these key farming groups have worked together on the research phase to create an agtech application that requires minimal input from producers yet could provide more opportunities to make more informed management decisions.
The group’s key focus was to give farmers instantaneous feedback in the form of an intelligent prediction that helps them identify a deficit or a period of lower production. In short, it gives you plenty of forewarning and hopefully avoids any complicated or expensive adjustments when it’s ‘too late’.
With the help of Pasture.io’s industry-leading pasture management platform, the project aims to provide smart predictions in two main ways: one is predicting how long animals can graze in a given paddock at a set performance level. Second, suppose the paddock is unable to sustain the set level of production. In that case, the application will indicate some viable alternatives, i.e., which pastures on the farm would be better suited to hitting production targets.
Trained on data collected from long-term grazing trials and commercial paddocks, the Grazing Intelligence model takes pasture composition and biomass scores and aligns these with animal weight and condition information.
And while this project is still in the research phase, there are plans to roll it out and engage with more farmers and producers.
What could this grazing intelligence model mean for you as a farmer?
These projections have the potential to be a game-changer, enabling us to gauge whole-farm feed availability and anticipate animal performance. Armed with this insight, farmers will be better equipped to make grazing management decisions and confidently set stocking rates. And here's the beauty of it: better decisions mean improved animal performance, amplified farm profitability, and a pathway to more sustainable management practices.
That’s exciting for the Australian agricultural community but also, potentially, for farming worldwide.
Let’s take a look at what the final report had to say:
The Final Report: How Can Farmers Maintain Sheep and Beef Production Through AI?
The Grazing Intelligence model, in conjunction with Food Agility CRC, NSW DPI and Pasture.io, submitted its final report in December 2023.
The model was built to forecast crucial details: the current pasture biomass and composition, alongside the live weight change of beef and sheep.
This was significant because it’s not just about knowing what's happening now; it's about empowering farmers to:
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Assess if their animals' needs are being met at present.
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Determine the optimal grazing duration for a paddock to maintain a set production level.
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Identify suitable paddocks for livestock elsewhere on the farm.
Let's explore the project outcome and how these grazing management innovations can revolutionise our farming practices, driving us toward a more sustainable, efficient, and profitable future.
Project Goals:
The Grazing Intelligence Project (GIP) aims to create smart models predicting pasture growth and animal performance for sheep and cattle.
Here are the main objectives:
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Develop precise pasture and animal production models.
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Create an interface to share projections with Pasture.io software.
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Validate models using data from diverse environments.
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Enhance models using machine learning.
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Plan for commercial release.
How It Works:
Pasture and animal growth data were collected from research stations and farms, feeding into a database alongside imagery, weather, and soil data. Based on this data, the GIP team used cutting-edge machine learning (Xgboost) techniques to predict pasture biomass and animal performance.
Key Findings:
The models accurately predicted pasture functional groups and growth, especially for grasses and legumes, with factors like soil, water and weather playing vital roles. These predictions helped us understand grazing patterns and guide selective grazing decisions for better livestock health.
Implications for Farmers:
The project successfully developed models that predict animal performance and identify pasture deficits. While these models are about to undergo validation on commercial farms, there's potential to use AI recommendations for grazing decisions in the near future. However, it’s also worth noting that it’s understood across the industry that AI will never fully replace decision-making. Rather, the data available will help farmers make better decisions.
Moving Forward:
To make these models even more accurate, the project recommends focusing on linked grazing data, sharing data across industries, and establishing grazing data standards. Incorporating on-animal sensors and in-field weight change data could further enhance the accuracy of these models.
In a nutshell, AI-driven recommendations for grazing decisions are on the horizon, and Pasture.io is proud to be part of this innovation at the grassroots level in Australia. With the potential to roll this technology out to farmers globally, these really are ‘exciting times ahead’ for smarter, more informed farming practices!
Stay tuned for more company news… 2024 is going to be an even bigger and better year for farming smarter!
And, if you want to know more about what we do, check us out here.
Until we meet again, Happy Grazing!
- The Dedicated Team of Pasture.io, 2024-01-16