Improving lifestyle through increased efficiency
“It might be hard to quantify the benefits, but I would recommend every producer to just try INCYT; once you try it, you’ll know.”
Size: 6,500 hectares
Type: Irrigated & Dryland Cropping
Crops: Cotton, Wheat, Chickpeas, Faba Beans
The team at Waverley Ag is constantly looking to achieve higher labour efficiency and increased agronomic benefits, while also trying to improve staff retention through providing a more attractive and safe workplace. This challenge has been a focus at Waverley for over 20 years already, and still is today.
When the New South Wales government introduced the Farms of the Future program with significant financial benefits for producers to adopt AgTech, Waverley Ag owner Steve Carolan and manager Andrew Greste set out to find the next technology to implement on the farm. After looking at the different providers available, they decided to adopt INCYT’s fuel level sensors, water level sensors and rain gauges. With this, the team is able to remotely monitor water levels in the irrigation channels, fuel tank levels in all different fuel tanks, as well as rainfall differentials across the farm.
With INCYT's technology now installed, Waverley is able to save time and money by not having to drive across the farm anymore to take measurements in person. The team has also been able to improve their lifestyle by cutting out unnecessary travel time when they’re at their busiest.
A long history of implementing AgTech
The Carolan family, who have been farming at ‘Waverley’, 30km west of Wee Waa, NSW for 3 generations, sunk their first irrigation bore in 1953 and developed the first irrigated cropping fields in 1979. Fast forward to 2024 with 3rd generation farmer Steve Carolan at the helm of the business, the family now grows crops across 6,500 hectares, with 3,400 of those hectares developed for irrigation. Steve explains: “We grew our first cotton crop in 1979 when we still only had access to groundwater; we didn’t get access to Pian creek until a 15KM channel was dug in 1991. Dad and Pop were always keen to try new things, whether that’s growing a new crop, new farming methods such as flood irrigation, or adopting controlled traffic through contractors with the early B-line systems, so that’s definitely part of our family philosophy.”
Waverley was also an early adopter of digital channel monitoring with technology which was quite advanced for it’s time, Farm Manager Andrew Greste explains: “I’ve been at Waverley for 30 years and I remember when we adapted a two-way (CB) radio into a channel sensor: we put it in a box with a battery and had two wires sticking out that you put exactly where you wanted to get a water level alert for in a specific channel. When the water got up to this level, it made a connection between the wires and sent a signal to other radios on the same channel. So if you would wake up to hear this particular chime in the middle of the night, you knew that the water had gotten too high and now you’re off to this channel in a rush… I still get a shiver down my spine now when I open the kitchen door (where the CB radio is mounted) and I remember hearing that chime!”
How to measure ROI
While every investment at Waverley is tested on how much ROI it provides, many technological advancements tend to carry multiple benefits, not all of which are easy to quantify, says Andrew: “When we look at our irrigation systems, so from water level sensors to new irrigation methods such as ‘pipes through the bank’, gate control and pump control, they all deliver an increase in labour efficiency. However, we also get cropping benefits by implementing them: maintaining a constant flow rate to get our water out on the field in a specific period of time, which in turn improves crop performance.” This is one of the reasons whyAgTech adoption has such a long history at Waverley, Andrew says, with INCYT now part of the operation: “We try and add a little bit of technology to our farm every year - it’s expensive of course and we can’t do it all at once, but it’s worth it and so we try to take smalls steps every year.”
Andrew: “We’re always looking at where our gaps are in terms of technology, and what it will provide us in terms of convenience, lifestyle, efficiency and effectiveness.
With INCYT we like the idea that now that we have the XR network on our farm, we can keep adding sensors to the pool of technology. This year we found that we had gaps in rainfall data across the farm, so we got a number of rain gauges installed. We also didn’t know exactly when we needed to order more fuel, so we got fuel level sensors installed in all our diesel tanks. The third type of INCYT sensor we got installed were the water level sensors, which was a no-brainer for us: irrigating is such a big part of what we do, so having accurate information at all times helps us a lot. For the years to come we now know that we have the INCYT XR network already in place, and so it’s easy to keep adding sensors to it wherever we see fit.”
Improving lifestyle
Installing INCYT on Waverley was easy says Steve, and made the adoption process seamless: “When (INCYT sales representative) Keri Hughes visited us, we could tell that she had been around irrigation a lot and understood how we run water and what we were trying to achieve, so that was really helpful. Having local people visiting us and available for installation, backup and support is crucial to us: we don’t want to rely on some company that doesn’t even know where we are and who doesn't care about our success. We need partners that are bought into our vision and that help us achieve this, and INCYT is that partner for us.”
Steve adds: “Some of the benefits of implementing AgTech such as INCYT are hard to put a number on, but very important nonetheless - reducing stress for example. Irrigating lots of fields at once can get pretty stressful when you’re running all the channel levels manually; you’re doing a lot of kilometres per day and you’re constantly wondering where something might be going wrong. At Waverley, INCYT helps us improve our lifestyle. Some producers might just think about the numbers and the return on investment, but if you don’t have to get out of bed at 2AM to go check on channel levels, how do you put a price on that? Or if it rains and I know exactly how much rain we’re getting on each part of the property through INCYT’s rain gauges, so I don’t have to drive to a remote pump site in dangerous conditions without it being necessary, that to me is real value. Of course we save on time and vehicle kilometres, but that’s not as valuable as having head space freed up, time freed up, reduced stress and an improved lifestyle. It might be hard to quantify the benefits, but I would recommend every producer to just try INCYT; once you try it, you’ll know.”