Preparing for the future through innovation
“An important thing for us to see is that INCYT is not a stagnant company but a company that constantly innovates and improves their product offering for growers like us.”
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Size: 5,000 Hectares
Type: Cropping
Commodities: Cotton, Wheat, Chickpeas, Canola
When the NSW DPI started the Farms of the Future (FotF) program, the Winter family knew they wanted to participate and acquire new technology for their farm that would work well despite the lack of 4G coverage on their property. Their other requirement was to find a provider that uses high-quality hardware and is able to combine all data on the same dashboard.
Tom Winter went to a number of FotF workshops and got quotes from a range of different suppliers. After comparing all the different companies and their offerings, the Winters decided to deploy INCYT equipment on their operation as it had the best fit with their needs.
The Winter family now has a range of INCYT sensors deployed on their farm, from water level sensors and water presence sensors to weather stations. While they are in the process of developing bankless irrigation fields and drip irrigation fields, they also know that through INCYT’s product development roadmap they’ll be well-positioned to fully automate their irrigation operations in the near future through the same dashboard.
Transferring knowledge to the fifth generation
Peter Winter has been farming at Moree all his life, and irrigating his fields has become second nature to him. He knows exactly how high to run the different channels by looking at specific sticks or holes in a bank, but passing this knowledge to his three sons, Liam, Tom and Jonny, wasn’t an easy task according to Jonny: “There are so many channels on the property with so many different sticks and holes that you have to all know individually in order to make sense of them for the level you’re trying to run, for us boys just coming home to farm with dad it wasn’t very easy to understand.”
Peter adds: “When we irrigate we’re often in a situation where we’re feeding from a dam that’s 3 kilometres away, while also feeding off a creek, another dam that’s close by, and a tailwater return. As soon as one of these factors changes, everything changes drastically - in different timeframes, which makes it so challenging to try and explain what’s going on to someone who’s trying to learn the system. In order to grow the best possible cotton we have to keep the head (water level) as constant as we can, as that results in the quickest irrigation which prevents water logging. So when the boys moved back to the farm, I knew we had to make some changes to my ‘system’ in order to make the transition easier for them.”
To solve this problem and facilitate the transition, the Winter family decided to start using INCYT’s channel level sensors in order to get a system of common level measurements that everyone can access at any time. Jonny: “Instead of driving out to the channels and trying to find the right stick or hole to compare the channel level against, we can now just look at the INCYT app on our phone and know exactly what’s going on. It’s easy for us to know at what level we need to run each channel and we set alarms through INCYT so that we get notified when the channel level gets below or above certain thresholds so that we can go out there and take action when we need to.”
For Tom Winter, being on irrigation duty often meant not sleeping at all he says: “It’s so critical to get these water levels right that it meant that I was often driving around all night to make sure everything was going well. So, when I learned about INCYT, I knew that getting electronic water level sensors to replace dad’s sticks and holes system would be a top priority for us. We all know how critical irrigation is for our yield and therefore profits, so it didn’t take long to convince my brothers and father of this as well.”
Improving the work - life balance
Making and keeping the farm attractive for the next generation to join is important to Peter, which is one of the reasons why he his so keen to adopt new technology on his farm: “Cotton farming is renowned as a hard life, but it doesn’t have to be and we can change it and still make it very fruitful and productive. And with new technology like INCYT, it allows me to be retired and keep an eye on things from my iPad still, so it really helps me as well.”
For Jonny, it’s technology like INCYT’s dashboard that allows him to have peace of mind that everything is going to plan without physically having to be in the field, and therefore enables him to live a better social life: “Say it's your wife's birthday, instead of going out and checking the paddocks every time, you can go to dinner and still have that peace of mind that your channel's at the right height, your siphons are running and your pump's still running as well. That’s where INCYT makes the difference for us between having a job that takes over your life, or being able to have a good and sustainable lifestyle next to our work on the farm.”
Preparing for the future
While INCYT’s sensors fill an immediate need for the Winter family, they’ve also got a strong focus on the future and want to make sure that any technology they adopt today, sets them up for success far into the future, Tom explains: “We didn’t really know this at the time of making the decision to partner with INCYT but it’s been great to see the team at work and understand more of how the company operates. An important thing for us to see is that INCYT is not a stagnant company but a company that constantly innovates and improves their product offering for growers like us. INCYT knows the kind of equipment we need and what we need to get out of the dashboard; it’s great to see the improvements come through continuously and it gives us the confidence that INCYT will grow with us as our needs evolve over the years to come.”
Tom continues: “We’re currently developing both bankless irrigation as well as drip irrigation fields, and it’s exciting to envision the role that INCYT will play there in the future. That’s not just for monitoring but also controlling and automating these types of irrigated fields, which is where the real advantages are of having all your data come through the same INCYT platform. Between INCYT’s engineering expertise that’s become very clear to us since we’ve started to work with them, and strong local partners such as Moree DieselGas and SierraTek in Narrabri, we’re confident they’ll keep innovating and offering us the solutions we need.”
Tom concludes with: “As a family we figure that if we take care of our people, they'll take care of our property, our property will take care of our plants, and our plants will take care of us. Being able to sit in the office and have a screen up with a dashboard that shows me exactly what’s happening on our farm and that everything is in good shape, is key. Cameras for example can show me that our people are safe, moisture probes show that we have moisture in our profile, water level sensors show there’s water in the dam, etc., all the way down to the bottom line and how all the different pieces of the puzzle are interacting with each other. That’s where the bigger value of the INCYT cockpit really lies for us.”