Remote pasture sensing workshop
In February, more than 20 service providers, consultants and researchers attended Dairy UP’s remote pasture sensing workshop. Results to date were presented from Dairy UP’s findings for remote sensing of Kikuyu pastures. The workshop discussed the relevance and potential application on farm and challenges going forward. While the research demonstrated that remote sensing of Kikuyu pastures works, it requires fortnightly training/calibration of satellites by entering additional biomass data from a plate meter. Suggested future steps included:
- Research to automate the training to eliminate the need for manual measurement or to look for alternative technologies that don’t need regular readings.
- Development activities with service providers to expand awareness and understanding of how the technology can be applied to Kikuyu dairy pastures. Co-develop extension messages.
- Extension to increase awareness of the impact of management on pasture utilisation.
About Dairy UP
Dairy UP is a collaborative research, development and extension program for the NSW dairy industry. It aims to unlock the potential of pastures, cows, water and milk to increase productivity and profitability, and de-risk the industry and develop new markets.