The modern day irrigator has a lot going on that they need to keep on top of – managing crops, staff, equipment, harvesting, water, quality assurance, pests and diseases, finances – the task list is never-ending. Managing irrigation requirements on a variety of blocks, with a range of crops and potentially very different soil profiles, is also challenging.
To help them manage their resources, many irrigators are looking for solutions in the burgeoning agricultural app industry. But instead of streamlining their workflow, these apps can often have the opposite effect, leading to even more items that need dealing with in a single day – check the weather, check your soil moisture and irrigation scheduling, and monitor your crop health – in many cases a different app or software service for each task. It’s fair to say that many growers are getting overwhelmed from all the apps and data available to them.
How can irrigators make the most of all their data? Ideally they would need a system that can collect it, process it using sound scientific principles, and present it in an easy to understand format.
SWAN Systems was designed by irrigators for irrigators, and helps you to make better-informed decisions quickly and easily. Tim Hyde and Ivor Gaylard, who, along with Rod Campbell, cofounded SWAN Systems, were irrigators and knew the issues that irrigators faced on a daily basis. Using their insight, and a deep understanding of the power of data, they developed SWAN Systems which is now available to help irrigators optimise their crop yield and quality, cut costs, save water and save time.
How does it work? SWAN is a cloud-based program that remotely pulls in data from soil moisture probes, flow meters, irrigation controllers, satellites (NDVI) and weather stations (using whatever gear you already have, no need to rip it all out and start again). Combine that field data with your crop and soil type, nutrient application data, water test data, some very detailed BOM weather data, and SWAN’s own crop databases and algorithms, and you now have the ability to make informed decisions in a fraction of the time it used to take. You will be able to see which fields have been irrigated, and monitor their health and soil moisture status.
SWAN Systems is currently used in Australia and New Zealand to help irrigators meet, and often exceed, their production goals. To find out more about how you can benefit from using SWAN Systems, contact them on 1300 121250 to arrange an obligation-free demonstration.
Article reposted with permission from Good Fruit & Vegetables.
