Key Stats:
Grower - Steve Cadzow
Location - Mt Riddock Station, Alice Springs, NT, Australia
Crops and/or stock - Beef Cattle
Property size - 650,000 acres
Tank Level Monitoring, Image Capture Monitoring and Pump Management.
With around 8000 - 9000 sustainably farmed beef cattle raised in the rangelands of Central Australia. The Cadzow family is using technology and innovation in the pastoral industry to improve soil health and implement better farming practices for efficiency and longevity.
““Water is the lifeblood of everything that lives out here, if we don’t have water our cattle don’t survive” ”
Steve Cadzow, Mt Riddock Station
Observant telemetry tells Steve how much water he has, just by logging into the Observant Global software from his mobile phone or iPad. Being able to remotely read water levels has saved him an average of 180 - 200 kms a week in travel savings and allowed him the freedom to manage his property when he is offsite or travelling overseas.
Steve and his wife Rebecca rely on telemetry to monitor and control water usage remotely, allowing them to be more efficient elsewhere on the farm. Using Observant telemetry, means remotely monitoring what's happening at the tank, having the ability to remotely turn pumps on and off, and setting low and high (water) level alerts. Where traditionally they'd need to physically monitor and manage each water point, they can now simply log in to their account from their phone and make decisions from the data collected and displayed on Observant Global.
Water level readings displayed on a tablet.
““We’re not going to sit here and just do the same things our grandfathers have done for the last 100 years”
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Aerial shots of the farm show that over the years, better farming practices have improved land growth, and made the soil healthier, which is apparent from the variety of grass they are growing. The Cadzow family believe that Mt Riddock station will provide future generations land that is far more fruitful than what they inherited from their forefathers, using their Observant system to collect data and make informed decisions going forward.
Key Takeaways:
Remote monitoring of main water points will save hours of labor costs
Set low/high water level alerts, for peace of mind
Allow technology to create efficiency, free up time, added stock security and take out the need to physically monitor each point
Vital to apply sustainable farming practices and improve the health of the land, for future generations
Recently, Steve got back in touch with Observant and his local dealer to add more monitoring and control to their farm.
The farm has around 20 bores dotted over their property, now they are all monitored for water levels, and if the above ground tanks go below 70%, the system automatically switches on the solar pumps to fill the systems back up.
They are delighted with their system, with Rebecca even checking bore water levels when she was recently in New York!
Observant solutions seen in the following clips include Tank Level Monitoring, Image Capture Monitoring and Pump Management.
Learn more about Mt Riddock Station by watching the video below.