Key Stats
Grower: Sam Mitchell
Location: Manages properties all across Australia
Crops and/or stock: Cotton, Wheat, Sugarcane, Almonds, Avocados, Wine Grapes
Weather Monitoring, Soil Moisture Monitoring, Leaf Wetness, Water level Monitoring, Flow and Pressure Monitoring, Pump Management, Image Capture, Diesel Level Monitoring, Satellite Imagery
Sam Mitchell is the CEO of WealthCheck, an agricultural investment company that is responsible for the effective operation of numerous large-scale broad-acre and horticultural properties across Australia. Sam founded WealthCheck back in 2005 and applies a hands-on approach to the properties his team is responsible for.
Managing large properties with different crop types across different states requires high levels of efficiency and effectiveness from the tools, teams, and methods applied. WealthCheck employs highly trained farm managers, growers, and technology specialists that are all involved in getting the most out of every field. Sam believes that water and labor are the two most important factors that influence farm operations and that managing them effectively is the key to WealthCheck’s success.
“We’re trying to be at the forefront of irrigated agriculture, and we’re trying to make the most of the resources that we have available to us, and the most limiting resources are water and labor”
With the growing pressures that are being placed on farmers through labor shortages and increasing water prices, many farmers are looking at new strategies to manage their resources. Sam and his team have a responsibility to their investors to keep the farms’ running costs down, and they have identified technology as a key to achieving this.
“I love technology because it allows us to be efficient and have control at scale, and that’s the sort of farming we are after because we are trying to drive those types of efficiencies”
The Australian AgTech landscape is filled with a huge variety of innovative products that have almost all been created by farmers in order to address a key on-farm issue that they have encountered. Sam and his team have the important role of discerning which options will bring the greatest amount of benefit to their investors. The JAIN Logic platform, powered by Observant hardware is one of the key technologies they are using.
“We have to have an open mind when we are looking at new technologies because we have to find out very quickly whether they are going to be able to do what they promise they can do, and with JAIN Logic, we have chosen to go with that system because it actually does work”
Soil Moisture monitoring site in an avocado crop that Sam Mitchell and his team manage.
Sam and his team have recently expanded their technological capabilities through the inclusion of JAIN Logic’s satellite imagery solution. Satellite imagery is giving the WealthCheck team increased awareness of in-field issues and inconsistencies so that they can tailor their operational activities to get the most out of the resources they have.
“Satellite mapping will pick up issues before you’re aware of it at the ground level. You can pick up a variation in the crop because of a leakage or because of blocked drippers, but also natural variations like soil type, drainage, and rootstocks which you need to then manage”
With all the different AgTech products on the market, the importance of being able to access multiple solutions in one software platform has become increasingly important. JAIN Logic offers the ability to view agronomic insights, in the same platform as satellite imagery, irrigation schedules, and water monitoring
Sam points out that the purpose of using multiple technologies isn’t to cut out the people in the field but to instead give them the tools and knowledge that they need to do their job more efficiently and effectively.
“You can’t do away with boots on the ground to be able to proof test a lot of the technology that is out there, but the technology that we have access to now gives the guys on the ground the tools to focus their attention where it’s needed and to really tailor the irrigation to the needs of the crops”
Observant C3+ at work in the field
Sam has chosen to invest his time, money, and resources into JAIN Logic, and he has seen very favorable returns on his investment. As Sam and his team have grown more confident and become more involved in the use of JAIN Logic, they have learned effective new ways to apply it to their operations.
“I was talking to one of the farm managers the other day and he had identified three spots that he couldn’t explain on the satellite imagery maps and sure enough, they were leaks, and we were able to fix them in a timely manner and make a water-saving”
Key Takeaways:
Observant hardware provides the in-field data that is displayed in JAIN Logic software
In-field data is used in conjunction with satellite imagery and analytics in order to improve farm efficiency
Farm Managers, growers, and specialists can all use the same software to gain insights into what is happening in the field