Charles Sturt’s Executive Director of AgriPark Mr Nick Pagett, Charles Sturt’s Head of Government Relations and Regional Engagement Ms Samantha Beresford and Food Agility CEO Dr Mick Schaefer are excited for the future of farming technology in the Riverina. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Charles Sturt University’s Digital Agrifood summit has attracted farmers and contractors from around the state to view the latest in farming technology and showcase the innovative work that CSU is doing in the farming space.
Unmanned farming equipment was the main attraction of the two-day summit with autonomous tractors, ploughs and seeders all on display.
Charles Sturt’s Executive Director of AgriPark Mr Nick Pagett said the two-day event was heavily focused on presenting new technologies to major industry and government stakeholders.
“We’ve got some really great technology here this week including driverless tractors, which is the future of particularly broad acre cropping,” he said.
“A lot of digital technologies are helping connect the farm to the outside world and connect them to supply chains.
“Autonomous machinery is emerging in the Riverina; what we’re doing here at the Ag Tech Expo is really demonstrating tech that’s about to hit the market.
“This technology is going to come into use in the Riverina region, particularly over the next 12 months to two years. So this summit is very much around showcasing that to producers in the region and saying, this is what’s coming and how do we work with you in bringing that technology to the market while supporting the companies that are developing that technology.”
Charles Sturt’s Head of Government Relations and Regional Engagement Ms Samantha Beresford said it was important for producers to understand the research and technologies that current students and future industry leaders are using.
“People may have heard about our big global digital farm project; a lot of our research with that space is about throwing every bit of ag tech possible that we can at the farm,” she said.
“We understand that producers get thrown at them all the time, these new bits of technology, but what we’re doing at Charles Sturt here is saying, hey, does this actually work? Is this actually commercially viable? Is it actually profitable?
“We’re applying these things in a real-life setting. So we want to say to farmers, look, that probably isn’t the most productive thing for you to be putting on your farm.
“We also want our students to walk away from here and say, wow, we have the latest ag tech at our fingertips. We know how to utilise it. We know what we want to take back to our farms, and we know how we’re going to grow the industry, and we’re going to grow the sector.”
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