Industry Expert Geoff Marsh’s presentation to the Intensive Agriculture Conference

The elemental needs of life are not that complex and despite the passing of the decades, remain fundamentally the same as they always were.

Seventy four years ago, Abraham Maslow theorised that human beings have a hierarchy of needs and once those needs had been met, humankind would feel relatively happy and satisfied.

And while having a roof over our heads, food on the table, feeling relatively safe and socially connected is important – in today’s world it’s actually not enough.  Because the world has changed significantly since 1943.   Our lives are more complex.  What was once considered a luxury, is now considered a necessity in business and in life.

That being the case, and Maslow might agree, it’s time to add another layer to the triangle.

Because it’s all around us – or, at least, we’d like it to be.  I’m talking about internet connectivity.

The need for a reliable, high-quality internet services in business goes without saying.

We know, and many of our friends in rural and remote Australia will know, that getting a reliable internet connection can be like finding hen’s teeth.

We might be a first world country, but it’s a fact of life that third world countries are overtaking the service available to that available in 2018, in rural and remote Australia.

Many agriculturalists will find themselves nodding in furious agreement with Richard Norton’s statement that:

“Lack of access to reliable telecommunications services is the number one issue facing regional Australia.” Richard Norton – Managing Director, Meat & Livestock Australia

And we couldn’t agree more.

Here in Australia and across the world, Agriculture is increasingly high-tech.  Tectonic shifts enabled by the Internet of Things means that the sowing and harvesting cycles, the capacity to gather data via sensory technologies in soils relating to water, nutrients and erosion is trackable via your smartphone or tablet.

The productivity gains to be realised from data capture, analysis and measurement in agriculture is putting the power back into the hands of agriculturalists.  Have you heard of the iherd app?  It’s a data-gathering herd management system which pulls together the latest information on your herds, right down to their weight, health and roaming patterns.

Real-time information telling you what is going on across your vast acreage is now available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  You can take preventative measures to manage pests, drought and fertilisation at the touch of a button.  Not only that, Infra-Red technology is helping agriculturalists easily track how their crops are doing  without leaving the farm.

However, we might be getting ahead of ourselves when even making a phone call continues to be the number one complaint in the bush.

“What’s the one piece of technology you could have at every one of your sites? I’d love it if we could make a phone call.” Jason Strong, formerly Managing Director of AACo

But to be able to access this tech-savvy world, you need to have a reliable internet connection, so you can make that phone call, tap into that data and to manage every aspect of your operation.

March IT is the bridge to that connection.  We provide high-speed internet services via Satellite, Fixed Wireless, Fibre and over Private 4G (and from late 2018, 5G) to hook you into tomorrow’s world today.  We can also help set up control and monitoring systems and provide support to make it easy for you to manage.  In short, we guarantee to provide you with a service that is fit-for-purpose, affordable and which meets your needs.  Get in touch with us to enquire about the right solution for your property.

March IT is attending the inaugural Food Leaders Australia Intensive Agriculture Conference in Dalby, QLD, today and tomorrow and will be talking about some of the technologies available to the industry.

We are also partnering with Meat and Livestock Australia to make things happen for red meat producers.

An example in point is the Sandalwood Feedlot.  As of just this week the Feedlot is connected to a Wide Area Wi-Fi network covering three homesteads and an office with the technology expandable to cover paddocks up to 15km away.  With a guaranteed 30Mbps internet connection and unlimited data usage to be completed shortly, the Feedlot’s productivity is set to soar.

March IT has been a long-time friend to those in the bush, struggling with unreliable connections.  The good news is, it doesn’t have to be this way – just call us so we can get you connected to the kind of service you’ve been dreaming of.  We know because we build them!