Innovation in farming rapidly changing

Mr Woods has valuable experience from running the family farming operation Booroola at Boggabilla, that straddles NSW and the Queensland. He also has tertiary qualifications in applied science in rural technology and agribusiness.

He will tackle the subject of innovation as a speaker at Queensland Country Life’s Food Heroes at farm walk and forum at Coorangy, Toobeah, next Thursday, July 13.

He said the landscape of innovation in the grains industry was changing rapidly.

“Innovation is global now more than ever, thanks to connectivity within the grains industry and across- sectors,” Mr Woods said. 

“There has been signification growth in private sector investment of innovation around the world, in areas like remote sensing, drone technology, automation, big data, and telemetry."

At the same time, Mr Woods said there was significant rationalisation occurring with the life science companies, driving six companies into four, with Bayer taking over Monsanto, and DuPont and Dow merging.

Mr Woods was also quick to point out that by contrast the public sector, particularly state agencies, are decreasing investment in grains innovation.

“We are major exporters, however we are not large producers, or a large market to attract investment, so we need to demonstrate we are attractive to do business with,” he said. 

"That's why we need value capture mechanisms so innovators can see a path to get a return on their investment and bring the technology to Australian growers."

Mr Woods said Australian grain growers’ competitive advantage has always been as early adopters of innovation. He said farmers must be the first in the world to attract, develop and implement innovation, otherwise their competitors will erode the advantage. 

Mr Woods is involved with  a number of organisations including the National Agricultural Monitoring System, National Rural Advisory Council and Cotton Australia.