Long days spent bouncing through paddocks in beaten up Toyotas to check stock waters are becoming a thing of the past with the emergence of the Observant water monitoring system.
Stewart Taylor, Lanreef, Roma, began with trialing Observant on two watering points and said he calculated a total saving of $15618 annually in time, labour and maintenance costs with the new technology.
“These two waters service about 2000 head of cattle for nine months of the year and 3500 when we have cattle on oats,” he said.
“Before Observant we’d travel 10,000 kilometres a year or 75 kilometres on a round trip religiously checking waters twice a week.
“With Observant we’ve cut that back to once every two weeks because we trust the technology to tell us if there’s the slightest problem.”
Once installed, landholders log tank height limits into Observant units with water meters an encouraged addition to let landholders measure the activity of water exiting the tank.
Roma Pumps N Solar’s Mark Huntley said for $3500 and phone reception at just one location on-property, Observant telemetry was the way of the future.
“People think it’s going to be expensive but they won’t sit down and work out what it’s costing them to keep going as they are,” he said.
“If they knew they could wake up every morning, have a cup of tea and look at their phone to see their waters were okay, they could do something productive for the day.
“Driving around daily isn’t foolproof anyway because if something fails the minute you drive away and you don’t go back for three days there can be huge losses.”
Kenton Peart, Dunvegan, Charleville, has had Observant for six years and said the system wasn’t only for checking and safety.
“It manages the system for you so you can set it to start pumps at certain tank levels and shut off when full,” he said.
“We thought we’d pay it off in four years but it only took two, plus the untold savings in peace of mind are invaluable.”
Watch out for more on Mr Taylor’s productivity development in QCL online.
