South Australian Cattle Co. Pty Ltd-East Park
Location:
Limestone Coast, Coles SA - High Rainfall
Production System:
Beef
Sustainable Demonstration Activity:
Automated feed monitoring to reduce transport emissions and feed waste.
This project will assess how radar-based feed level sensors can help reduce vehicle emissions, feed waste, and labour requirements to support improved cattle growth rates and lower emissions intensity of beef production through accurate, non-contact feed monitoring.
Initial actions will see 8x VEGAPULS Air 41 radar level sensors fitted to 8 feeders of 8 tonne capacity to continuously monitor feed consumption rates, providing baseline data to optimise feed management and delivery schedules.
Expected Outcomes:
- Reduced on-farm diesel consumption and associated emissions
- Data driven feed ordering will optimize delivery scheduling, reduce truck movements and transport emissions. This will additionally reduce feed waste.
- Continual access to supplementary feed will maximize growth rates and feed conversion efficiency, reducing the number of days on feed needed to reach target weights.