PASTURES FROM SPACE – INTRODUCTION TO THE TECHNOLOGY ON FARM

摘要

Efficient use of feed resources is a major driver of profitability in the livestock industries of Australia. The ability of producers to realise this benefit is being restricted by the lack of information on which to base production decisions from 1 season or year to the next. The Pastures from Space project aims to deliver near real time information at the whole farm and within paddock level that will underpin tactical and strategic decision making for Australian agricultural businesses. Two products form the basis of the project, PGR~(TM) estimates pasture growth rate (kg DM/ha/day) and FOO~(TM) estimates feed on offer (kg DM/ha), to provide quantitative estimates of green biomass and its rate of growth (Edirisinghe et al. 2000). This is the first in a series of papers describing progress in the technology, validation processes, and producers’ perception of the technology along with its application and value.