Hard work and staff on the ground, is what veteran agricultural technology expert Leighton Wilksch believes is needed to drive the adoption of new technologies in the paddock.
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Since setting up his business AgByte over ten years ago, following on from national precision agriculture advisory role with Landmark, Mr Wilksch said the landscape had changed, but not necessarily the business model needed.
"We have a lot better connectivity on farm, so being able to deploy devices to talk to the Telstra network or other radio network that has been set up is better than where we were even five years ago," he said.
"We have access to a wider range of sensors, and the cost has come down significantly.
"But a lot of things that have stayed the same, hard work and getting out on-farm is what the farmers want."
Mr Wilksch said when it came to agricultural technology, adoption was driven by relationships.
"Farmers want support putting sites in the field, and they want someone they can relate and talk to, they want help understanding how a new device is going to help them to make better decisions," he said.
Mr Wilksch said in his own business the demand for weather stations, soil moisture monitors and other crop monitoring devices for the grains industry was increasing.
"When I started I was driven by how soil moisture monitoring equipment could be used to make better decisions in a dryland farming situation," he said.
"Also as fire risk has increased with crops such as lentils, the fire index has become a significant driver to my business, as well as the weather stations that monitor those conditions in paddock."
Mr Wilksch said new startups entering the Australian market needed to understand what the farmers wanted.
"The value of building up relationships and trust over time cannot be emphasised enough," he said.
"It is where a lot of start-ups are going to struggle, farmers like to deal with someone they know, or have been personally recommended, and plenty of startups just don't have that exposure or networking to get their device and information out to growers."
Mr Wilksch said farmers wanted trust that the company they were dealing with had the runs on the board and the longevity to stay in the market, particularly when it came to hardware.
"Display platforms and software have come along in leaps and bounds in the last three to four years, utilisation of smart phones on farm is very high, so a lot of that stuff is very easy to check, farmers can log onto the website and see that it is something they want to use," he said.
"But as far as devices, and actually getting them on farm - that is a different thing.
"The hardware side takes someone going out to the farm and interacting with the grower, someone who will support the farmer trying something to see if it actually does work.
"I think plenty of the small start-ups don't have the capacity to do that."
Mr Wilksch said similar to agronomy, many farmers were looking for an agtech advisory relationship.
"Along with agronomists, I think farming systems groups have a place to play here, they are trusted by growers and if they have the ability to have a smart-farms or demonstration site, they can unveil new technology to growers in a comfortable environment.
Mr Wilksch said looking forward, he believed there would be more sensor technology adopted on farm.
"I also think satellite imagery or remote sensing imagery from drone or satellite will have a greater role, many more decisions will be made on this sort of imagery," he said.
"I think that has a big place to play, I can only see imagery becoming easier to use and more valuable to use."
