Watching the grass grow is dull, but it can be profitable.
An Australian agricultural technology firm has developed a program that enables graziers to better assess the productivity of their pasture, using a mobile phone while standing in the paddock.
Maia Technology launched its online grazing management tool called MaiaGrazing at the University of New England's SMART Farm at Armidale in NSW on Thursday.
Maia Technology chief executive Peter Richardson says MaiaGrazing uses information that farmers collect by observing their paddocks and animals to provide a visual forecast of the feed supply and the appropriate number of animals.
MaiaGrazing is already being used by the Durham Ranch in the US state of Wyoming to help manage about 3,000 bison over 55,000 acres.
"It's basically all about helping graziers make better profits," Mr Richardson said.
"It's based on the idea that at any given time, any property has an optimal stocking rate - if you put more animals on, you eat into your own reserves, whereas if you have fewer animals on, you lose profit, so it's all about trying to get it exactly right.
"What we've built is a set of tools that learn how your property responds to the conditions that it is experiencing in order to let you identify what the optimal point is for your own stocking rate, and to let you track that over time."
Mr Richardson said the MaiaGrazing app initially uses information such as the condition of the animals, the size of the animals and the amount of pasture in each paddock as animals are moved.
The app can also employ more accurate data that a grazier may collect periodically, at a weigh bridge for example.
The grazier gets information back, presented in visuals, that enables them to make better decisions about what needs to be done with the stock.
Maia Technology has also created a platform that allows third parties to link in to provide data such as satellite imagery and satellite analysis, or data from collars that are placed on animals to track their movements.
"The platform brings all these things together so the farmer doesn't really need to worry - they can just see the data they need to see," Mr Richardson said.
