Walton Farm Cows
The 30,000 most productive New Zealand farms and the agricultural businesses that support them generate around $17 billion in export earnings a year – around 48% of the country's total exports. Because of the importance of industry, even small improvements in agricultural productivity have a huge effect on earnings. A 3% productivity increase would equate to $500 million in export revenue for New Zealand. But with New Zealand farmers already some of the most efficient, where will these productivity gains come from? Technology will definitely be a key.
Herd of RFID-tagged cows
(click to enlarge)
Walton farm land (click to enlarge)
Technological innovation has always played a critical role in the success of New Zealand's agriculture industry. Early innovations included the development of refrigerated shipping, the introduction of mechanical milking machines in the 1890s, and, more recently, the invention of the electric fence and the rotary milking platform.
While New Zealand scientists and companies continue to develop new farm technologies and refine existing ones, a new approach is being developed. Rather than have technologies working separately, they are being wired together into integrated systems, which allows the technologies to interact and, in some cases, work synergistically – greatly increasing the efficiency of farming operations.
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