 SWAN systems, SWAN is actually an acronym for Scheduling Water Nutrients so we're actually about aggregating and collaborating of data to make birdie informed decisions to drive profits. We're a team of 13 now I've actually got two based in South Australia there, you know in South Australia here, we work across multiple sectors. Bit of background on myself, I'm actually from Miljura went to Roseworthy Ag College, got a degree in horticulture and irrigation and then went farming in Western Australia. Started growing bananas and table grapes in the desert. Bananas are using 22 megs a hectare so sort of worked out fairly quickly but didn't get good at irrigation I was going to go broke fairly quickly so we got stuck in an awarding nutritional management. It was a bit of a bit of a thing and then about mid-2000s I started sort of consulting across Western Australia, mainly with table grapes but other crops citrus and bananas on sort of precision water and nutritional management. In 2010 Ria Tinto came and approached us and what happens is you're not probably not familiar but when they mine iron ore 70% of the iron ore is below the water table and they they basically dewater the aquifer, take the water 20 kilometers away and and just dispose it so they couldn't do that in this case it was next to a national park so they actually came to us and came to us and asked us to help them use that water so I think they spent 140 million dollars a heap of center pivots in the middle of nowhere that we were using between 60 and 120 megs a day. Lots of soil moisture probes, lots of water meters, lots of weather stations and the whole thing was there couldn't be any risk so it was all about risk mitigation but what we sort of worked out was that in the process of sort of fine-tuning and having an operation to to minimize risk it was very precise and that those precision systems managed to sort of at the gross returns and the profits and the yields that drove the came out of that were pretty significant so we thought we had something of value and then that's when we started the process about putting swan together. So the whole thing with data in your farm and lots of silos and like a good picture but that's that's that's the data on a farm and getting driving value out of that is really really complex is different systems that there's very little integration it's time-consuming it gets lost and most farmers sort of don't having a time to sort of review a property and get the most value out of it. So it's a messy workshop and a lot of you have probably worked in a messy workshop and it's not very enjoyable so so we sort of set about trying to what do we need to do to clean the workshop up make it so you can make quicker better faster more accurate decisions in terms of operating a your water nutritional management. So on top of the data complexities there's the complexities around each crop so we work with a whole different crops and this is a phenological stage of a grapevine it's pretty topical for South Australia but there's a whole heap of reasons to manage your water balance and nutrition across the whole stage across the whole sort of annual season. So Swan Systems itself is it's about aggregation of data in the field so we've got so almost a sense of data flow data fertilizers applied we can we can actually attribute to nutrients in the background water and to the nutrient audit forecast data so we're partners with the Bureau of Meteorology about what we access to bomb good weather data actual data and then satellite imagery so they're the sort of at the moment the sort of base data inputs we get and then we then we configure the you know each block or we call them individual managed units specifically for what you want so there might be Shiraz versus Chardonnay there might be different soil types you can sort of choose where your data comes from we've got all the nutrient uptake curves in there so you can actually create a nutrient plan for any crop any irrigated crop basically to but it's more about refining feed or drive even something like processing tomatoes you know there might be ten different sort of management strategies for variety for soil type for an end product that have got that might have a different sort of management strategy behind them so we're very configurable. Day to day we're about managing irrigations we've actually got a recommended irrigation schedule which is a new functionality we bought out recently so it'll tell you how much the water and when but always looking forward so always using the Bureau of Meteorology and IBM globally the data to say exactly how much water you want to put on the future we record nutrients we've got alerts and alarms the allocation allocation tools a good one it's got a lot of populate we've actually got people using that specifically for that it'll you can run scenario so it's a very thorough allocation management tool you can run scenarios if there's a dry winter or hot summer and what that would mean to how much water you need so it means you can be in the marketplace a bit earlier and know your requirements and the health index that's the sort of satellite imagery there's lots going on that space we don't pretend to be our office pretty basic NDVI there's a hundred different indexes now being worked on around the world so where we don't design these things or we just sort of will pick them up and use them as they become available from the universities of the research so in terms of reporting we've got the ability to a budget to actual on any elements so agriculturally you know the 13 elements you use growing crops there's actually 108 analytes in the system you can do budget to actual on your water allocation and any nutrient we've got five different levels of authority so the people putting the fertilizer on it can be you know pretty simple to put in there put on 200 kilograms of urea on a certain paddock but that'll go right for the whole system so and in the future we're sort of automating some of those reports so the farm manager or the farm supervisor can get an accurate report so it's pretty easy to sort of collect the hard parts of when you sort of process and give you managing insights but and then what we're about is we're bound to repeat that so we want it we want a repeatable system that you can fine tune your management for a particular crop or particular variety on a particular cell type and roll it out for coming seasons and just get better and better more accurate over the time so our office sort of got several different layers so irrigation scheduling's yeah a pretty major component of it the nutrient management the allocation management imagery and then ongoing support so where we allocate a fairly reasonable chunk of our sort of fees to working with working with the customers to make sure they get value out of it like I said we've got two people just recently full-time in South Australia now so it's it's a really really important part and because if they don't get value out of it or I don't use it they won't be turned up next year to order check out so it's pretty important to us so the key attributes we're actually hardware independent it's that's going by itself now so we work with about 50 different brands of hardware across Australia and internationally we're tool for best management practice we're evaluated to existing hardware like I said we're sort of trying to bring all that hardware in and make better qualified decisions that's really going by itself now a platform for precision management and as I mentioned before repeatable management blueprint and so we're subscription based with support who uses swan so horticulture we've got close to 8,000 hectares on it now across Australia we do a bit the dairy sector in Australia but mostly New Zealand about 2,000 hectares we work at SA water here a couple water utilities mainly because of the ability to manage water and nutrients local governments the city of Melbourne's on it doing stuff in the city of Adelaide golf courses three golf courses and and we're actually doing our first fully autonomous school here so we're talking back to the hardware in South Australia so we've sort of got 15 schools on their system now so we fundamentally warding attritional management is the same whatever crop you're going it's more about configuring to those sort of circumstances some of the benefits we're seeing is it's sort of better informed decisions we try and deliver a minimum of five times return there we go five times return the investment if we don't do that we're either too expensive or it's not right for the customer simplify your gaseous and nutrient management maintaining all those historic records in one place is a pretty important one yeah better control on individual blocks managing allocations proactively is becoming more and more important helping manage limitations of infrastructures is another important one especially with sort of heat waves and climatic variability we're porting and warding nutrients and delivering improved environmental outcomes is something most of the one great companies now I've got have got you know sustainability requirements so just a bit on what the future holds for us so we're we haven't got a phone app at the moment we're more PC based system so we're in the process of developing a phone app we're looking at doing a swan analytics for sites that have got multiple farms so a system that can sit over you know you might have 10 or 15 farms one of our big ones are doing a rolling out soon is 18,000 hectares I got 11 farms cost Australia so they're giving them ability what sort of information will come out of a farm account that they hope to help the organization run a better show all that generated reports and alerts so something like our soil moisture balance report can go to the irrigation manager every day can go to the farm manager once a week and there might be a farm supervisor will send it to once once a month so it's just it's very configurable and that there'll be so you can do water allocation reports soil moisture reports or nutrition reports when and how the user likes the imagery offer like there's a lot having that space and we sort of work with a few of them with having ongoing conversations and that's going to be a really important part of managing farming operations in the future I'm not it's very different the the benefit for each sector is very different and we each organization so there's lots happening there I think it's just we're just trying to keep on top of it and work out where we go but as I mentioned before there's actually 100 indexes now so it's a busy space we're bringing in a live dashboard actually doing a big project with Telstra bringing a live dashboard for weather stations and a bit of disease modeling and then the last thing we're doing is is looking at doing some plant based sensors so you know canopy temperature and sap and sap and dendromed as I mean they're just another part of the puzzle that would sort of help complete complete picture and I think all like like most farm data it's it's good for snippet but until you wrap it all up and make a better decision based on all the facts it's it's quite difficult a bit we were asked to sort of address few of the challenges in agtech I think accessing data is collaboration of data like I said we've got 50 integrators now we get data from 50 sort of different other businesses really it's a really two years ago when we started this journey was you asked how do we provide us for that data and they looked at you like you're a bit queer but now the things a bit better now so most people are sort of comfortable with the idea of sharing data to get a better decisions farmers are pretty busy if there's a tire to change and three or four blokes waiting to go to work they're not going to talk to you basically so you got to get used to it and work with it and and try and try and be comfortable and be smart about how you approach a farm in there in their daily daily work schedule yeah compelling issues on the competing issues on the farm is exactly that Manning versus operational staff one of the things we've had is that sometimes here the corporate guys really like it and then you start talking to the guys in the ground and and they're not so keen so it's it's just a reality of the technology at which we're our technology is applicable for the operators for the managers and the and the investors we've had people ask us for a view only access to their patch of vines that they don't live near so they can just make sure things are going on makes everyone pretty accountable but they'll scare some people to staff technical capacity it's you've sort of really got to concentrate on that we've got some amazing people some of the projects we work with very capable very smart and then other other other sites it's just not not that easy they haven't had the exposure to computers so you've got to sort of be mindful and sort of go back to the basics and start from where you need to start staff turnover is another issue is often we can spend a hyper-time training someone up and then they're not there next time you're there so that's just the realities of the industry so get used to it and connectivity getting better the low-level satellites are going to change this I think but you know getting data out of a farm and a lot of places not so much over here I think but in some places like the cotton industry in New South Wales it can be a real issue issues influence influence the adoption this is sort of Emma's work you really understand what are the advantages you know is it financial environmental social understand but understanding the business you're dealing with and what you know what are their pain points is very important is it compatible with current systems I mean really make sure the more you can utilize the existing data on a farm the better update you're going to have there has been a whole strategy from the start but it's certainly it's our strategic advantage but it's also our Achilles Hill what's its observability you know how easy is to use I think Emma or talks about that was what made GPS so the adoption pretty good with GPS was pretty easy and basic in people's face the complexity be mindful of the complexity we are a pretty complex system we're not a $7.50 widget so it does take time for people to get the head around what we do and how we do and can it be trialled and evaluated so we do generally offer sort of a bit of incentive to trial the system and on a block or two and see how they go and sit back and take a foot test drive and if it fits it fits if it doesn't it doesn't so it's very important in terms of influence the adoption so a bit about our approach but we're pretty persistent nothing like wearing a bit of boot leather probably people in this room that we've blocked my phone number it's actually really important it's just make sure you know build that relationship be in front of people and make sure you're still there really identifying the issues at a farm level or business level pick the right partners you know we've don't be too scared to walk away from an enterprise it's not suitable you just have to get it right so if you don't get it right there's all sorts of issues piloting and trialling we will do everything we can do to to pilot or give someone a trial as long as it's not too complex but it is some of our most successful and you know we've got testimonials on our website from people who have used that system we've just given it to them for 12 months to get their head around and take it for a test drive research project we do we work with that six research organizations across Australia we actually see this is a really important part of not validating our product but also we can get into industries and understand their pain points it's actually very important and support so we you just got to do it well as I mentioned before you've just got to be there give them support give them what they need when they need it and and and make sure that they understand and get value out of your system so it's pretty simple you don't make their life easier you're wasting their time your time and their money one of our things is it you know in our case it's fine to have it have a system which is you know this is our technology of swan systems but there's actually quite a few systems that were used to deliver that service and it's often something that startups really don't think of but you know everything from customer service portals to help desks you know doing customer surveys it's really really important we're lucky we've got three founders and it sort of works out where one founder looks after each part but you know don't underestimate the value of you know having an analytics package and working out if a customer is getting on there and where they're going and are they is there anything else they can add or is there anything else that they don't can't add or you know really understanding your customer and how they use the system is really really important and I sort of can't emphasize that enough I mean I don't know what a Google ad word was a couple years ago but it's been a bit of a learning curve for us because we all come from agricultural backgrounds but yeah having systems to make sure a customer gets values is incredibly important so opportunities data really does has the benefit to you know drive a lot of productivity and culture and I really think corporate farming hasn't been that successful over the years but this data will really help corporate farming get drive better benefits it is evolution not revolution it's what email was 20 years ago don't expect people to pick up your tech and run away with it and be obsessed with it in two days so we are a great hub for innovation as most people know there are genuine global market opportunities especially South Australia and the water the water achievements over the last 20 years have been pretty impressive and that's an example of that and exporting markets that's all