Investing in a bore sparked interest in remote management
Having invested significantly in sinking a bore in 2004, Richard Golden wasn’t interested in pumping the water onto the ground.
He wanted to make sure the water at his Yuleba property, Potter’s Flat, Queensland, some 120kms north-east of Roma was being put to best use and was actively looking for some kind of system to monitor the remote and at times inaccessible areas of his 3 844 hectare (9,500 acre) property.
When he saw Anthony Kahl’s pump control on the ABC’s ‘New Inventors’, he tracked down the system and found that Australian company Observant Pty Ltd was commercially producing a pump control, that was integrated into a whole of property remote management solution.
“I got a lot more than telemetry when I installed the Observant system. It truly is a remote management system that can be integrated into many aspects of livestock and property management,” he said.
Richard’s main enterprise is high value store weaner production.
“This year, once again we have only 600 cows and calves, about 60% capacity of a regular year. Even so, running the whole herd in one mob is a strong motivation to make sure there is good water at all times,” said Richard. “There is some 30km of new pipe for our bore and tanks. As we jointly set up the bore with four neighbouring properties it was important to us that we took monitoring of the system into our own hands, we didn’t want to rely on other people to make sure that the water supply was continuous.”
The Observant system enables them to monitor water levels, and input and output flow rates, and can enable them to turn pumps on and off from their office computer.
“No-one wants to pump artesian water onto the ground and we have to be sure that our stock never run out of drinking water,” says Richard. Also the bore is12kms by road from the house – on a track which can be impassable after rain. For these reasons remote monitoring and control of the bore pump is invaluable.”
Richard is very pleased with the simplicity of the system.
“We’ve now had the system up and running for about 15 months. We were very pleased with how easy the system was configured and how easily I could re-configure it myself. Then there’s always access to James and Giles at Observant over the net and on the phone if and when we need it!”
Since the system was installed, they have added four more pulse output flow meters.
“With the main borehole pump having accurate flow records, not only can we be sure its pumping when it should be, but also have immediate warning of any drop in delivery rate, all from the office computer. This early warning protects our investment ‘down the hole’ as well.”
Richard would recommend the system to his neighbours who share the bore but he has yet to convince them to install the system. He says the after sales service is “exceptional”. “If Giles hadn’t come out it would possibly still be in the box. In-between installing the system, Giles spent his time helping us feed the stock. He continues to work his magic over the net.”
The Golden’s are now seeing other benefits from Observant and emphasise to all producers considering installing a system that it provides tremendous peace of mind, and if people are aware of their stock’s water usage habits and trends they can recognise when something is amiss.
“From the behaviour of the water level images on the computer, we can tell whether there is a leak that needs attention. With a flow meter as well, we can see how much water is moving and can monitor the time of day this is occurring. Knowing how and when our cattle consume the water is important. It’s usual for us to see movement in the levels between 8.30am and 3.30pm while the stock are awake, it’s warm and they’re drinking. However if we get up in the morning and we see that there has been significant water use overnight then we can assume we have a problem somewhere.”
Detecting a leak early enables them to fix it before it becomes a more difficult and expensive problem, leaving large numbers of cattle without water for many hours, or even days.
“We are seeing an enormous saving on fuel use and my time. I know that being able to turn the pump off remotely when it rains is also going to be invaluable, it’s not part of the property that’s easy to access in the wet,” he said.