Farms & Farm Machinery #389

OPINION
The time may be right for a new kind of labour-saving
device on Australian farms. Image courtesy Alamy
where’s HAL when you
need him?
With the cost of wages
for skilled operators being
one of the main outgoings
in agriculture, it’s time
we focused on developing
autonomous solutions
Trevor Whittington – CEO WAFarmers
One would think that
with Australia’s farm
economics, we would
have been at the forefront
of the digital agricultural
revolution.
History tells us that crises drive revolutions. Just ask the
Russians – they have experienced two major revolutions
in the last 100 years: the emergence of communism and the
collapse of communism. One led to the collectivisation of
Russian agriculture into massive unproductive farms and the
other to the establishment of some of the biggest privately
owned and lowest cost farming operations in the world.
In Australia we have our own crisis happening that should
be driving a revolution in agriculture. We operate with the
most expensive labour in the world, with our minimum hourly
wage of A$19.84 set at nearly double that of the United States
at US$7.25 (A$10.12) and 10 times that of Russia at US$1.50
(A$2.09), so it is with some surprise that I read that it is the
Russians who are driving the race to automate farm machinery
with self-driving, operator-free technology.
As every high school history and economics student is taught,
the first agricultural revolution witnessed the introduction of
new technology, which saw labour being replaced by capital;
driving increased productivity and reduced costs.
One would think that with Australia’s farm economics, we
would have been at the forefront of the digital agricultural
revolution, developing autonomous driving technology to
help replace the nearly $40 an hour (with on costs) to employ
a skilled header driver, which is over 20 times what a similar
Russian farm worker is being paid.
Add to that the pressures that Australian farmers are currently
facing due to the border restrictions being imposed by state and
federal governments around COVID-19, and one would think
that adding another computer to the header to replace a person
would be a pretty attractive option.
The fact that the Russians have a working solution in the form
of technology called the Cognitive Pilot, which is being globally
tested in markets that are our direct competitors, should send
a signal to our government that all their talk of government
support for local Ag Tech start-ups is not really hitting the mark
and driving the development of local solutions.
One has to wonder why the Russians are not trialling their
technology here, as I suspect there would be a willing cohort of
farmers ready to recruit “HAL” to the coming harvest (for those
who missed it that’s a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey – but
hopefully their HAL is not quite so ruthless!).
While many farmers might be wary of putting HAL straight onto
the header unaccompanied, I suspect the risk would be less
than putting in a completely unskilled driver, which is what many
farmers will be facing in the next couple of months, as their calls
for the borders to be opened to allow in skilled workers is falling
on political deaf ears.
In these times I marvel at the naïveté of politicians that have
never been in a header and who confidently proclaim that
farmers simply need to train unskilled workers. No doubt their
thinking is that agriculture is going to help solve the looming
unemployment crisis, but I suspect there are greater forces
at play.
What the COVID-created employment crisis is doing (not to
mention JobSeeker, JobKeeper and high minimum wages) is fast
tracking the introduction of autonomous solutions that will be a
key part of the next great agricultural revolution.
With the Russians having stitched up the autonomous header
solution, Australian Ag Tech developers should be looking at
getting HAL into the chaser bins, as the technology is well
established to steer the tractor and header down the paddock in
unison, leaving the last bit of the equation the round trip to the
field bin.
In Western Australia, the state government recently rushed
out an announcement of funding to support a farm machinery
driver training scheme, but like all governments they are playing
catch-up and have missed the big play. What they should have
been doing is funnelling serious funds into WA Ag Tech start-ups
to help local developers race to catch up to the Russians.
In the meantime, we continue on employing the most expensive
labour in the world and wait for the next great revolution in
agriculture to address one of our biggest costs.
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