Help test interconnected ag-tech systems

The challenge

Australian red meat producers use a significant amount of data-collecting technology on-farm, from crush-side data loggers to real-time water monitoring systems. While this technology offers a range of benefits, these systems often don’t easily talk to each other, meaning producers have to double-handle data and miss out on opportunities to increase efficiencies and profitability.

The solution

In March 2021, Integrity Systems Company (ISC) and Food Agility CRC co-funded a team of researchers at TerraCipher and Charles Sturt University (CSU) to explore what a producer-centric data sharing platform would require, with a focus on easy set-up and safe data transfer.

The result from this project is AgriTrakka – a data sharing platform that puts producers in control of their data for efficient and safe distribution across their service providers.

“It’s about data distribution, not data aggregation. By not holding onto any of the producers' data we can be the honest brokers, facilitating the exchange of data between service providers,”
Dave Swain, TerraCipher CTO, said.

By providing standards and tools to get your data to where you want it to be, information can be safely shared between different service providers and directly contribute to ongoing research. AgriTrakka works to allow you to participate, partner, shape, and drive the direction of your data and the insights you gain from it, putting your knowledge into action.

AgriTrakka is currently working towards:

• full producer control over data accessibility
• connecting all service providers for fast data sharing
• setting up automated data flows between eligible services
• keeping data consistent and aligned to international standards to maximise value
• simple data sharing agreements.

Producer testing

TerraCipher and CSU are seeking producers to participate in testing AgriTrakka, which will involve producers contributing their data to a research project currently underway with ISC. Cattle liveweight data from crush-side units and automated in-paddock weigh systems are being coordinated and explored in the hopes of developing a market readiness analysis tool. Participation in the testing will give producers access to a team of data analysts and more informed day-to-day business decisions based on their data.

TerraCipher and CSU recognises that it will take time for ag-tech companies to integrate with AgriTrakka and publish data on behalf of producers. To allow producers to still share their data through AgriTrakka, TerraCipher and CSU has developed a CSV file uploader so they can publish data straight from spreadsheet software.