00:00Hi, welcome to AgriCast. Kirsten DeProse here. Have you tried to get any of the recent federal
00:12government grants for connectivity for your farm? It was closed really before it started.
00:17And to tell us more about it is Paula Thompson, who is the National Machinery and Ag Tech
00:23Writer for ACM Agri. How are farmers feeling about this? I mean, is it a good thing or
00:28a bad thing that these grants closed so quickly after they were opened? It's good and it's
00:34bad. I mean, obviously, any time you can get free money for anything is a good thing. And
00:39I think there are a lot of really good things with the second round of the funding, just
00:43the fact that the annual turnover cutoff went up a lot. So before it was only $2 million
00:49cutoff, which cut off a lot of people like in the cropping and cotton industries. So
00:53going up to $4 million turnover this year, that opened up to a lot more people. And also
00:57there was so many more suppliers that you could go through this time round. So the first
01:01round had 79 suppliers. This time there was over 300 people that you could work with.
01:06So I think that's all positives. And obviously, farmers just jumped on it and got in
01:11quick and made the most of it while they could. But then on the flip side, the bad thing
01:15is I'm based in South Australia, which we're having a shocker a year down here. And I
01:21think a lot of regional businesses would have really loved for the program to go on a
01:25lot longer. And we're kind of betting on it to run some promotions, drive a bit of
01:31business, because obviously rural businesses, if farmers are doing it tough, they're doing
01:35it tough. And that flows on to the broader community. So I think overall, it has to be
01:39seen as a good thing, anything that is driving innovation in the farming sector.
01:43What sort of things was that particular grant covering, if you could remind us?
01:47Everything from setting up remote water monitoring on outback stations, to setting up
01:52security systems for your farm, digital water tank monitoring, automatic weighing for
01:59livestock. So a really broad range of things farmers could spend their money on. And I
02:04guess that is another reason why it went so quick, because it really opened up to a wide
02:09range of areas that you could invest in and give it a go on your farm.
02:13Do you have any suggestions for farmers who have missed out?
02:16That's a hard thing now. So when the program was announced in October last year, it was
02:23announced as part of a $30 million federal government program. So it was $15 million over
02:29two rounds originally. And then the federal government bumped it up by $3 million this
02:33year to $18 million for the second round. But there's been no mention of any other pots of
02:38money being available. So yeah, we'll definitely be asking the government if there's more to
02:43come. But I'm afraid, yeah, I can't tell farmers that there's more definitely coming
02:47because we just don't know at this stage.
02:49How much do these sort of grants actually influence the uptake of ag tech and other
02:55innovations on farms?
02:56I think a great deal. And I think one of the things that happened before the grants were
03:00actually open this time was the National Farmers Federation ran a webinar for people to
03:05jump on. So they made sure they had all their ducks in a row before the grants opened. One
03:09of the speakers said that this is a really good way to minimise your risk. Obviously,
03:14farming, you're always going to have risks. So if you can minimise your risk by having half of
03:18your investment covered by someone else, it was just a really great way to, you know, try
03:23new things on farm without, you know, going all in and having to spend a heap of money.
03:28Well, Paula, I guess we'll be keeping our eyes and ears open for any future grants. Thank
03:32you so much for joining us on Agrocast.
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