00:00Well, it's been day two of ABARES Outlook Conference, and the morning session this morning
00:04has been a fairly close look at everything from climate risk to agriculture and agricultural
00:11support services, including the insurance industry, carbon sequestration on farm, and
00:18ag's strong productivity story, especially in comparison with the rest of the economy,
00:24but some of the areas where we also need to look at improving have been closely looked at.
00:29Automation in particular is really meeting farmers where they're at right now, and we
00:33see all kinds of solutions that are opening up not just what humans do and what machines
00:38do, but whole new types of practices.
00:40So that could be Swarm Farm Robotics, which has hundreds of robots now operating across
00:44Australia, building a fully integrated solution.
00:47Then we have companies on the other end of the spectrum, like Agavor from New Zealand coming
00:51to Australia, that has a small electric tractor for horticulture with mowing and spraying attachments
00:57and kind of fleet management capabilities, and somewhere in the middle, companies like
01:01Ornada that have retrofit autonomy solutions and an op center model where you can have one
01:07human based in a city or regionally controlling a fleet of equipment.
01:10And I think all of these are different technology approaches, different business models, but
01:14just show the potential of autonomy to open up new practices and help farmers be more productive.
01:20Those are just three examples, and they're three companies that we've invested in at Tenacious Ventures.
01:24There's many others operating in Australia and coming from overseas into Australia because
01:29our farmers are so hungry for this innovation, because of the climate pressures, because of
01:33the lack of subsidies.
01:34So that whole autonomy space is super exciting.
01:37One of the startups that we've been working with, Sam is the founder.
01:40They developed an EMS technology, which is electronic muscular stimulation, which is an alternative
01:47to the collars that are used on cattle.
01:49It's integrated into the ear tags, and it helps to achieve the same outcomes as virtual
01:54fencing.
01:55And this technology is being developed, and the product development is really underway and
01:59getting into the hands of farmers for trials now.
02:02One of the other innovators we're working closely with is a company called Reson Ag.
02:06They're bringing mining technology, essentially MRI technology, which is magnetic resonance imaging
02:13technology to provide real-time water availability assessment in the soil, which will help to
02:20inform precision seeding.
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