DAS Rural Intelligence Platform compiling farm production and land value data

There is a lot of farm data in the public domain, examples include property names, sale price, land titles, soil type, rainfall and satellite imagery. However data stored in separate locations generally doesn't worry us, it takes effort and knowledge to find and piece together the data to form it into usable information.

If recent news that Aussie Farms had collated and made accessible farm information underlined anything, it was the importance of understanding how compiled farm data could be used by non-farmers.

On show at AgriFutures EvokeAg, last week in Melbourne, was the latest upgrade to the Digital Agriculture Services (DAS) Rural Intelligence Platform, supported by the CSIRO.

The Rural Intelligence Platform aims to compile publicly available farm data and turn it into information of value to its paying customers such as banks, insurers and real estate agents.

DAS, CEO and co-founder, Anthony Willmott, said the recent upgrade to the Rural Intelligence Platform allowed a benchmarking comparison between farms.

"We have bought some new technology providing standardised productivity measures for every farm in Australia," he said.

"This allows people to go in and benchmark their property and see opportunities in their region.

"We have also brought in standardised dry sheep equivalent (DSE) and adult equivalent (AE) measures for sheep and cattle across Australia."

Mr Wilmott said the productivity data used to benchmark properties was based on "net primary production", which is a measure of biomass on properties, based on historical data.

"In a cropping area we bring in estimated forecasts based on some of the data from the APSIM model."

APSIM, also known as the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator, was developed by the CSIRO in conjunction with other public and private agencies, to simulate agricultural systems and predict yields under various management and climatic scenarios.

Mr Wilmott said the company was aiming to further develop its yield predictions, so in the future those with access to the system could see predicted and potential yields.

While the DAS platform is made available for free to all Australian farmers, Mr Wilmott said the commercial customers included banks, lenders, insurers, rural suppliers and real estate agents.

"People want data to make business decisions," he said.

Privacy

Despite the Rural Intelligence Platform identifying some property names and the locations of buildings and infrastructure on farm, Mr Wilmott said there was no "personally identifiable" data in the platform.

"We have very clearly worked to ensure that is the case, we also have security protocols to avoid people taking advantage of the platform.

"Most of the data we are referencing in regard to buildings is already in the public domain already through Google Maps."

Mr Wilmott said the site did not spell out what enterprises were conducted by a farm on the site, so would not specifically identify a piggery, dairy or feedlot.

"It may say animal husbandry or grazing, but they are pretty broad definitions."

When asked about errors in the public data or whether it would be a true reflection of a farms value Mr Wilmott said the system gave a baseline comparison.

"Farmers, their land valuers and supporting agronomists will always know more about the property then we will," he said.

"We choose to have lower resolution data, but make it available consistently, we have now kicked off a conversation to see how farmers could contribute to the platform."