ABC VICTORIA COUNTRY HOUR | Cost, connectivity and knowledge identified as barriers to autonomous tech use in ag

Autonomous technology for Australian farms is something that will become the norm in the not-too-distant future, but there are barriers that are preventing growers from doing more in this space.

Grain Producers Australia Research, Development and Extension Spokesperson and Victorian grain grower Andrew Weidemann spoke to ABC Victoria Country Hour about the recent results of a national grower survey on perceptions of the technology.

This work forms a part of the partnership GPA has with Society of Precision Agriculture Australia and the Tractor and Machinery Association of Australia to support the industry as the technology becomes more readily available in Australia.

This includes the development and now adoption of the Code of Practice for Agricultural Mobile Field Machinery with Autonomous Functions in Australia.

"About 60 per cent of our survey participants said they are really keen to learn more about the fully autonomous driverless machinery that was available and that really quite keen on demonstrations being set up by companies and field days and the like," Mr Weidemann said.

"A lot of people that like to go and see it first in action and then make a decision on whether or not to purchase.

"So while the cost of entry is quite high in the first instance, if we look back 10 years, or even 20 years, the GPS and autosteer technology we now use was considered to have the same barriers.

"It's incredible to look at the evolution of farming and technology in that time and autonomous machinery is going to be another iteration of this trend into the future."

Listen here