After years of struggling with bad internet, a farm manager in north-west Victoria has strapped Starlink satellite internet kits to his tractors while sowing.
Gleeson Farms in Natya has Starlink on the Move dishes fitted to the roofs of two tractors that are working their way around the 18,000-hectare property putting in the 2023 grain crop, essentially providing a wi-fi bubble around the farm machinery.
Farm manager Scott Gladman said the data speeds had been remarkable.
"It looks really, really promising," he said.
In past years, even with internet boosters and aerials, Mr Gladman said it was challenging to use variable rate maps for seeding.
This type of mapping enables growers to alter the rate of inputs such as fertiliser and seed, recognising that the soil in each paddock is not always the same.
"We could lose up to two hours when you change paddocks if the file hasn't been sent through the cloud," Mr Gladman said.
Data is also being shared by the two tractors, so both drivers can see what land has been sown.
"If one [tractor] happens to pass over where the other one's been it will also turn off the section control, so there's some big savings in fertiliser and seed," Mr Gladman said.
Connected Farms has just launched Starlink on the Move, which is capable of 350 megabits per second downloads and 80 megabits per second uploads.
The company's CEO Tom Andrews said the technology, which uses the Starlink low earth orbit satellite, was a game changer for farmers in areas where internet was limited.
"It goes with the machines where they're working. You can download all of the variable rate prescriptions, all the mapping programs instantly from the cloud," he said.
The same technology is also being used to provide high speed internet to some emergency service vehicles.
But what happens if the satellite internet service is fitted to farming equipment but isn't needed year round?
Mr Andrews said the devices can be repurposed, but plugging and unplugging the equipment can cause failures.
"We try and encourage permanent fixtures but we can switch the airtime off when the machinery is just sitting in the shed," he said.
Mr Andrews said Starlink on the Move was cheaper than building a private telecommunications network.
"I think we'll see this reach a point where it becomes a very affordable option and that's why we are pushing our partners very hard, to bring the pricing to a reasonable point for farmers," Mr Andrews said.
