Monitoring and Managing Spatial Variability in Pastures: Developing Active Optical Sensors to increase nitrogen use efficiency and GPS Tracking to understand livestock pasture utilisation and nutrient redistribution

Abstract

Spatial variability is an inherent characteristic of agricultural landscapes. There is an increasing awareness amongst producers that monitoring and managing this variability could lead to increases in production. This paper reviews two recent advances in technology, Active Optical Sensors for site specific nutrient management and Autonomous Spatial Livestock Monitoring systems which seek to exploit spatial variability and enable producers to increase the efficiency and sustainability of their grazing systems.