SuniTAFE’s SMART Farm provided the ideal working conditions for John Deere trainers to spend a month teaching 76 personnel and dealership staff from across the country about innovative technology designed for high value crops.
The SMART Farm was used to demonstrate John Deere tech for horticulture such as data management, Universal Yield mapping, Machine Sync, and spray rate controllers on various sprayer configurations, including the Smart Apply Intelligent Spray Control System.
The training, delivered in four waves over one month, involved 10 John Deere representatives and 66 dealer representatives from four states.
John Deere production systems manager Stephanie Gersekowski says with horticulture production forecast to double during the next decade in Sunraysia alone, SuniTAFE’s facilities were the perfect venue to demonstrate John Deere’s innovative precision farming technologies.
“SuniTAFE provided us with a wide range of crops, from citrus to nut trees, as well as various vine configurations and open areas, to demonstrate and teach these technologies, and our training team really appreciated the facilities, interaction with staff, support and knowledge shared by the SuniTAFE team,” Stephanie says.
“We demonstrated the global unmanned spray system (GUSS) autonomous sprayer distributed through a partnership between John Deere and the California-based GUSS tech company, on citrus crops, and our personnel and dealer reps learned more about the benefits of the new 5ML Series tractors.
“The 5ML is a compact, intelligent and powerful tractor John Deere has designed for high value vine and tree crops, which can be equipped from factory with precision technologies previously only seen on broadacre agricultural equipment, such as GreenStar, AutoTrac and ISOBUS compatibility.”
SuniTAFE’s chief executive Brett Millington says the organisation aims to be the leading training provider in SMART horticulture farming, combining best practice with cutting-edge technology to develop the workforce of tomorrow.
“Industry partnerships, such as hosting John Deere staff and trainers, are pivotal in contributing to course content, so that our students receive the most up-to-date and relevant training and businesses are able to plan ahead with the confidence that they have the workforce to realise their goals,” Brett says.
“We are at a crossroads between industrial-era farming and SMART Farming, and precision ag and tech stacks like John Deere’s will make horticulture farming more efficient and productive.
“To remain relevant to constantly evolving industries, SuniTAFE knows it must develop effective industry partnerships, be innovative and welcome change.”
