PIRSA Evaluates Remote Water Monitoring

Remote Water Monitoring

PIRSA Evaluates Remote Water Monitoring

PIRSA AgTech Advisory Team (in partnership with Thomas Elder Institute & Elders)

Struan and Kybybolite Farms| South East Region, South Australia (Farms located 37km apart)

South Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA), in partnership with the Thomas Elder Institute, deployed the plug-and-play Farmo Water Rat at the Struan and Kybybolite Best Practice Demonstration Farms. By replacing rigid daily check schedules with on-demand NB-IoT telemetry, the multi-site research operation slashed water-run travel times by half and achieved a 450% return on investment within the very first year

Farmo Deviced Deployed

Farmo Water Rat (Trough and Tank Float Monitors)

Water Run Reduction

Estimated reduction in routine time and vehicle mileage spent driving out to manually patrol remote tanks and troughs.

Year 1 Net Savings

Immediate operational savings in recovered labour and motor vehicle expenses within the first 12 months of deployment.

3-Year Cumulative ROI

The exponential projected return on investment over three years—even assuming no major critical water crises were detected.

The Challenge

Managing multi-site institutional operations across geographically separated properties presents immense logistical hurdles. They faced significant compounding expenses trying to maintain consistent water security:
The Distance Penalty: The Kybybolite property sits 37km northeast of the primary Struan hub. Because it was not regularly patrolled, staff were forced to make long, dedicated commutes simply to visually inspect water assets.
The Cost of Blindspots: Low water levels in livestock troughs routinely went undetected for days, while hidden pipe leaks could flow unnoticed for weeks, resulting in heavy water loss, pump wear, and sudden production risks.
Compounding Costs: Manually checking remote stock water absorbed substantial staff hours (calculated at an industry average of $50/hr) and generated heavy wear-and-tear vehicle costs (estimated $0.72/km).

The Solution

By dropping the Farmo Water Rat directly into their troughs in grazing paddocks, the team transitioned from speculative, schedule-driven checking to continuous asset monitoring.
Ecosystem Setup: Built-in accelerometer tilt sensors allow the lightweight Water Rat to sit directly inside water troughs or tanks. The instant a water line drops below a safe margin, the device capsizes, triggering an immediate notification. Monitoring devices do not eliminate the need to inspect tanks and troughs, but mean checks are required less frequently.
Ultra-Low Maintenance: Activating the hardware takes seconds via a simple external magnet swipe. Operating over low-power NB-IoT networks, the devices leverage an integrated 8000 mAh lithium battery to deliver years of reliable service without physical interventions.

The use of monitoring devices does not completely eliminate the need to check water tanks and troughs, but it drastically reduces how often those checks are required. If a significant out-of-water event went undetected for even a few days, livestock weight loss and death could occur, resulting in massive production losses.

Key Takeaways

Easy-To-Move Design

Unlike permanent, complex infrastructure setups, the lightweight design allows managers to simply lift the Water Rat out of a trough and move it to a new paddock alongside a moving mob. This enables dynamic, asset-by-asset protection with zero reconfiguration downtime.

Multi-Property Scalability

Managing cross-property operations usually requires complex repeater networks or heavy capital expense. Adopting independent, carrier-grade NB-IoT monitoring enables immediate visibility on isolated out-blocks (like Kybybolite, 37km away) right from a central smartphone dashboard.

Prevent Stock Loss

Relying on physical checks leaves a dangerous multi-day vulnerability window where leaks or empty troughs cause immediate livestock stress. Automated data logging allows producers to identify dry troughs before they become fatal.

Case Study 1. PIRSA

Background: Struan and Kybybolite Best Practice AgTech Demonstration Farm

South Australian producers are experiencing farm management solutions and cutting-edge technology at the Struan and Kybybolite Best Practice Demonstration Farm.

The 1,100 ha Struan farm is situated approximately 370 km south-east of Adelaide, and 17 km south of Naracoorte. This is approximately 35 km from the 300 ha Kybybolite farm.

Key takeaway from the Cae Study:
The ranking by ROI in first year of purchase:

1. Farmo's Water Rat 323%
2. Goaana (Go Tank) 170%
3. Farmbot Water Level Monitor 122%
4. DIT agtech (tank level monitor) 104%
5. Alpha Group Consulting (tank level sensors) 93%
6. DIT Agtech (remote moniroing camera) 80%

All of the above results are excellent in terms of ROI and make purchasing remote water monitoring one of the easier decisions you will have to make on the farm.
Water Monitoring ROI

Water Monitoring cost comparison

Case Study - comparing Water Monitoring soloutions

1. Trough or Tank Sensor – Farmo

The Farmo Water Rat trough and tank sensor remotely monitors trough or tank water level.

How does it work?

The Water Rat floats in the trough or tank and uses accelerometer tilt sensors to detect movement, and when the Water Rat reaches low levels in either a trough or tank, it tilts over, triggering an alert – sent to your mobile device. When the water level returns to normal levels, another alert is triggered. The Water Rat is easily transported by simply picking it up out of the trough and moving it to the next trough. If using the Water Rat in a tank, a tether also has to be purchased to tether the Water Rat, so an alert is given if the tank is at 50% capacity.

Water Rat in trough

Fig. 1. Farmo Water Rat in a trough at Struan.

Value proposition

The Farmo Water Rat reduces the number of water runs required, therefore lowering labour and driving costs. Water Rat is being used at the BPDF farm to monitor water troughs. Due to the portability of Water Rat, it is moved with the mob when they are moved into a new paddock. Monitoring devices do not eliminate the need to inspect tanks and troughs, but mean checks are required less frequently. Through the water usage graph, pump health and water leaks can be identified early, reducing the risk of livestock going without water.

Return on investment (ROI)

Purchase price: $545 excluding GST.

Ongoing data subscription costs: $135 excluding GST, per year, for one device.

Low water levels may go undetected for days, while water leaks can go undetected for weeks, if not longer. The use of the monitoring devices does not eliminate the need to check water tanks and troughs but reduces how often these checks are needed. The Kybybolite farm is located 37km north east of the Struan farm and is not as regularly patrolled. Considering the distance between the farms, we estimate water runs to be reduced by 50%. Our estimate is that the investment costs will be recovered in first year of installation, even if no water issues are detected. If a significant out of water event went undetected even for a few days, livestock weight loss and death could occur resulting in significant production losses.

Table 1 outlines the costs of Farmo Water Rat compared with manually checking stock water at our Kybybolite property. If your property relies on reticulated water, these costs will be considerably higher.

Table 1: Estimated return on investment of the Farmo Water Rat over three years compared to no water monitoring.

	No water monitoring and manual water checks	Water monitoring - Year 1 50% reduction in time spent checking tanks and troughs	Water monitoring - Year 2 50% reduction in time spent checking tanks and troughs	Water monitoring - Year 3 50% reduction in time spent checking tanks and troughs
Purchase price and ongoing data costs1	$-	$680 ($545 + $135)	$135	$135
Labour cost2	$4,387.50	$2,193.75	$2,193.75	$2,193.75
Motor vehicle cost3	$3,090.24	$1,545.12	$1,545.12	$1,545.12
Total costs	$7,477.74	$4,418.87	$3,873.87	$3,873.87
Profit4	$0	$3,738.87	$7,477.74	$11,216.61
RoI5		450% of investment and on-going costs recovered	818% of investment and on-going costs recovered	1081% of investment and on-going costs recovered

1Purchase price correct as of April 2022. 2Estimated labour cost of $50/hour to check waters.

3Motor vehicle costs estimated at $0.72/km. 4Profit calculations estimated from a 50% reduction in labour and vehicle costs. 5RoI calculations assume no water issues have been detected in 3 years.

Dashboards

Farmo provides a text message or email alert if the trough is empty. You can also monitor the information online from your phone, tablet or computer.

Fig. 2. Email message notification that the trough has returned to normal levels (left picture) and online dashboard information (right picture).

Connectivity requirements

The Water Rat uses a NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) connection to send data back to your computer, phone or tablet.

Installation and power

The Water Rat is light and easily installed by placing it in a trough or tank. A small magnet is placed on the side of the Water Rat to activate it before placing into the trough. When installing into a tank, it is recommended to tether the Water Rat to the side of the tank to allow an alert to be sent when the tank is 50% full, rather than when the tank is completely empty.Powered by a Lithium-Ion non-rechargeable battery (8000 mAh Li/SOCl2) for long-term use.

Pricing model

Hardware and annual subscription costs for data and service.

How can I view this?

To view the Water Rat at Struan Research Centre, contact Robyn Terry at robyn.terry@sa.gov.au or 0418 631 842.

Find out more about Farmo

Nick Seymour
Phone: 0434 555 804
Email: Nick@farmo.com.au

Visit https://www.farmo.com.au/ for more information about Farmo Water Rat.

Contact

Robyn Terry - AgTech Co-innovation Officer
Email: robyn.terry@sa.gov.au
Phone: 0418 631 842

Andy Phelan – AgTech Development Officer
Email: andrew.phelan@elders.com.au
Phone: 0427 619 941

Visit pir.sa.gov.au/primary_industry/agtech/attend_demos/struan_kybybolite_demo_farms for more information about Struan and Kybybolite Best Practice Demonstration Farm.

The Struan and Kybybolite Best Practice Demonstration Farm are a partnership between the Thomas Elder Institute, Elders’ research, development and extension entity, and the South Australian Government’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions.