The integration and validation of precision management tools in mixed farming systems.

Precision farming techniques are now widely applied within simple cropping systems. However the use of precision technologies to improve the production efficiency of pasture phases in mixed farming systems remains largely unexplored. This paper reports on a project that is examining the agronomic and financial outcomes of using remote and proximally sensed data and site specific management strategies on the sustainability, resilience and profitability of dryland mixed farming systems. Experimental data are being gathered from two dryland cropping sites, one in Western Australia and one in northeastern Victoria. Remote sensing technologies are being used to investigate livestock and pasture interactions in the grazing phase and to follow the aftereffects of different management strategies into a subsequent cropping phase. Although the project is still in an early phase, results generated to date using relatively coarse NDVI (250 m pixel) data from MODIS satellite imagery as an indicator of net primary production suggest that spatial variation in biomass between pasture and cropping phases is consistent and correlated over time. Higher resolution analysis at the 1m-10m pixel scale is required to enable further exploration of the relationships between the pasture and cropping phases.