“The Australian agricultural sector is characterised by its dynamism and resilience, but we operate in a global context and this requires us to think expansively if we’re to be assured of long-term success,” says Natasha Greenwood, General Manager Agribusiness at CommBank. “It’s imperative that we strategically position our farming businesses to be future-ready – both to mitigate the impact of market volatility and to optimise performance.”
“It’s imperative that we strategically position our farming businesses to be future-ready – both to mitigate the impact of market volatility and to optimise performance.”
– Natasha Greenwood, General Manager Agribusiness at CommBank
More than 80 peers and industry specialists have come together in the Hunter Valley for CommBank’s inaugural Cultivate event – bringing producers, innovators and industry leaders into one room to share perspectives, exchange ideas and collectively shape the future of farming.
Trading instincts for insights
The first panel session of Cultivate – Farming Reimagined: Technology, Data and the Future of Livestock – features Nikki Cleary from Valera Vale Droughtmasters.
Cleary manages the stud bull preparation operation within her family’s business, taking bulls from around 12 months old through to sale at two to two-and-a-half years.
Deciding when to put a bull up for sale used to depend on the look of the animal but in the past five or six years, she says, data and technology have fundamentally changed the business model.
The change started with DNA testing. Every animal on the property is tested and must meet specific genetic criteria before it's considered for sale or retained in the herd. Valera Vale Droughtmasters runs a fully polled herd – meaning none of their bulls can carry genes for horns – a standard that simply could not be guaranteed by observation alone.
“We used to see a mother with a calf and assume it was her calf,” says Cleary. “Now they're all parent-verified by DNA.”
The DNA testing also generates Genomic Estimated Breeding Values (GEBV), which predict the animals’ growth rates, calving rates and a range of production traits. Where once a buyer relied on a vendor’s word, they can now assess an animal’s potential with scientific confidence.
Colour, size and shape might have been the visual benchmarks used previously to convince a buyer of the quality of the animal but now, says Cleary, “if they’ve got the data, that’s what you want.”
When data saved the herd
The value of that scientific rigour came into sharp focus a couple of years ago. Cleary’s father, experienced cattleman and veterinarian Dr Michael Flynn, noticed a suspected case of double muscling, a genetic defect with serious consequences for bone structure and fertility. The business already had over 100 bulls catalogued and ready for sale. Testing confirmed the worst – more than 20 had to be pulled from the sale.
“We had to go back through all our sires and find the ones that had the defect,” recalls Cleary.
It was a hard year but it could have been far worse. Without the DNA data infrastructure already in place, the defect could have silently spread through the entire herd and potentially into the herds of every buyer. “It would have been crippling to a smaller business.”
Instead, the fallout was contained and the business emerged with a stronger, cleaner herd and an additional test added to their standard protocol every year.
Data beyond the paddock
The benefits don’t stop at genetics. Cleary’s team uses farm management apps to track daily feed consumption, cattle weights and staff task management – all from a phone.
“We can tell you from an app that they came on-farm at this weight, they left the farm at this weight and they have eaten X amount every day,” she says. “That cost this many dollars. So you know where your profits and margins are.”
That data also matters when sitting across a desk from a bank or an insurer. “Everything we do is backed up by data,” says Cleary. “Instead of just telling them what you’re doing, you can show them. It’s a lot easier in those conversations.
“Everything we do is backed up by data. Instead of just telling banks or insurers what you’re doing, you can show them. It’s a lot easier in those conversations.”
– Nikki Cleary, Valera Vale Droughtmasters
In an industry where margins are tight and seasons can be brutal, the ability to make decisions backed by evidence rather than instinct isn’t just an advantage, according to Cleary, it’s increasingly the baseline. “If you're not advancing, you’re not going to continue. You have to keep moving forward.”
Ethan Brien, the Hunter region territory manager at Halter, concurs. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” he says. “Livestock producers need to measure all sorts of data to benchmark the herd, their land, productivity and efficiency to drive quality and the sustainability of their operations.”
The virtue of a “virtual fence”
Founded in 2016, Halter has created a system that includes a solar-powered smart collar for each cow, towers for connectivity and an app that lets farmers manage their cattle and pasture from their phone. Cattle are guided by the collar’s sound and vibration cues. Farmers can virtually fence, move and monitor their cattle 24/7.
Brien says land, labour and lifestyle are three key considerations for today’s farmers. “Many of the next generation of farmers are looking at how time-poor and hard-working their fathers and grandfathers have had to be – and they don’t want that lifestyle.”
But technology is changing the status quo, giving people more time and a better lifestyle to continue making their living on the farm. Tech is also helping farmers maximise the land they have. Virtual fencing collars can increase efficiency, explains Brien. “If you can encourage livestock to move across hilly or rough terrain to grass they might not otherwise access, then you’re allowing farmers to be more productive on the same amount of land.”
Conventional fencing can be costly to build and maintain, while virtual fencing can be monitored and shifted to manage over-grazing or accommodate environmental changes that come from floods or drought. “We educate and train the farmers because we want them to be as successful as possible,” explains Brien. “We want them to hit their goals and see more productivity and efficiency on the farm.”
Many farmers, he adds, are struggling to find good labour and when they find it, it’s expensive. “We can give time back to them – whether it’s weeks of mustering or two or three hours a day – so they can concentrate on jobs that actually move the needle.”
Beef farmer Nathan Cox from Paloona in Tasmania has said that using Halter technology has been a huge timesaver, given that shifting fences could take anywhere from between 20 minutes to two hours and has to be done no matter how bad the weather might be.
Halter leverages the data provided by the thousands of farms in Australia and New Zealand using the collars to provide on-the-ground knowledge for land and environment efficiencies and sustainability.
A 2025 study of Halter’s virtual fencing technology on 10 dairy farms by consultancy firms AgFirst and Transform Agri showed that when combined with strong farm management, the technology enabled gains in pasture use, labour efficiency, animal performance and environmental outcomes. On average, these gains resulted in an increase in farm profit before tax of 13.2%. The farms also harvested 8.9% more pasture.1
“If Australian farmers lean in and give technology a chance in this country,” says Brien, “we'll be unstoppable.”
“If Australian farmers lean in and give technology a chance in this country, we'll be unstoppable.”
– Ethan Brien, Hunter Region Territory Manager, Halter
Platform in a paddock
On Bill and Jacqui Mitchell’s family beef farm in regional New South Wales, every decision – how to graze, what to grow, which fertiliser program to run – is determined by one thing: the weight of the animals.
Doing that effectively meant mustering the herd and bringing the mob from the paddock to the yards. “Jacqui and I worked out that one year we had spent two days out of every week in the cattle yards,” says Bill. “I just thought there has to be a way to get the animals to weigh themselves.”
What followed was patient iteration – badly welded prototyped, cobbled-together electronics, front-foot weights cross-referenced against whole-body readings – until the Mitchells had proven something that seemed improbable: you could get an accurate picture of a mob’s condition without bringing them in from the paddock.
In 2019, Optiweigh, a mobile, in-paddock livestock weighing unit was born.
The animal is enticed onto the Optiweigh with an attractant such as molasses. The unit scans the electronic identification of the animal and sends data to the cloud in real time.
“What’s been the most amazing thing,” says Bill, “is that our customers have shown how to turn it into a productivity improvement tool.”
Producers watching daily weight movements started identifying pasture deficiencies, detecting the impact of worm burdens in sheep at far lower thresholds than conventional testing would flag, and pinpointing paddocks that simply weren't performing – problems invisible to the eye but plain in the numbers. “It’s not what you can see,” he says. “It’s what the data is telling you.”
That shift from reactive management to data-led decision making is at the heart of what he believes separates the operations that will thrive from those that won’t.
The margin pressures on Australian agriculture will only intensify, he argues, and the gap between producers focused on productivity and those who are not is already measurable in bottom-line figures. For business yet to embrace technology, he’s direct about the need to get on board.
“Are they thinking about how they're going to equip their business to meet the challenges of having to remain profitable in an environment where the margin pressures will only continue to get worse?”
Farming, adds Bill, “is all about managing productivity against climatic conditions. We're already seeing stark differences between producers who are focused on productivity and what they can achieve, versus those who are not.”
“We're seeing stark differences between producers who are focused on productivity and what they can achieve, versus those who are not.”
– Bill Mitchell, Co-founder, Optiweigh
Leaders in innovation
Australian farmers have been leaders in innovation for many years through the necessity of having to run lean and efficient operations, says CommBank’s Greenwood. “We’re optimistic and bullish about the opportunities ahead and we want Australian producers to be well positioned to take advantage of that,” she says. “We want to support businesses that prioritise productivity and resilience – and contribute to a more dynamic and sustainable agricultural landscape.”
“We’re optimistic and bullish about the opportunities ahead and we want Australian producers to be well positioned to take advantage of that.”
– Natasha Greenwood, General Manager Agribusiness at CommBank
Greenwood believes that some of the technology considered niche today will become more mainstream, allowing farmers to use that in their day-to-day operations for a real impact. “This is just the beginning.”
