Agricultural drone use soars among NZ contractors
Use of agricultural drones by contractors in New Zealand is soaring.
The Health and Safety at Work Act puts the onus on employers or organisations to ensure employees are safe by identifying any risks they are likely to come across during their working day.
A new online app called Onside allows users to develop their own health and safety plan by working through pre-populated lists of potential risks which are overlaid on a satellite map of the property.
The system saves time and tells farm staff or visitors about risks and how to manage them, reducing incidents and improving farm safety overall.
Visitors to a property will need to be encouraged to 'sign in' on a smartphone as they cross a virtual 'geo-fence', which might be the farm's boundaries, and in doing so will be advised by the app of any risks and asked to acknowledge them.
New risks identified can be updated by the user in real time and visitors can report such via their smartphones. All information is cloud-stored, eliminating the need for paperwork. Offline capability serves when cell coverage is poor.
The technology allows users to map boundaries of the enterprise and uses photos rather than written descriptions to show known risks; and it allows users to access instructions for emergencies in real time.
The app developed from discussions with farmers and industry experts in health and safety, then technology partner Jade Software wrote it.
This potential new addition to a farmer's smartphone looks to have huge potential in this complex but necessary aspect of a modern farm business.
The CEO of Apples and Pears NZ, Karen Morrish, says the strategic focus of her organisation is to improve grower returns.
A significant breakthrough in understanding facial eczema (FE) in livestock brings New Zealand closer to reducing the disease’s devastating impact on farmers, animals, and rural communities.
Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.
OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).
The 2024-25 season apple harvest has “well and truly exceeded expectations”, says Apples and Pears NZ chief executive Karen Morrish.
Through collaborative efforts with exhibitors, visitors, and industry partners, Fieldays says it is reaffirming its commitment to environmental responsibility with new initiatives for 2025.
OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.
OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…