Creating and Capturing Business Value in Agricultural Supply Chain Management using

Location Based Technologies

Raymond De Lai (presenter)Michael Sefton; Gioia Small; and Sam Brooke (contributors)

Herbert Resource Information Centre

Presentation structure

1. Australian Sugar Industry• Agricultural farming systems/PA• Location based business solution• Data Mining

2. Australian Wine Grape Industry• Location based business solution

3. Conclusion

Herbert Sugar Industry – Growing Cane• About 560 growers supplying cane from 600 farms• Farms vary in production from 2000 tonnes to >100,000 tonnes• 64 000 ha under cultivation. 10,000 ha fallow• GPS guidance is being increasingly used for planting, cultivation and harvesting • Normally 85t/ha; about 4.5 million tonnes; average sugar 13.5 CCs. About $400/tonne. Value $243 million (if 4.5 million and 13.5 CCS)

Herbert Sugar Industry – Harvesting Cane• All cane is harvested mechanically. Almost none is burnt• We have 58 harvesting groups. The largest supplies around 85,000 tonnes• Each harvester has an on-board computer, a GPS for tracking where cane has been harvested and a modem for transmitting data• Some have yield monitors for mapping cane yields• We can observe at the mill which harvesters are operating and where they are

Herbert Sugar Industry – Transporting Cane

• Sucrogen has 26 Locomotives and more than 8000 cane bins• Sucrogen has it’s own loco tracking program – RailSafe• They can view HRIC system in RailSafe but not the other way around• There is about 350 Km’s of track and about 240 sidings• Sucrogen traffic officers reliant on Harvest Management System.

Herbert Sugar Industry – Milling Cane

• Two sugar mills – Victoria and Macknade• Victoria is the biggest mill in Australia. Rates up to 1200t/hr• Macknade can crush up to 600t/hr• Capacity of crushing 200 000 to 250 000tonnes/week• Victoria Mill putting in 20Megawatt co-generation plant

High level of interdependence – but not vertically integrated (except for milling and transport)

Sao Martinho Brazil (St Martin Mill) – completely vertically integrated. 5-6 million tonne (80-90 tonne p ha average) (also two 9 million tonne farms in other regions). 45 harvesters (7 groups) 2 tractors – 3 haul – outs cane transported by 350 trucks own planters and fertilising

We have: Herbert (5 million tonne) 2 mills (one owner) who owns transport 58 harvesters (separate businesses) c. 560 growers 15 Planters and fertiliser contractors

Virtual Integration

EM Soil Mapping

GPS base station network

Community GPS base station program to allow cheaper entry to PA by the industry.

Led to greater adoption.

Economies of scale.

Sub-2cm accuracy

M Sefton 2011

Yield Monitoring System

30 000ha under yield monitoring

New farming systems1. Cane growers being more profitable2. Increased cane for mill3. Turns whole area into a variety trial

Real time pour rate data for Harvest Performany

HCPSL Soil Mapping

E

DF

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Site at Lannercost, 2008Photos taken by L Di Bella

Sugar Cane Estimate

Strategic Project: 2009 Flood Damage

Cane Mapping

Foundation and mission critical dataset

Enables:• crop estimate at sub-block level• cane consignment• productivity initiatives and reporting• cane transport plans• environmental compliance

Real-Time Harvest Management SystemAnd Cane Consignment Error Trapping

HRIC Web Portal

Harvest Performance Report

Cost Comparison – BKN vs HBT HMS

Comparing: cane mapping, estimating, harvest monitoring and cane consignment

Burdekin Cane Area Herbert Cane Area (all Parties)Cultivated area: 89 560 Cultivated area: 64 000 ha11,000 cane blocks 19,000 cane blocks13 staff 2 staff

Total cost: $1 055 000 Total cost: $306 000

$11.80ha $5.09 ha$75.35 per block $15.69 per block

$0.00

$10.00

$20.00

$30.00

$40.00

$50.00

$60.00

$70.00

$80.00

Per hectare Per cane block

Cost

Cost of the Harvest Management System

Burdekin

Herbert

Greensheet – Fertiliser Application

M Sefton & G Holzberger 2013

Cane Productivity Loss

Increasing harvesting speeds in Herbert are costing A$20-$30 million per year.

Can’t do this analysis without location based data (Harvest speeds from GPS and Productivity data over multiple years)

2013 Vintage

Project Sweet

opportunities to improve wine grape harvest, transport and intake

Business Opportunities Identified

Vineyard Activities:Provide relevant, timely, an accurate information to the WineryMore effectively manage vineyard operations

Winery Operation Activities:Improvement in estimateImprovement of scheduling and booking processes

Harvesting and TransportImproved efficiencies in harvestingImproved efficiencies in transport

Winery ActivitiesMore effective and efficient winery

Other OpportunitiesProvision of data to external agenciesTraceability for sustainability and consumer marketingImproved availability to data

Location – McLaren Vale, South Australia

Improved Profitability and Efficiency

No clear visibility – reliant on communication

•“Too late, too early, under tonnes or over tonnes” •“We despatched the load with plenty of time to get to the winery at its booked time – it still turned up late and we don’t know why” •“There’s a load due in 5 minutes – 45 minutes later we’re still waiting”

Transport complexity adds costs

Untimely delivery adds to costs

Business Management System

Key Points:

Structural complexity in Australian sugar and wine grape industries – vertical interdependency

Single business system focus – enterprise GIS solution for ‘virtual’ business integration

Enterprise GIS for whole supply chain management system and business management: - farming; harvesting, transport, milling, shipping, marketing, RD&E

HRIC enables this through focus on four components: institutional arrangements, data, people, and technology

More times data used – more valuable it becomes

Contact

Raymond De LaiCentre Manager Herbert Resource Information CentrePh: +61 7 4776 4778Mob: 0417 194 073Email: rdelai@hinchinbrook.qld.gov.au