Fireside chat: AgTech & Data can put producers in the drivers seat: Reflections from WA mixed grain/sheep producer 

This session you will hear from WA mixed cropping and livestock producer Belinda Lay on the value of gaining control over your own data to improve productivity and efficiencies. Belinda’s ability to access, combine and collate long-term past and current data sets within her own farm has been key to uncovering previously unavailable data insights and confirming unproven theories. An early adopter of many MLA focus areas, Belinda will share her lived experiences on barriers and benefits such as EID devices, smart collars, IoT water sensors and using data to inform decisions in a chat with MLA’s Group Manager Michael Lee. 

Key Learnings 

1. AgTech needs to solve a problem that’s worth solving – so involve producers in the design and adoption instead of tech push.
2. Farmers wanting to adopt a data culture – start with what data is collected, what’s available, what are the data gaps.
3. Data ownership puts producers in the driver’s sea 

Panel: Farmers doing it for themselves

Necessity-driven innovation has been at the heart of agriculture for generations and now farmers are developing their own tech and creating their own platforms for many reasons.Yes, the disconnect between Silicon Valley and day-to-day realities on the ground is real — but does it go deeper?
Historically, farmers have always been inventors. From the chaser bin to electric wool presses, jetting races to mobile sheep feeders, so many tools and systems now considered “standard” were dreamt up and built in someone’s farm workshop because nothing off-the-shelf would do the job. This isn’t a new phenomenon — what’s changed is the accessibility of tools like sensors, coding platforms, AI and additive manufacturing, which are now within reach of those same DIY mindsets. Join this panel and meet four ag entrepreneurs who felt inspired, got sick of waiting for someone else to come up with the goods and  just gave it a burl to find solutions for problems that maybe you just had to be there to understand.
 

About Belinda

Belinda Lay is the Chief Administration & Finance Executive (CAFÉ) and business partner at Coolindown Farms, which is a family-owned mixed sheep and grain enterprise near Esperance, WA. Belinda has worked in the Agricultural Industry since leaving school in 1994, acquiring 30 years of Industry experience, during that time she has also attained three Diplomas in Business Studies, Agriculture and Project Management plus completed the full Australian Institute of Company Directors Course in 2020. In 2019 Belinda won the WA Agrifutures Rural Women's Award for her pilot project looking at GPS tracking of sheep. In 2021, she partnered with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) to run multiple activities simultaneously looking at Return on Investment of IoT device on a commercial farm and has a deep understanding of emerging innovations and technologies connected to the farm, in particular livestock, this includes the full utilisation of EIDs and the data available for decision making. Belinda holds an Animal research licence and has undertaken research activities for third parties during Covid. Belinda has represented livestock producers on the board of the Western Australian Meat Industry Authority for 4 years and has recently joined their ARC committee. In 2024 Belinda was selected to sit on the Inaugural Industry Advisory Committee for the Zero Net Emission Agriculture (ZNEAg) CRC, in addition to these roles Belinda holds numerous volunteer governance roles in her local community.