Keynote: Green Efficiency in Agriculture

German agriculture stands for efficiency and sustainable management – significantly supported by digital technologies. Topics such as crop rotation, smart farming, and precision farming play a central role in this. In comparison, Australian agriculture is characterised by large-scale farm structures that require specific management approaches. Interestingly, agricultural businesses in eastern Germany and Eastern Europe show structural similarities to conditions in Australia.

This keynote will be divided into two parts.

Konrad Harbort:
Konrad Harbort, an experienced manager of a 5,000-hectare farm and consultant for digitalization in agriculture, will highlight the similarities and differences between these production systems in his keynote speech. Using practical examples, he will show how digital solutions can contribute to increased efficiency and sustainability – both in the European and Australian contexts.

Erik Guttulsröd:
European agriculture is facing profound change. Sustainability reporting, stricter regulations on the use of inputs, and rising quality requirements are posing major challenges for agricultural businesses. This transformation process requires new strategies, innovative technologies, and a rethink of management approaches. The German Agricultural Society (DLG) is supporting this change as the industry's leading think tank. Since 1885, it has been operating as a non-profit professional organization with over 31,000 members at the interface between science and practice – independently and politically neutral. Its focus is on sustainable production increases, the development of evaluation standards, and providing technical guidance at leading international trade fairs such as AGRITECHNICA. In his speech, Erik Guttulsröd will provide an overview of the key trends in Europe and highlight the implications for the Australian agricultural sector. The focus will be on innovative technology solutions and forward-looking management approaches that are also relevant for large-scale farms in Australia.
 

About Konrad

Konrad spent over 16 years of in practical agriculture in Germany and Australia experiencing and experimenting with technology to drive the industry forward.
During his time as farm manager, he constructed his own drones (UAVs) and used initial test flights to map damaged areas in arable land. After a few years of using various multicopters, he moved on to the first area model, which had significantly greater area coverage than the multicopters. The current model can now stay in the air for over three hours without landing and can thus map up to 450 hectares in one go.

He also work across all farms on digitisation and improving working methods on farm. This enabled him to implement various digitalization projects.
This includes:

• Networking an old seed drill, enabling seeding using application maps
• Construction and installation of a bespoke RTK base station for a fleet of machines and for mapping
• Construction of an RTK surveying device for referencing aerial photographs and surveying arable land, etc.
• Creation of orthophotos in fields with game damage and problematic weeds
• Centimetre-accurate mapping of drainage systems
• Area-specific application of pesticides and fertilisers based on drone and satellite images
• 3D surveying to calculate the sugar beet and corn yield of fields
• Creation of 3D models of fields and farm buildings
• Thermography for fawn detection and PV system inspection
• Creation of thermal orthophotos