Grain Automate: Helping growers get more from digital tools and automation

Grain Automate is a new national GRDC initiative designed to help growers get practical value from digital tech, automation and smarter on-farm systems. The aim is simple: cut through the noise, show what works, and make new tools easier to use.

Across Australia, the program is tackling the real challenges growers face every season: patchy connectivity, time-consuming jobs, messy or incomplete data, and the pressure to make better decisions with tighter margins. Current projects range from fully connected farm sites, autonomous equipment trials and improved weed detection to seeding into moisture, harvest-loss tools and platforms that streamline machinery, fuel and labour use.

A major focus is making these findings accessible through case studies, workshops, videos and real-world demonstrations.

Farmer’s Yarn: a place to learn from each other

To support this, the program has launched Farmer’s Yarn, an open and growing online community where growers, agronomists and others in the grains sector share what’s working, what’s not and what they’re trying next.

Recent conversations have covered:

  • improving connectivity across the farm
  • making better use of yield maps and machine data
  • mapping paddocks and cleaning up digital records
  • early experiences with automation and AI tools
  • lessons from Grain Automate trial sites

It’s practical, straight-talking, and farmer-led – no hype, no sales pitch.

If you’re keen to see how other growers are tackling automation, data and connectivity challenges and want simple, practical ideas you can apply straight away, Farmer’s Yarn is worth a look.

Join the community: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/174Kv7RUNL/

Farmers’ Yarn is delivered by SPAA as part of the Grain Automate initiative. Grain Automate is a Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) initiative on behalf of Australian grain growers aimed at accelerating the adoption of machine automation, autonomy and digital technologies in the Australian grains industry.