Australian farmers are eyeing drone technology and artificial intelligence (AI) as they look to step up their “war” against mouse infestations and fungus in grain crops.
Western Australia’s broadacre farmers grow more than 17 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds on average every year alone, but each season sees farmers across Australia battle with some form of pest, weed, or disease incursion.
Traditionally, problems such as mouse outbreaks have relied on people working in paddocks to physically see and report infestations.
Farmers are now looking to use AI technology to improve the early detection of mouse hotspots.
Aerial mice baiting from a plane is common across Australia. (ABC News)
John Young started thinking of ways to apply more targeted baits to mouse holes after dealing with a plague at his Calingiri farm, north-east of Perth, two years ago.
He wanted a better solution than the usual method of a blanket application of baits across entire paddocks.
“That got me thinking that maybe we could use a drone to count or find the mouse holes [and] geo-locate the holes,” he said.
“Then from that data, produce a variable rate map to spread baits where the mice are worse.”
The concept saw Mr Young win a new drone at WA’s largest agricultural field days at Dowerin for his innovative, drone-based agricultural ideas.
He now hopes a technology company will pick up his idea.
Mice start breeding at just six weeks old. (Supplied: CSIRO)
Mr Young said targeting bait around mouse holes instead of using widespread applications would significantly reduce costs and benefit the environment.
The drone concept would rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify a mouse hole from the air.
CSIRO research officer Steve Henry said drones were part of a whole suite of new technologies that should be investigated as ways to gather early information about mice activity.
“In science, we are hearing huge amounts about AI and machine learning,” he said.
“Like any kind of tech in its infancy it sounds fantastic, but there’s a long pathway to development.”
CSIRO researcher Steve Henry weighing a mouse. (Supplied: Alice Kenney)
However, Mr Henry said locating mice through aerial detection, either during the day or using infrared sensing at night, was not beyond the realms of possibility.
“Anything that gives us a clue about changes in mouse activity really early is really important,” he said.
“And then being able to get on and do something about those outbreaks early.”
A devastating mouse plague in regional New South Wales in 2021 saw $1 billion worth of crops damaged.
Automated disease surveillance
Another annual challenge faced by grain growers is fungal diseases, which can deplete crop yield and quality.
New AI sensors are being used as one combat method, detecting disease presence before symptoms appear in crops.
As part of a national project funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation, 20 automated sensors have been placed on farms in the Kwinana, Albany and Esperance port zones.
The sensors capture airborne particles such as fungal spores, pollen and dust.
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) senior plant pathologist Kithsiri Jayasena said they also monitor the air in near real-time using high-resolution imaging and AI algorithms.
“These units suck up airborne spores into traps, identify the pathogen and pass that information to the farmer, so they can better control them,” he said.
“For example, if a farmer has net blotch in their barley, it’s caused by two pathogens. This diagnostic system will identify what pathogen, so the farmer can more effectively target it.”
Disease is an ongoing problem at Scott Smith’s grain farm in Kojaneerup West, about 80 kilometres north-east of Albany.
Grain farmer Scott Smith with an AI sensor, which detects airborne fungal spores.
(Supplied: DPIRD)
He is hosting one of the sensors for the department and said the information it provided gave him more time to better target his sprays, helping him save a significant amount of money.
“On a year like this we may well be wasting money spraying unnecessary fungicides, and even potentially the wrong fungicides,” he said.
“This gives us a heads up of when crops are going to come under pressure, so you get a number of fungal spores released — a sort of alert.
“If we’re looking at saving another [spray] pass, that’s a saving of anywhere between $15 to $20 a hectare. It’s significant at the end of the year.”
