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https://www.smh.com.au/national/farmers-crippled-by-satellite-failure-as-gps-guided-tractors-grind-to-a-halt-20230418-p5d1de.html>
"Tractors have ground to a halt in paddocks across Australia and New Zealand
because of a signal failure in the satellite farmers use to guide their
GPS-enabled machinery, stopping them from planting their winter crop.
The satellite failure on Monday was a bolt from the blue for farmers in NSW and
Victoria, who were busy taking advantage of optimal planting conditions for
crops including wheat, canola, oats, barley and legumes.
“You couldn’t have picked a worse time for it,” said Justin Everitt, a grain
grower in the Riverina who heads NSW Farmers’ grains committee.
“Over the past few years, all these challenges have been thrown at us, but this
is just one we never thought would come up.”
Tractors that pull seed-planting machinery, as well as the massive combine
harvesters that reap Australia’s vast grain crops, are high-tech beasts that
can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
They are enabled with GPS tracking and can be guided to an accuracy within two
centimetres, enabling seed-planting equipment to sow crops with precision to
drive up efficiency, prevent wastage and boost environmental sustainability.
All that went out the window when the Inmarsat-41 satellite signal failed."
Via geoff goodfellow and Dave Farber.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
