Agricultural drone use soars among NZ contractors
Use of agricultural drones by contractors in New Zealand is soaring.
The Health and Safety at Work Act puts the onus on employers or organisations to ensure employees are safe by identifying any risks they are likely to come across during their working day.
A new online app called Onside allows users to develop their own health and safety plan by working through pre-populated lists of potential risks which are overlaid on a satellite map of the property.
The system saves time and tells farm staff or visitors about risks and how to manage them, reducing incidents and improving farm safety overall.
Visitors to a property will need to be encouraged to 'sign in' on a smartphone as they cross a virtual 'geo-fence', which might be the farm's boundaries, and in doing so will be advised by the app of any risks and asked to acknowledge them.
New risks identified can be updated by the user in real time and visitors can report such via their smartphones. All information is cloud-stored, eliminating the need for paperwork. Offline capability serves when cell coverage is poor.
The technology allows users to map boundaries of the enterprise and uses photos rather than written descriptions to show known risks; and it allows users to access instructions for emergencies in real time.
The app developed from discussions with farmers and industry experts in health and safety, then technology partner Jade Software wrote it.
This potential new addition to a farmer's smartphone looks to have huge potential in this complex but necessary aspect of a modern farm business.
Funding is proving crucial for predator control despite a broken model reliant on the goodwill of volunteers.
A major milestone on New Zealand's unique journey to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis could come before the end of this year.
We're working through it, and we'll get to it.
The debate around New Zealand's future in the Paris Agreement is heating up.
A technical lab manager for Apata, Phoebe Scherer, has won the Bay of Plenty 2025 Young Grower regional title.
Following heavy rain which caused flooding in parts of Nelson-Tasman and sewerage overflows in Marlborough, the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO Scheme) is urging homeowners and tenants to be cautious when cleaning up and to take the right steps to support claims.
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