New system offers peace of mind

Cambridge innovator Per Andersen.

Per Andersen of Cambridge has put all his years of experience in various manufacturing industries into his TipOFF Monitoring system he presented at the Fieldays at Mystery Creek, Hamilton.

Mr Andersen has been working on the affordable farm monitoring system for three years, and judging from the response in the Innovation Tent, farmers like what he has developed.

Recently retired, Mr Andersen combined his expertise and knowledge with his own first-hand research to provide a peace of mind system for any farm.

Talking to farmers, one of the first considerations was cost, and the second was simplicity.

Mr Andersen says he could have used off-the-shelf components to develop the system - but that would cost in the thousands of dollars.

He estimates TipOFF would cost between $500 and $800 for most farms.

It uses sensors that are either on or off to monitor a range of farm functions and relay the information to a base unit.

Mr Andersen says that because farmers don't just sit at home in the office, the base unit sends information to a cellphone, so the farmer can monitor the system from anywhere that has reception.

The sensors are set to monitor such vitals as gates, fluid levels (troughs, fuel storage, effluent pond, etc), farm building doors and farm vehicles.

There is also a driveway monitor that can be set to recognise and ignore the tanker, but warn of any other vehicles or people on foot.

Mr Andersen says farmers told him they didn't want to be bombarded with information - just basics, such as the gate has been left open, troughs are low or a vehicle has been moved.

They set their own parameters so when they get a warning they know they need to respond.

Mr Andersen is confident 80-90 per cent of farmers would be able to set and install the system themselves.

He says once operational TipOFF provides security, but importantly on a day-to-day basis saves time because farmers only need to attend to jobs once they have been 'tipped off'.

Between 80-90 farmers signed up for a TipOff Monitor at Fieldays.

Mr Andersen estimates he will have the units available to the market in about six months.