By Angie Stump Denton
Checking water is a time- and labor-intensive job. Water worry leads to increased labor, fuel and vehicle maintenance costs and ultimately can lead to animal health and welfare concerns.
Growing up checking water on cattle ranches in Australia, Andrew Coppin saw these challenges first-hand. He realized 95% of the time the water didn’t need checking and was frustrated that, despite checking, the minute you leave — you don’t know what is happening. He thought there had to be a better solution to monitor water in real-time.
“From my teenage years of checking water on the ranch to knowing there are hundreds of thousands of people every day driving to check water, I thought there had to be a better way to check water,” he says. This experience led to Coppin in 2014 co-founding Farmbot, an agriculture technology company, in Australia.
In 2023, Coppin introduced a similar system, Ranchbot, to the American market. Satellite monitors and sensors provide near real-time data and actionable alerts on essential water systems including tanks, troughs, pumps, lines, rain gauges and more through 24/7 access to the MyRanchbot app. The platform enables remote decision making to reduce costs and labor, and help producers worry less.
The goal when designing the system was simplicity.
“What if we could build something that we could put in a box, ranchers could open it, self-install in 10 to 15 minutes, turn it on, and it’d work,” Coppin says. “We also didn’t want to bother with any instructions that involved words. We just wanted to include pictures, because they’ll never read it anyway.”
He explains a key part of the innovation is its ability to talk directly to a satellite, no matter its location. Other benefits to Ranchbot include its ability to detect issues like water leaks and overflows, thus preventing water waste and loss.
Centennial Livestock is a large-scale cow-calf operation in central California and manages stockers across diverse terrain from 1,000 to 6,000 feet in elevation. About 5 years ago, Centennial became an early adopter of the Ranchbot system.
“We worked with Ranchbot staff and manipulated the software a little bit to where we could really see a lot more in the module, as far as what our source tanks were doing and what our destination tanks were doing,” says Seth Scribner, Centennial Livestock operations manager.
Scribner says the Ranchbot system has allowed Centennial to transition its water management tasks to technology, freeing up valuable employee time to focus more on core livestock husbandry responsibilities. He estimates the combined Ranchbot capabilities are equivalent to the work of two full-time employees.
Key attributes of the system, according to Scribner, include:
- Real-time water tank monitoring. The ability to see the water levels in the tanks in realtime through the Ranchbot app was a major improvement over traditional manual checks.
- Troubleshooting water issues. When there are water leaks or other problems, the Ranchbot system helps Scribner’s team quickly identify the source by providing data on flow rates and tank levels.
- Remote pump control. The ability to remotely start and stop pumps, which are often located in less accessible areas. He says this ability is life changing and a huge timesaver.
- Customizable alerts. The app allows users to set thresholds and receive proactive alerts via text message when issues arise, like tanks dropping below a certain level.
As they continue expanding the system to new areas of their operation, Scribner summarizes that the Ranchbot system is a critical tool for enhancing efficiency, reducing labor costs and providing peace of mind due to the system’s reliable, remote water monitoring and control.
“We have a huge amount of faith in the information we’re getting,” Scribner says. “We’ve been able to time test it and truth test it with what we see on the ranch, how it’s providing notices to it. It’s completely accurate.”