On farm with his wife Belinda, brother James and parents John and Debra, Matthew strives to be a leader in farming by maintaining a focus on soil nutrition and utilising technology to improve efficiency, productivity and profitability.

Matthew believes technology has been the primary means of achieving maximum efficiency for their farming operations.

"Ignoring the benefits of ag-tech is like farming in the dark," Matthew said.
"While you need to be discerning about what you use and how you use it, there are so many advantages of utilising technology in farming, and we have definitely seen positive results.

"I think any farmer needs to push the boundaries of what our industry can offer and see what works best for them."

Ben White, General Manager of Research, Kondinin Group, said that Matthew's extensive and effective use of ag-tech was a great case study for farmers looking to increase their use of technology on-farm.

"Matthew and his family have worked tirelessly to evaluate and experiment with ag-tech in their own operation and not only have they benefited from this, but they have willingly shared their findings with others," Ben said.

Examples of Matthew's adoption of technology and innovation include:

• Building ISOBUS harnessing and installing two ISOBUS ECUs (MiDi 3 Controllers) to control an air seeder which consists of a 5000-litre main tank, 4200L inoculant/trials tank, 1000L trace elements tank, and 1000L fresh water tank. The Horwood Bagshaw system has improved yields through better fertiliser/inoculant placement.
• Upgrading a 10-year-old Marshall spreader to ISOBUS, including weight scales and a linear actuator for door height to give the spreader the ability to operate with variable rates and self-calibrate during gypsum/lime spreading.
• Developing an ISOBUS package for an 18-year-old Horwood Bagshaw air seeder.
• Operating a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) network on the northern Yorke Peninsula for local farmers. The plan is to improve this further by developing a Network Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol (NTRIP) network to enhance accuracy and reduce infrastructure.

Tony Peters, National product manager of Award sponsor New Holland, said that Matthew's approach to farming was exceptional, not only in his use of technology on-farm, but the way he spreads the word and helps out other farmers with tech adoption.

"Matthew has adopted tech on his farm from planting to harvesting and is using the data from seeding to fertiliser application to improve production each year, while collecting data from multiple machines into one portal which enables better use of this data," Tony said.