Networking the Nation

Stuart and Monique McQueen

Stuart and Monique McQueen are in partnership with Stuart’s parents and farm around 3,300 hectares at Natya, 70 kilometres north west of Swan Hill. The McQeen’s are members of the Mallee Farm Management 500 group. They have been connected to the internet for several years, and in April 2002 they connected to broadband satellite service. As a school teacher, Monique appreciates the educational benefits of the internet but also other benefits. “For me the internet just takes away some of the feeling of isolation out here” she says “I am a city girl from Sydney and having the internet makes me feel we are in touch, as we can do things and access things through the internet that are not availabe locally”.

BROAD BAND

The move to broad band came from a frustration with slow line speeds. “If you were doing internet banking, for example, it was nothing to lose 10 or 15 minutes just waiting for screens to download. It cost $300 to install (including a government rebate) and $75 (GST inc.) per month for unlimited access and unlimited downloads. It has been worth every cent, it is brilliant” says Stuart.

Telstra organised a sub-contractor from Mildura to set up and point the satellite dish. There were some compatability problems with the satellite and Windows XP and advice was obtained from the Telstra BigPond technical support desk who were very helpful.

“You do things a lot quicker, for example a standard internet banking transaction used to take around 5 – 7 minutes, with Broad Band I can log on, do a transaction and print out a receipt in 90 seconds which is about a 75% increase in speed and efficiency. This efficiency gives me time to do other office work or if necessary use the internet for other business use.

HARVEST MANAGEMENT

“We first became aware of the Ausbulk www.ezigrain.com.au website through the Farm500 Networking the Nation workshops”says Stuart. He is now linking all his grower cards to Ezigrain so that he does not have to go any where else. “I’ll just go into Ezigrain to monitor deliveries no matter where I deliver” he says. “There is potential for us to do more with managing grain by using sites such as Ezigrain and warehousing. You can then come in at night, during harvest, and check deliveries while moving grain into contracts, pools or cash. One of the main benefits is if you have contracts you can select loads out to put against contracts. Depending on how the contract is written, you could pick loads with the certain protein or screenings or moisture to suit the contract”.

INTERNET BANKING AND FINANCE

The withdrawal of local bank branches and a reduction in access to senior bank staff saw internet banking become the logical next step. “We have been using internet banking with WestPac for about four years now. I can do a lot of things myself, for example, if there are excess credit funds in the farm account I can make payments into loan accounts. I can transfer funds between my loan accounts to save interest, and can do all this without worrying the manager” says Stuart.

The internet banking has brought control and improved timing with our account management. Our closest branch is in Swan Hill and we only vist occassionally now.

Statements are available 24 hours a day to reconcile against cashbook entries and you can monitor the balance to know when sigificant payments have come in like grain pool payments.

“We have never had a problem with Internet Banking. Although, it used to be very slow before we went to satellite, now the transaction receipt is just there and printed immediately”.

MACHINERY

The USA and Canadian manufacturing websites are used to keep in touch with new releases in machinery and other technologies before they are released here. “We have GPS guidance on our boomspray and I have recently been to the Outback Guidance website, which is a US company, looking at cabling kits for John Deere equipment and I found all the cabling kits that are available. I just have to arrange to purchase them now”.

“If you are looking to buy a specific piece of equipment, or vehicle, it is cheaper and easier to look it up on the web rather than buying magazines. We bought a prime mover last year and we located it in Sydney through www.ihub.com.au . The search engines on these sites are great because you can put in the model or type you are looking for and a price range and it brings them all up. If you buy a magazine you can spend a lot of time honing it down to the few that you want. The search engines on the web sites do this for you”.

After purchasing a new John Deere tractor recently, the McQueens were trying to find out some particular specifications about the model. “I went on to the John Deere USA website and got into the specific manual for that model and got all the information I needed” says Stuart.

“We have recently registered with John Deere parts on-line, which has just started up. We think this system may have a lot of potential, but it depends how it is set up at the other end. Quite often the dealers do not carry a lot of stock, which is understandable. We believe that the John Deere system will allow us to search, locate and order specific parts from the John Deere Australian Dealer network. This may be very useful in a breakdown situation”

WEATHER

Stuart accesses free weather information through www.thefarmshed.com.au site. They have a Swan Hill local forecast which is constantly updated, a detailed forecast out a week and radar information. “We were recently cutting and baling hay and monitoring wind speed and dew points, which help us to know if we would be going late or starting early. I also use the 10 day precipitation site at http://grads.iges.org/pix/prec7.html”.

“The internet weather has helped us with management by giving us more detailed information a few days in advance when I need it. When you have say, 800 hectares of crop to spray in a week, planning around the weather is crucial”.

CONCLUSION

For Stuart and Monique the internet is now a part of their every day business. “I don’t see it as being different or special, it is just another tool available to me. We are interested in video conferencing on the internet, as Monique’s family are in Sydney, 1000 kilometres away and having grandchildren growing up. Now with broadband being available we are now seriously investigating video conferencing on the internet to see how it will work”.

“The Farm500 Networking the Nation e-business project has improved our adoption of the internet for business use.Through the Farm500 e-business workshops we were exposed to facilities like Ezigrain, NAB Online Trading, Vaneyk Investments and On-line purchasing. This gave us knowledge and confidence to explore further and find ways of making the internet work for us”.

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