Partnership to reveal soil organic carbon levels of the Global Digital Farm

Charles Sturt University has partnered with Downforce Technologies to assess soil organic carbon levels at the Global Digital Farm (GDF). The GDF, operated in conjunction with the Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre, hosts farm technology trials across approximately 2,000 hectares at Wagga Wagga and Orange in regional NSW.

Downforce Technologies co-founder and former chief scientist of the United Nations Environment Programme, Professor Jacqueline McGlade, described the partnership as an exciting opportunity to work with a leading innovator in Australian agriculture. “The power of our methodology in assessing soil organic carbon at scale lies in the richness of the many datasets we synthesise, from remote sensing and satellite imaging to soil maps and on-the-ground sampling.”

Charles Sturt’s Head of Digital and Sustainable Agriculture, Jonathon Medway, said ”To be able to see the soil carbon differences between continuous cropping, a rotational system and continuous pasture will be really interesting, and we will be opening our books to say, ‘Here’s our soil carbon estimation from Downforce, and here’s the management plan behind it’.”