RAKwireless's Pivotal Role in Grazewell's Livestock Monitoring System in Australia
| Quick Look: Use Case Summary | |
|---|---|
| Industry | Smart Agriculture |
| Sub-Industry | Livestock Tracking & Management |
| Deployment Area | Remote and large-scale cattle farms, grazing lands, and rural pastures |
| IoT Stack Used | RAK7249 (legacy model, now succeeded by RAK7289V2), WisDM, and Grazewell’s smart sensors |
Highlight Summary
- Grazewell built a livestock monitoring system that helps Australian cattle farmers track water levels, electric fences, and gate activity in real time.
- RAKwireless supported the system with RAK7249 gateways for LoRaWAN®, WisDM, and reliable smart farming IoT infrastructure for remote cattle operations.
- The system gives farmers better visibility across large grazing lands where mobile coverage is often limited or unreliable.
- Grazewell’s sensors for LoRaWAN send alerts by email or SMS when water levels, fence status, or gate activity need attention.
- The RAK7249 gateway acts as the central hub that collects sensor data and sends it to Grazewell’s platform for live farm monitoring.
- WisDM helps Grazewell manage multiple gateways from one place, making it easier to support and expand deployments across more farms.
- The solution helps farmers reduce manual checks, save water, protect livestock, improve security, and make faster decisions from small but useful field data.
Company Profile
Grazewell is an Australian agtech company that provides cattle farmers with real-time updates through smart sensors. The live information helps farmers manage water levels, fix fence faults, and monitor gate activity. With strong support from RAKwireless technology, these tools now work better than ever, even in the toughest conditions.
With RAKwireless’s RAK7249 gateway, the system works well in remote and rough areas. The gateway ensures stable data transfer, enables teams to have remote access, and supports scaling the business. With this setup, farm operations are much smoother and more controlled than before. This gives farmers a practical livestock monitoring system that connects field sensors, farm assets, and real-time alerts in one reliable setup.
Farmers across the wide and arid landscapes of rural Australia deal with significant challenges in managing water for their cattle. When farms don’t get water on time, it harms both animals and plants in serious ways. That’s when Grazewell stepped up to offer practical tools that help farmers stay ahead. Their cattle monitoring system gives farmers the visibility they need before small water or security issues become costly problems.
This use case article walks you through what Grazewell is doing, the problems their tools solve, and how RAK’s hardware makes it all possible.
Grazewell’s LoRaWAN Sensors in Action
Grazewell’s latest sensors provide farmers with a strong oversight of their land areas. Each sensor device solves a specific problem that farmers deal with every day. Grazewell’s smart livestock solution has three broad focus areas.
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Water Tank Monitoring
Water tanks often run dry without warning. Grazewell’s water tank sensors show the real-time status of water levels in tanks and troughs. The system comprises patented inventions like the floating water level sensor (Water Rat) and the Farm Gate Sensor. -
Electric Fence Sensor
Fences sometimes malfunction and it is often hard to find exactly where the problem is. This sensor helps farmers spot the problem right away, and they don't have to manually check the entire fence. The system also keeps livestock safely within the premises and prevents predators from getting in. -
Gate Monitor
Grazewell’s gate sensors track the status of gates on farms. They alert farmers if gates are left open or opened without authorization. This automatically improves security, prevents accidental livestock escapes, and wards off stray or wild animals.
Farmers no longer need to second-guess what is happening on the field with such sensors in place. The alert feature of the system directly sends an email or SMS to farmers based on specific triggered values. At the same time, Grazewell’s solutions show clear and accessible data through user-friendly dashboards. Their customized white-label dashboard for farmers provides a real-time view of various metrics like water levels, fence integrity, and more. Together, these LoRaWAN sensors form the field layer of Grazewell’s livestock monitoring system.
This visualization helps farmers make the right decisions at the right time and run their farms more efficiently.
How Water Troughs Have Served Across Eras?
Water troughs in Australia have long been a staple on farms, and they are an essential source of drinking water for livestock. As we all know, horses were commonly used for transport back in the early 20th century. During those years, water troughs were placed in towns and cities to provide horses with drinking water.
Troughs still play a big role in rural areas of Australia where there is not enough rain. They help farmers store water during the hot summer months to keep their animals hydrated. Troughs come in very useful to manage water reserves, especially when water is hard to come by.
Problem
Cattle farmers carry the heavy responsibility of keeping their herds healthy across wide and unpredictable lands. They often face struggles that slow down their work and affect their income. Water does not always reach animals on time, fences stop working all of a sudden, and gates are left open when no one expects it.
In large open lands, these small issues quickly turn into serious risks for both animals and businesses. Farmers want simple tools that give them control, save time, and remove guesswork. Every new season increases the pressure for straightforward solutions.
The Challenges of Water Management in Farming
Cattle farmers often face water scarcity in many parts of central Australia. Farms must have water each day to continue producing and to keep their livestock healthy and well hydrated. For this, farmers have to use troughs and water tanks to store water for their animals. These containers hold water for animals for times when there is no rain.
Farms often lose productivity and their cattle’s health during the summer months. The high heat and strong winds cause water troughs on farms to dry out quickly. Each trough dries up at different times, and farmers cannot tell exactly when the water will run out. They need a solution to manage water for their animals and avoid financial setbacks during dry seasons. This is where a connected farm monitoring system becomes essential for protecting livestock health and reducing the need for manual inspections in Australia.
Location
Australia
The Solution
To make Grazewell’s farm monitoring system work reliably across remote farms, the sensors needed a strong way to share data. That’s where the RAK7249 gateway for LoRaWAN works best. (Product note: RAK7249 has reached end of life. For new projects, RAKwireless recommends the related RAK7289V2 gateway.)
It acts like a central hub that collects information from the sensors and passes it on to Grazewell’s proprietary platform. This gateway helps keep the livestock monitoring system connected even when farms are far from reliable mobile coverage.
Here’s why the RAK7249 is such a good option for this kind of work:
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Stable Signal, Even Far From Towns
Most farms in Australia are far from cities. Mobile networks don’t always reach these areas. The RAK7249 offers strong and stable communication across wide spaces, so data doesn’t get lost. -
Built for the Weather
The Australian climate can be rough. RAK’s gateway can easily withstand harsh conditions and guarantees that Grazewell’s solutions remain operational in extreme weather. -
Built for Scalability
With RAK’s versatile IoT solutions, Grazewell can easily add more sensors or move to new locations in the future. This is because the same RAK technology can grow with them without any redesign, and help the company adapt to new farming needs. This makes it easier to expand smart agriculture solutions across more farms, sensors, and livestock operations.
However, to make the most of RAK’s hardware, Grazewell needed a powerful network that could match its reach, reliability, and flexibility across all kinds of farms. This led them to choose the LoRaWAN network as it provides consistent connectivity and is overall a versatile solution for the challenges of wide and remote farm environments.
LoRaWAN Network That Adapts to Every Farm
One of the biggest hurdles in Australian farming is the sheer size of the land. Cattle stations often stretch across hundreds of square kilometers and are located far away from cities or stable mobile coverage. A strong and reliable network is needed to make smart farming truly effective. One that works even in the most remote corners of the country.
Grazewell wanted to make sure their solutions would work just as well in wide-open spaces as they do in smaller farms. The best way to achieve this was through the LoRaWAN network, as it offers the following key strengths:
- LoRaWAN is a long-range wireless network that sends small amounts of data across great distances.
- LoRaWAN devices use very little power, so sensors can run for long periods with minimal maintenance.
- LoRaWAN also operates on solar energy and works even where mobile signals don’t reach.
Grazewell uses LoRaWAN gateways, like the RAK7249, to create coverage that fits the unique layout of each farm. These gateways are often installed in smart spots like machinery sheds with tall roofs. This helps the signal travel even farther across the property.
Sometimes farms need a different network setup. In such cases, Grazewell can switch to NB-IoT or satellite options. This flexibility ensures that farmers always get a solution that fits their land requirements without extra cost or complexity.
Enhanced Network Management with RAK7249
After a recent firmware upgrade, the RAK7249 now supports remote access over VPN. That means Grazewell can check in on devices or fix small issues from anywhere. This saves a lot of time and resources for farms that are hours away from the nearest service center. For a cattle monitoring system deployed across remote land, this kind of remote access makes support much easier.
Grazewell now uses WisDM to manage all this even better. WisDM is RAKwireless’s network management platform, and it allows users to look after multiple gateways in different areas from a single place. This makes it easier for Grazewell to expand its IoT solutions to larger scales without any unnecessary complexity.
The Outcome
Farm owners today want practical results that make everyday work easier. They opt for solutions that deliver clear improvements and minimise physical effort. Farmers using Grazewell’s smart sensors have already seen real success stories:
- They are saving thousands of liters of water by spotting low levels early. This allows them to actively prevent livestock from dehydrating.
- Quick identification of electric fence issues has significantly reduced maintenance time and improved farm security.
- Gate alerts have improved overall security and helped farmers stay in control.
This is more than just using new tools. It’s a new and better way to run the farm. Grazewell’s business model is summed up in the following phrase:
“small data that solves real problems”
This is the strategy that has helped build trust and encouraged more farmers to start using digital technology.
Over time, this approach has created long-term farming data sets that reveal the latest trends to help farmers make decisions accordingly. These results show how a livestock monitoring system can turn small field data into practical decisions that improve daily farm operations.
Conclusion
The collaboration between Grazewell and RAKwireless shows the transformative impact when local industry knowledge meets powerful global tech. RAK’s gateway gives them a strong base to build on and keeps their systems working no matter where they go next, without worrying about tech limits. Together, Grazewell and RAKwireless are building solutions that work in real conditions and address the unique challenges of Australian farming.
Getting Started
Upgrade your cattle farming operations with RAKwireless’ advanced IoT solutions.
Let RAKwireless transform your day-to-day farm operations into better outcomes.
Let RAKwireless transform your day-to-day farm operations into better outcomes.
