Farmo's portable floating sensor Water Rat makes monitoring troughs simple

But that is exactly what the Farmo founder and general manager has done.

Mr Seymour grew up on a sheep and cattle property near Hamilton in Victoria and was on the family farm until his mid-20s.

The farm wasn't big enough to sustain everyone so Mr Seymour left and pursued a career in furniture design.

"I only sort of got back into ag when my Dad was pushing into his 80s, and doing a lot of work on the farm and loving it, but the physical side of it was a bit much," he said.

"I found it really stressful taking on responsibility for the cattle and being back in Melbourne four hours away.

"I would be laying there at night wondering if all the tanks were full and if the cattle had water."

He was also often anxious about whether gates had been closed or if intruders were on the property.

Out of his own experience, Mr Seymour set out to build a simple solution.

"I just wanted to build a system where I could get all that information on my phone, for peace of mind more than anything else," Mr Seymour said.

"I realised that I couldn't do it by myself, so I got my nephew Kevin Ngo who is a software engineer involved and decided to form a business."

Farmo is an ecosystem of sensors and monitors that can send alerts when issues arise.

It is focused on communicating when things change, rather than analysing large amounts of data.

One of the most popular items is a portable floating sensor known as the Water Rat.

The Water Rat weighs one kilogram and according to Mr Seymour "it sits in your hand about the size of a pineapple".

"It looks really simple but the tech inside is pretty cool," he said.

Inside the Water Rat is an accelerometer to measure the angle at which the device is floating.

There's also a communication module, similar to a mobile phone, which sends data not text.

A GPS has been included so farmers can keep track of devices when they have been moved and where each Water Rat is located.

The only maintenance required is changing the battery once a year.

To set up alerts, it's a matter of signing in to Farmo's web-based platform, which can be accessed on a computer or phone.

Alerts are very customisable and can be sent via sms, email, Slack and others apps.

There's also the option to send alerts to different people on different days.

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It was only a year ago Mr Seymour put out the Water Rat as a minimum viable product.

A small number of products were sold and "fantastic feedback" was received.

A question that often pops up is whether livestock will try to toss the Water Rat out of the trough.

This hasn't happened yet and as one user says, 'it would be like a person sticking their head in a bucket and trying to pick out an apple'.

One of the main alterations Mr Seymour decided to make was to change from an aluminium casing, which was corroding in older copper sulphate troughs, to plastic.

He said they decided to go down the path of commercialising the device, which was a big step, and an injection mould is now used to construct the casing.

When it comes to adopting new technology, Mr Seymour recommends starting small.

"You've got to start with that one little thing," he said.

"A lot of people aren't used to digital technology and you can't just sell a big complicated system to someone who hasn't used one before.

"It's better to start small, get used to it, then add in to the system other things as you need them."

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