Tank monitoring in remote locations is being used worldwide to help make farmers' lives easier.
This topic was part of a webinar hosted by Myriota, who are global leaders in satellite connectivity for the Internet of Things.
Titled 'Leading the Herd with Satellite Iot: From Texas Cattle Ranches to Puerto Rican Tank Manufacturers' the webinar featured Myriota regional sales director Chris Gray, LoneStar Tracking founder and chief technology officer Tommy Remmert and Roto Solutions owner and vice president of operations Rafael Vassallo.
LoneStar Tracking specialises in monitoring systems and tracking devices that operate in some of the planet's most isolated regions. The company is based in Texas, US.
"Our company specialises in remote communication," Mr Remmert said.
"There's a lot of areas in west Texas that are very remote and ranch owners that have 100,000 acres, so there is no cell phone service out there.
"Some of the use cases that we have jumped into utilising this technology is agriculture and tank monitoring. So being able to keep an eye on all the water tanks that are spread across these ridiculously large areas and ensuring that animals have fresh water.
"The ranches in these locations that we go to, the main driving factor for technology like this, is the ability to deploy this and it is going to work anywhere. It doesn't matter if it's in tanks in Central America or it's in the oil fields of West Texas."
Mr Remmert said the biggest issue he hears from customers big and small is the 'pain point' of going out and monitoring to ensure animals have access to fresh water.
"Without a system like this, it is a manual process," he said.
"We get calls all the time from people out in West Texas and these ranches are so large that they have ranch hands whose sole job is to drive that ranch every single day and check water tanks. This gives them a tool where they're going to get notified in there's a problem and but also, you don't have to drive around and check all the time.
"Giving the people the tools and the ability to flip open an iPhone and see what's going on is priceless."
Mr Remmert said a key component with the system was ensuring it was kept simple, for ease of use.
"No one has the time when they're managing a 50,000 acre ranch to figure out how to use a new tool," he said.
Mr Remmert said other benefits were the amount of data that can be pulled out of simple sensors and having a system that can run even in weather events like hurricanes.
"The Myriota satellite network is perfect for us," he said.
"It doesn't matter if a hurricane hits Houston, where we're based, the system is going to continue to run."
Based in Puerto Rico, Roto Solutions is a leading manufacturer of tanks.
"Our channels of distribution for our manufacturing, for our tanks are not only in Puerto Rico - it's Caribbean-based and in other parts of Central and South America," Mr Vassallo said.
"We manufacture and distribute tanks from 90 gallons up to 1650 gallons. We'll be shortly manufacturing up to 5000 gallon tanks.
"We want to provide an asset that is not just a tank but also something that you can monitor your water storage."
Mr Vassallo said with the area he's based in known for its hurricane activity, ensuring access to communications through satellite technology was critical.
Paula Thompson
Paula Thompson is ACM's National Machinery and Ag Tech writer. She has been an agricultural journalist for more than 20 years. Prior to her current role, she was a reporter with the Stock Journal, covering livestock markets and the grains industry.
Paula Thompson is ACM's National Machinery and Ag Tech writer. She has been an agricultural journalist for more than 20 years. Prior to her current role, she was a reporter with the Stock Journal, covering livestock markets and the grains industry.
