Rocks Station Smarting Farming

Lynnore and Andrew Templeton bought their first piece of land 17 years ago, in Middlemarch, Otago; and have been adding to it since. After finding their feet and learning the ropes of farming, they didn’t stop there; improving practices to develop a next generation farm.

Over the past 6 years they have made a concerted effort to become a sustainable farm, installing a rooftop solar and battery system, as well as a solar water pump to become independent of the electrical grid.

Their most recent addition to the farm is the Waterwatch tank sensor. The sensor uses radar technology to measure the height of the water in a tank, which is recorded and sent to their Waterwatch app, to be displayed as litres of water left in the tank. 

While Andrew and Lynnore are saving themselves time and manpower by not needing to manually check the water levels, they are also saving water from potential leaks. As the T35 sensor tracks the levels in the tanks, if a tank loses an excess of water in a short period of time, Lynnore and Andrew are sent an alert warning them of the potential leak, giving them a chance to conserve their water.

The introduction of freshwater crayfish, koura, into the streams works as a reliable indicator of the stream quality, given that koura are sensitive to chemicals.

These are the first steps for the Templetons in building their next generation farm; creating a more sustainable lifestyle for future farmers.