Ranch Technology 2025: Remote Water Monitoring Saves Ranchers Time and Money During a Historic Time

[Paul Yeager] Hold on. I gotta look at my phone and check on the water levels of my cattle in my field. Oh wait, I have to check on other things via an app or a camera. We all know technology is a big part of agriculture, and it's happening in the cattle industry as well. There's a product from Ranchbot that allows you to monitor things from afar and not spend hours on end checking all the fences and water supplies, especially when you're spread out over several miles. Not just a couple of hundred acres here and there, but we're talking big fields. You know how they are in Texas. Everything's bigger. So that's why we're talking to an Australian. We're talking to Andrew Coppin, who is the, he's a cattle expert. That's just the best way to call it. But he's also the CEO of Ranchbot. It's a company. He started back home Down Under and brought to the United States. We'll talk about how that, product works. Then we're going to get into the things of the customers that he deals with. You and I talk about pretty much every week on Market to Market. And that's the cattle market. It's the same thing still happening. We just get his view on this new world screw worm and what that means. He's pretty close to it in Mexico. And just think about this one big storm could really change and undo a lot of efforts trying to be done to keep that, disease at bay. We'll talk about the economics of what drought has meant and just kind of looking ahead to the future and how long this could last. Hint it's not months that we're talking about. That's today's installment of the MToM podcast. I am Paul Yeager. Glad to have you along. New episodes come out each and every Tuesday. Go back into the archives. We've had some really good conversations for years here, but, some of you have maybe missed some of the other episodes. Catch back up doesn't really go out of style. Let's get into it now with Andrew. Tell me the biggest adjustment from Australia to Texas?

[Andrew Coppin] Oh, the biggest adjustment for Australia, Texas. I mean, you know, growing up in Australia, we don't have too many seven lane freeways. So, you know, when I'm driving around Texas, that's taking a little bit. Getting used to little line driving on the opposite side of the road. So, yeah, it's probably just been, but in the intensity, you know, you've got to remember Australia as a country the same geographic size as the United States. It's only got 27 million people in it, like no one. And in here living in Texas, I think we've got like 34 or 35 million. So, yeah, it's just the intensity of infrastructure and, you know, and seven wide freeways. So that's sort of freaking me out.

[Yeager] How many years have you been in the States?

[Coppin] I'm just, I've only been here for two years, living here as a resident and the taxpayer. But I was coming and going for about three years prior to that. Just the seven an hour flights from Dallas to Australia sort of got a bit the better of me. And, yeah, I decided it was a lot better to live and work here and, you know, be a lot closer part of the community that I serve, which is, you know, us ranchers and farmers.

[Yeager] Well, what prompted the move, other than the 17 hour plane flight?

[Coppin] Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I started my company that's a remote. Remote remote control and monitoring company in Australia. Went out as farm, bought here in the US, went out on his Ranchbot and so we'd had a lot of success. In Australia we were on about 5000 ranches and I'd been looking at the US for, for a couple of years thinking, you know, there's got to be significant water management and, labor shortages and high costs, you know, of operation in farming and ranching in, in the US started doing some initial diligence here, coming back and forth and, you know, I, simplistically, I thought that the market here might be 5 or 6 times bigger than Australia and, you know, 100,000 miles on the road. Leader. And I sort of realize it's 20 or 30 times, bigger because there's so much more infrastructure on farms and ranches here. And when I talk infrastructure, I mean, you know, wells, tanks, pumps, pots, things that make the farm and the ranch go round. Because we monitor and connect those things to the internet and allow the rancher to see and control them on their cell phone.

[Yeager] We have baby monitors. Why not cattle monitors like that? Right?

[Coppin] Exactly. You know, I mean, it's amazing to me, you know, when I grew up, I grew up in Australia with my father, had a lot of farming and ranching operations. And we used to drive around and check things that, you know, didn't need checking. But, you know, we kept driving. So it's about it was amazing to me that, you know, and even to this day, you know, there's there's half a million people driving around checking water that 95% of the time doesn't need checking, and they're doing it for the 5% of times that it does. But yet one minute after I check it, I still don't know what's happening. And so that was the sort of genesis of the problem that we set out to solve. Why wouldn't we just be able to know when we've got a problem, when we've got a problem and let ranchers know that so they can get back a couple of days in their week? And now, you know, sort of five years on, there's 12,000 ranchers and farmers that are using that. And the company's been doubling for the last couple of years. So, people are getting the idea that, hey, there is actually a lot better way to do this, that side this time and money and gives us peace of mind.

[Yeager] Did you have interest? I mean, were you a cattle feeder yourself or a rancher yourself?

[Coppin] I don't think I can ever say I was definitively a rancher. As I said, my family had farming operations where we had cattle and sheep and some cropping. And then we had substantial interest in very significant ranching operations in the northwest of Australia when, you know, I was still a teenager, and in my early 20s, my father, you know, sent me out to learn the cattle industry. And, you know, I ride horses and chase bulls and drive around and check water. You know, for much of the time, and, you know, so, so I was in our family, and, you know, obviously nowadays I look after, everyone else's ranch, and I get to see, you know, some of the most beautiful properties around Australia and the US.

[Yeager] Well, let's talk about that time that you've saved the farmer. The rancher? What are they spending their time on? That they get back for an hour? A day or two. Is it more to worry about disease? A trade market, that is, evaporated or, drought of rain that they can't do anything about what I've.

[Coppin] You know, in my lived experience, I've never met a rancher with a bottom on the to do list. I've never met a rancher with spare time on my hands sitting on the porch saying, I wonder what I'll do today. And I've never met a rancher that isn't challenged by resources. When you think about the lifestyle, I'm not even going to say job. When you think about the lifestyle of a rancher, you know you're up when the sun's up and you're you're finishing a few hours after the sun's gone down. It's not a walk in at nine. Do that. Have a coffee, chat, you know, do a few hours work, then go home and forget about it. Ranching is a lifestyle, and because of that, it's seven days a week. It's 365, and each rancher is a boss of so many things. And I don't know when that happened, but somewhere along the line, you know, Murphy's Law and Agriculture, got together and conspired against ranchers to say, let's make sure all the problems on that ranch only ever happen when we're not near them. You know, happen when we're as far away as possible or, heaven forbid, if we happen to take a holiday in the first time in three years. Let's make sure all the cows escape and all the pumps fire while we're in Florida. So, you know, there's this challenge of managing things on the ranch and checking everything is just a constant daily burden. And a lot of ranches don't even realize how much they're stressing about the things they can't control. And I can't see. So, you know, along my journey of creating the company, I had a few epiphanies and a few, you know, oh, wow moments. And one of them was with a big rancher in Australia who said to me, Andrew, I've got, you know, 90 watering points, I've got 50,000 head of cattle, and there is never a day, not a single hour of a day when I don't have a knot in my stomach worrying about, is there water in the back pasture? So that was one of those moments. Wow. Okay. We've got a real opportunity here to help ranches do things differently. If we could connect their water to the internet via satellite and provide them real time reporting over their water so they could just let all of that worry go? What would be the impact of that? You know, fast forwarding today with 12,000 people on that platform, across tens of millions, hundreds of millions of acres, 10 million beef cattle, 15 million sheep. And I don't know how many wildlife, you know, what I've learned is that we're giving them back, like, days in their week, and we're giving them back peaceful, slight unrest. And so, yeah, last year, we surveyed about 700 customers and said, look, before you had ranch, what? How many times are you driving to check water? And the answer that we got was a like three, three and a half times a week. And what was it after you had Ranchbot and it had come down to sort of one, 1.2 times a week. So if you think you can say 60% of your time driving to check things that don't need checking and get back the time to work on getting a better price, negotiating better feed, working on your genetics, you know, working with being with the family, going to church, you know, or you know, if you're lucky enough, some more roping or some more hunting. You know, all of these things, things that ranchers love to do and rarely get the time to do. And we've found a way to give them back real and material time in their day.

[Yeager] Time is money. Time is important. Time is a life balance thing. Absolutely. Let's. What's the state of the cattle industry in Texas? Right now? What's the biggest story?

[Coppin] Well, and I think there's two big stories. I mean, one is the price of beef and the other is, you know, New World Screw Worm, and they're both interrelated. Obviously beef prices are, you know, at all time highs as the herd is at all time lows or historic lows back where it was in the 50s and 60s, you know, and that obviously is a result of, you know, years of drought and challenging environment. I mean, as I sit here today, 30% of the grazing lands across the US are still in some sort of drought and of course, drought conditions for ranchers, meaning increased risk. Will I buy the cows? Will I hold the cows? How much pasture will I have? Will I have to buy feed? What is the price of feed? All of these decisions and things I have to make, you know, in their day to day lives. So extended periods of drought result in holding less cattle. And obviously, that's why the herds are at a low, and contemporaneously, of course, we've had a boom in demand for beef. I mean, the US consumers' love affair with beef is real and strong. And, you know, there's five burger chains on every block and there's three steak houses on every freeway. So I don't think anyone's going to be turned off from wanting to eat great, high quality beef products that American ranchers make any time soon. And of course, we then went and shut the border with Mexico because of, you know, a little fly called New World Screw worm that, you know, can burrow into livestock and, and animals and, you know, cause havoc with, with their health. So we immediately cut off another million cattle that normally come in from Mexico. So that exacerbated the price supply demand equation. And now, you know, look, the ranches that we talk to and work with in southern Texas, being hyper vigilant around, you know, what, if this, you know, fly comes into Texas, and into the United States, what actions can we take to stop it? How do we contain it? And, you know, what are the other ramifications? Because, of course, if it does come that could pose further risks to supply and therefore further upside to the price. So I think they're the two things, you know, supply demand and price and animal health through New World screwing.

[Yeager] And the animal health side is the biggest that could be the biggest up end or of a market if that would somehow I mean, we had one case in the United States, in Maryland, and then we didn't hear anything more. And there's this thought that the winter might actually be beneficial to its slow north, but if it really spreads where it's warm and doesn't get below 32 very often, that just means it has a shorter distance to go to get farther north, which would, I would assume, still give us cause for, pause and reason for concern in 2026. Right?

[Coppin] I don't, I don't I think we're going to be dealing with this for a good while. Yes. The and the preventative measures that the governments taking. I mean, there are many actions that have been undertaken and many smart people thinking about how to manage this well. But the reality is, the best practice, what was done before when U of a screw him and what can be done now is, you know, the breeding of infertile flies to be released in the hundreds and hundreds of millions to breed with the other flaws that are out in nature so that they basically make themselves extinct. Now, my understanding is that that solution is still a couple of years away. The government's holding some funding to go towards building a plant, but I don't believe that plant started.

[Yeager] And, part of it is because that was slowed down post-Covid, right? We're feeling the ramifications of that plant slowing that facility right before.

[Coppin] I'm not sure on all the nuances of that, but I do know that, you know, people I spoke to that are close to the matter said, sort of said, look, I think that's two and a half to three years away from being something that's going to have a material impact. So I think from the ranchers perspective where we're all we're all thinking about how what's risk mitigation look like if it comes, how do we isolate herds, how do we minimize the spread? Of course, trying to isolate something that is airborne is very, very challenging. So, you know, one, one good storm, my, you know, from or one good breeze from the south, might make things, Friday complete. But then how we manage it and how we deal with it and what impact that has on supply is the key thing. I mean, look, us consumers don't need to worry. There's no evidence of the transmission of anything from beef to humans through that. And obviously cattle going into abattoirs and meatworks and things are going to be heavily scrutinized. So there's zero risk to consumers, from, from all that we can see. But the main issue is does it could tile further supply, in which case beef prices move higher?

[Yeager] Well, and that's hard to see. I mean, when you look at that chart, and it keeps going, it's one of those I've only asked the same question about the cattle prices. Live cattle or feeders. Surely the top isn't now, right? Surely there was a theory a couple of weeks ago on our show that said we still have 2 to 3 years of price going up for beef sets out from what? You're not telling me anything. That's, in disagreement of that. Andrew.

[Coppin] No, I look, I mean, I mean, it's hard to say what would cause the price to go down materially. I mean, the biggest possible influence is the US consumer. If the if inflation was to continue and the US consumers spending needed to be curtailed, if their discretionary spend, reallocated funds into cheaper proteins or into different or, you know, maybe I'm only having a burger once and a steak once a week, if not 3 or 4 times a weight, then obviously curtailing demand, would be would be one possible outcome. But otherwise on the supply side, it is true. It looks hard to see where there's going to become more supply. The Mexican border is going to be shot until such time as the New World Screw Worm is under control. So yes, it's and obviously, you know, the rebuild from the lows of the herd up to bigger numbers is going to take a couple of years. So yes, I think I think we should live in a, in the reality that sideways beef prices from here are probably about the best outcome we can hope for. And there is risk to the upside.

[Yeager] Andrew, tell me, if in Australia you have this phrase that we have in some parts of the United States, we celebrate big celebrations with beef, not something else. Is that true in Australia?

[Coppin] Well, Aussies love beef as much as Americans, so there's no question about that. I can't remember the last time I met a friend of mine in Australia that said to their wife or girlfriend, let's go out and have some chicken. So, you know, I'm pretty sure everyone's going out to have steak, but, you know, look, where we live in the first world, where we're fortunate enough to have the benefits of great produce, both poultry and pork and beef and everything. So, you know, we're just very fortunate. But beef is a, a, a luxury item. And, you know, obviously over recent years with, you know, Insta famous people talking about all beef diets and the benefits of red meat, protein and everything. You know, that's continued. That demand for beef has continued to be high. So. Yeah. Look, Aussies, where meat lovers, as you as you all, here in the U.S. And we're pretty proud of that.

[Yeager] Do you get the sense you got enough world understanding of the way the politics work? Can we import from Australia or Brazil into the United States or Canada to help alleviate that? And is there to use the word of the day, an appetite to do that?

[Coppin] You know, I mean, the US is already an importer of beef, from Australia and Brazil and other locations. The main sort of beef that Spain imported, however, is processing, but it's grinding both that's going into, you know, tacos and burger patties. It's not the premium grade beef that, you know, American produces. So, you know, good at producing. And the reason for that is that Brazil and Australia have rangelands where, you know, higher protein, less fat cattle, that produce that sort of processing beef, prevalent. And so, so there is already a reasonably healthy market, and there's a niche market or two in grass fed beef products out of New Zealand or Australia or, or other locations that are servicing particular, you know, niche markets here. But yes, look, I think, I think there is a capacity for the country, for the US to be able to import more, but obviously the stronger desire is to get us, ranchers in a position where they can start to rebuild the herd. And they have the confidence to be able to do that, by retaining heifers and building out more and taking on more risk. I mean, I think it's really about a risk management perspective. You know, I will, and you know, when the day we know when we will or will not have rainfall, you know, that'll be a good day, right? Because everyone worries about that. And we're living in a world of increased weather volatility, you know, when no matter what your perspective around climate, what thing is. Sure, from every researcher and professor I've met, from every esteemed university that focuses on weather is we're getting wetter wet and hotter hot, and we're getting more and more volatility around that. And for a range of that makes decision making really challenging because you could go from having a flash flood, as we've seen here in Texas this year, with the tragic circumstances in Cook County, to a flash drought, you know, having all my grass burned and gone and I'm looking at the Dust Bowl in a very short period of time. You know, back when I was growing up, a drought was something that might evolve over a 3 to 5 year period, and now seems like it's something that can evolve over a 3 to 5 month period. And so living and working and managing a ranch around volatility is the challenge that ranches have to live with today.

[Yeager] In Texas, specifically here, who is or is anyone getting into the industry seen an opportunity to go? I could raise beef. Is is there going to be an emergence of small producers, or is it going to be getting bigger?

[Coppin] I think the, the think the anecdotal evidence, I say that is backed by the, the, the more in-depth research is that, you know, the bigger, more professional, scalable ranches are getting bigger and, becoming, you know, getting economies of scale that allow them to participate. But at the smaller end of town, I think they really are opportunities for ranches to innovate and to do paddock to plate solutions. Ranches getting their own brands around their meat, and building up their own identity around their product and differentiating their product. And consumers, you know, seemingly love that to be able to know exactly where their beef came from and you know what ranch and there's a lot of ranches and farmers that are now building their own brands. I mean, 44 Farms here in Texas is doing a lot of that sort of work. So I think if you're small and you get to stay in the business and you're in the business to make money, you're going to need to really work on your profitability and your productivity. I think technology is going to be a real critical part of that solution, because the cost of running the truck and gas and wear and tear and finding people to work those challenges are not going away anytime soon. So you're going to have to run a more productive, profitable and, you know, potentially technology supercharged business. And then you're going like create your own brand identity around things, you know, or, and produce super high quality product.

[Yeager] But is there really going to be an interest in a higher quality product that's going to cost me more when already it's costing me a lot to buy beef or a good cut of steak?

[Coppin] I think we have, you know, the price elasticity challenge of beef has been, you know, talked about a lot over the last sort of 12 months. And you look, I think consumers can make discretionary purchases, at higher prices if they really, wedded to the idea of, you know, of grass fed beef or a particular beef product or just a particular brand that they really want to align with. You know, I mean, it's really no, it's another product. It's just a product that we consume and we and we like it. We like it or love it. It's no different from a motor vehicle. There are cheaper cars and they're expensive cars. I all get you from A to B, but some people are prepared to buy $100,000 for a car, and other people only want to pay 20,000. In the beef market there are differentiated products, there are lower end products, there are higher end products. And you know, with 340 million mouths to feed, there'll be plenty of people at both ends of that spectrum to fulfill the market.

[Yeager] I'm sure if it starts raining tomorrow in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and ranches, get the water they need to get through the winter. And there's not a stress on the water or the feed. And this new world screw worm. A vaccine comes in and solves the issue. It gets released as soon as the shutdown is done. Is it still that 2 to 3 year time frame before we see any type of change in prices and herd size?

[Coppin] Obviously if there was an immediate fix to the new world screwworm problem, that would relieve the border tension and it would also relieve concern that might already be priced into the market of what happens if. So I would think under those circumstances that you outline that there probably would be some sort of down sideways to downward move in beef. I don't think it'd be particularly abrupt, but it is more likely to be a steady decline as the herd builds up and the supply demand equation sort of equals out a little bit. So, you know, if that's a scenario, I think it wouldn't be a drastic one for ranchers and it wouldn't be a bad one for consumers either. So that would probably be a good win-win scenario.

[Yeager] You don't have to out the specific farm or ranch that you might deal with. Are they happy right now?

[Coppin] Yeah, I think ranches for the most part, I, you know, we've got about 12,000 people on our platform. And I spoke to, you know, probably 20 or 30 of them every single week. Yeah. Look, I think ranches, for the most part, are in a really good space. Obviously this volatility of weather thing. And like, we have ranches that have only had an inch or two of rain over the last 12 months. That poses a lot of challenges for their operations. Some are totally they stopped and waiting for rain. So obviously the nowhere near is in of good frame of mind as someone that's had, you know, 15in of rain and still walking around on green grass at the end of summer. So, you know, but I think overall, on average, everyone is happy. You know, and I think the sentiment around the ranching community is positive and strong. We're seeing reinvestment into capital, into new technology, into fencing and, you know, virtual fencing and other things like that. So I think people, reasonably, you know, overall across the country, you'd have to say they're in pretty good shot.

[Yeager] Is the next product. You're coming up with the Virtual Fence repair Kit. Have you been able to come up with that yet, Andrew?

[Coppin] No, I, don't know about the virtual fence repair kit. I mean, that's got to be more like managing the satellites. I think. Yeah. I mean, virtual fence. There's a lot going on in that space at the moment. There's some, you know, big interests there. I mean, you've had events that's been around for a few years. Halter, a new entrant from New Zealand and no fence. So there's some really good, technology coming that way. And I think it's only going to get better and better over the next 3 to 5 years as communications and satellite comms get better, you know, beaming down, you know, comms from space. So I think it's an interesting area.

[Yeager] Because really, you're talking about a device that would be worn like a collar, right? That like a dog wears that. We already see that on some animals now. Yes, but you're saying in the virtual. I was really meaning I don't have to go out and fix a fence on a Sunday morning.

[Coppin] No. Well, I mean, the benefits of virtual fence are that you can draw a line on a map and decide where the cattle are going to stay. And if once they're suitably trying to respond to wearing the collar, if they go near the fence, it's going to give them a little reminder to turn around and go back the other way.

[Yeager] I like that. That's a good point.

[Coppin] So, now I think we're going to see more. I mean, you know, what does it cost $15,000 or something to put out a mile of fence? These days? I mean, that's a big investment. It's hard to find people to do it. So I think we're going to increasingly see ranches go to perimeter fence and the internal fencing will be done virtually.

[Yeager] And dad always, that was one of the jobs. When he would go on some fishing trip, I had to go, in the day, cover up, shade up the little light to see if it flickered, if the electric fence was still working, and, like, come on, that big animal, seeing that good juicy corn across the fence, there wasn't any little fence that was ever going to keep it in anyway.

[Coppin] Yes. Well, again, the evolution of that, from, you know, old school fencing to barbed wire fencing. So you know, electric fencing to virtual fencing, I mean, again, all of those things, you know, show you that there's actually a lot of innovation and things. Yeah. In the ranching community. Yeah, I sure, as you know, we went from axes to chainsaws. So we went from horse and cat to motor vehicles. Right.

[Yeager] And we're going to have devices that, you know, will know that there's a scale out in the field that we can get a weight check. We the, you know, that monitor is going to be able to tell some things about the health of that animal heart rate, things like that. Yeah, but that does cost money. And that does part, part of the input cost for that animal that we'll have to deal with 200%.

[Coppin] But like all, all sectors on the planet, you know, I mean, AG is generally regarded as the least digitized sector. And within ag ranching is like the least digitized of the least digitized. So but I think we're probably going to achieve more in the next 3 to 5 years that we've been saved in the last 10 or 15 years. The technology that's evolving has got, you know, good credibility. It's at the right price. It's dealing with the major issues that farmers and ranchers have to deal with, which is input costs and labor. And so there's a lot of productivity gains to be made here. And I think, you know, you're going to that everyone sort of says to me, so why are there so many companies like this coming out of Australia and New Zealand? I mean, look at Australia is a very big country and necessity breeds innovation. You know, if you think it's hard to get someone to work in southern Texas or, you know, in Iowa, imagine what it's like trying to get them 500 miles down a dirt road in the middle of Australia. It's very, very challenging. So we've seen the innovations that have come about through necessity, and they're now getting scale and they're now getting more affordable. And the price comes down as the more customers like get. So you know, it's a really interesting time for innovation and technology in farming and ranching.

[Yeager] Lastly, Andrew, quickly on trade, if I could, this is quite a precarious time for the American farmer looking for markets. Are you seen? We already mentioned the US imports some beef from other places, but what are you seeing on a trade front? That's the biggest story in the cattle market right now.

[Coppin] Well, in the cattle market, I mean, obviously, you know, there are new market opportunities, including US beef going to Australia and us both going to other markets. Obviously there have been, everyone still sort of waiting to see how things pan out with tariffs because there's limitations on trade for beef products coming in from places like Brazil and others. So I think, I think at the moment that's the domestic focus on, you know, fulfilling demand of the US consumer. And obviously with really high domestic prices, probably removing any major, major concerns around development of international markets. But I'm sure the NCBA and the other trade, negotiation groups are working hard to build up beef demand in other markets. And there's no question that American, you know, grain fed, high quality, premium beef is a brand that carries weight around the world.

[Yeager] Tastes pretty good I like it. All right Andrew, thank you so very much. Appreciate your time.

[Coppin] Thanks for having me.

[Yeager] Thank you. Always appreciate all of you who make it to this point. If you have made it here, send me an email, markettomarket@iowaPBS.org with your thoughts. Leave a comment. Share it with a friend. That also means a ton. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.