Published in The Land
Thursday, November 27, 2025
Tourles find reliability in Farmbot ecosystem
WHEN a tank’s water level is dropping rapidly but there is no stock in the paddock, there must be an issue.
This was the case recently for central west grazier, Scott Tourle, who received a Farmbot Monitoring Solutions warning on his phone alerting him to a burst hose.
“We went straight out and saw the hose had blown out under excessive pressure,” Mr Tourle said.
“Farmbot is very useful for alerting us to those types of issues before they become major problems. We now have the confidence in knowing how things are going with our tank and trough system by monitoring it with Farmbot.”
The peace of mind the Farmbot system provides means the Tourles can leave their property without the fear of something going wrong with their water resources while they’re away.
“We know if something goes wrong, we can rectify it or get someone to quickly fix the issue due to the alerts Farmbot provides,” he said.
“The tank monitors and flow meters give us a good idea of when a pipeline might be leaking. This saves us a lot of time in the summer months, when we’re really dependent on water.
“We’ve also found it interesting to be able to use the Farmbot system to see what time of day our stock are watering.”
Mr Tourle said he’d happily recommend Farmbot to others looking for a reliable water monitoring system.
“Any product that gives you confidence in your water supply is so important these days. We’ve converted to primarily a trough system so it’s imperative to know you have water there and ready to go.
“We now have the confidence in knowing how things are going with our tank and trough system by monitoring it with Farmbot.”
Mr Tourle and his wife, Liz, run a self-replacing Merino flock, which includes first-cross ewe production, and a cattle trading operation in which they buy young heifers to grow out and sell, on The Springs and Naroo, which are situated 40 kilometres south of Dubbo.
The Springs has been in the Tourle name since 1840, making Mr Tourle the fifth generation of the family on the property, while his sons Sam and Tom, and Tom’s wife Courtney, are the sixth.
Naroo was added to the Tourles’ holdings in the late 1940s when it was purchased as a soldiers’ settlement block. Combined, these properties expand more than 3500 hectares of granite to red basalt country.
In this country, the Tourles have large swathes of native pastures. They also grow cereal crops for their livestock, and have lucerne paddocks with chicory and arrowleaf clover.
Growth of these pastures and crops is historically helped by 600 millimetres of annual rainfall, though they’re a fair bit under that figure this year to date.
Like all in the primary production sector, the Tourles covet the liquid gold, though they wanted to find a way to keep better track of its levels in their operation.
“We had a fella living in our cottage for about 15 years, who created some telemetry equipment to monitor our tanks, but it wasn’t reliable enough, so we then tried a water monitoring company, but had the same issue. It was then that we decided to try Farmbot.”
Mr Tourle said the labour savings from the Farmbot ecosystem had proven to be invaluable.
