Rylington Park and ECU forge new partnership to give researchers and students access to the Boyup Brook farm

Boyup Brook’s Rylington Park Institute for Agricultural Training and Research is set to become an educational hub for at least the next two decades after forging a new partnership allowing Edith Cowan University students and researchers access to the property. The 20-year agreement between ECU and the Shire of Boyup Brook — which manages the 650ha farm — is hoped to help solve “real-world agricultural challenges” and turn the property into a “living laboratory for research”. Rylington Park, 27km south of Boyup Brook, has dedicated staff employed by the Shire and is well-known for hosting eight Australian Wool Innovation-funded and organised shearing and woolhandling schools each year. The property is also used for local fertiliser and seed trials, and a handful of field days for local farmers. More than 75 people gathered at Rylington Park on June 1 to officially launch the partnership, which followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Shire and ECU on October 29. Amongst the crowd were David and Brian Farleigh, the grandsons of the late Eric Farleigh — who donated his family’s Rylington Park farm to the Boyup Brook Shire in 1985 Shire of Boyup Brook chief executive Dale Putland said Eric Farleigh was a researcher as well as a farmer and would have been proud to see his “vision fulfilled” with the historic partnership. WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan said the partnership between the Boyup Brook Shire and Edith Cowan University would benefit the farm site for research, including virtual fencing and collecting native species in the area. “We are very interested in the potential of virtual fencing to help provide more sustainable grazing practices,” she said. “The McGowan Government welcomes the increasingly collaborative approach between universities and on-ground organisations, like Rylington Park, which together with the newly formed $25 million WA Agricultural Collaboration will help attract research, development and innovation funds to the State and drive advances in our primary industries.” Shire councillor Charles Caldwell, a local farmer, said the start of the partnership would revitalise Mr Farleigh’s vision to gift his family’s farm to the Shire for the benefit of the local community as well as the wider agricultural region. He paid testament to AWI’s shearing and woolhandling training, and said trials done at Rylington Park had help him personally to improve productivity and profit on his own farming business. “One of the most remarkable things achieved at Rylington Park was the development of the Rylington Merino, a sheep that is resistant to worms,” Cr Caldwell said. “This visionary research project between Rylington Park and WA’s ag department proved it could be done and the benefits of this remarkable research collaboration continues to benefit sheep farmers all around Australia today.” ECU deputy vice-chancellor and vice president Cobie Rudd said the agreement would support and connect students to regional WA, helping the regions retain more young talent. She said ECU’s goal was to attract grant funding for research to explore farm automation, smart farm technology and data. The university is already in initial discussions to carry out several projects identified by industry, including partnering with Greening Australia to investigate setting up a native seed production project at Rylington Park. Researchers are also investigating using drones to better measure carbon sequestration from agricultural areas in the South West, to understand pasture productivity and the activity of soil microbes in a range of farming practices. ECU professor Kerry Brown said the partnership was off to a flying start with researchers already planning to build a low power, wireless network to create a virtual fence around the entire farm to monitor, detect and repel objects and animals. ECU lead researcher David Cook, who is the sensor network projects leader for Rylington Park, said there were three students that had been actively involved in the Rylington Park projects for the past six months. This includes Blake Batten, a post graduate student completing his master of cyber security, Varun Hrishikesh, an international student completing his masters of research in computer science and Minh Pham, an international student completing his masters in cyber security. Mr Batten said he had visited Rylington Park a few times, setting up sensors for data collection. “Once farmers have more data behind this research, they can then make decisions to change things,” he said. “I hope our research to monitor climate trends will help improve farming both in the South West and throughout Australia.”