Page 14 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Aussie solutions for wastewater
Cyber threat in rural industries
DIGITAL technolo- gies are everywhere – helping farmers regu- late water use and track soil moisture, control irrigation pumps re- motely, help collect and manage genetic in- formation in livestock, and drive autonomous and GPS guided ma- chinery, to name a few.
With these technolo- gies comes risk.
Phase one of the pro- ject is to explore the readiness levels across rural industries when it comes to securely man- aging data, IP and plat- forms.
“Producers are key to collectively getting our heads around cyber risks and we strongly en- courage anyone linked to agriculture, fisheries and forestry to take part in the survey,” Ms Medway said.
As reliance on tech- nology, data and infor- mation sharing grows in the rural industries sector, so does the prob- ability of potentially devastating cyber at- tacks.
To achieve this, BDO Australia is conducting a survey and producers are needed to help in- form the current state of play.
“Rural industries need to understand and take ownership of their cyber fragility.
Even a short outage can result in significant business and animal welfare consequences.
AgriFutures Australia senior manager rural fu- tures Jennifer Medway said a cyber attack can happen in the blink of an eye, as the Australian wool industry found out last year.
“Knowing where you stand and what you need to do to protect your IP, systems and data, is just good business.”
With the potential for data manipulation, mis- reporting and reputa- tional damage, the pic- ture is bleak.
Visit bdoaustralia. checkboxonline.com/ agrifutures-cyber-se curity-survey to access and complete the short survey.
To shed light on this possibly damaging issue and provide industry with interventions to address an increasingly sophisticated threat, Ag- riFutures Australia has embarked on a new pro- ject with globally con- nected cyber security experts BDO Australia.
“More than 75 percent of wool sold across Aus- tralia and New Zealand relied on a single plat- form which fell victim to a malicious ransomware attack,” Ms Medway said.
While responses to the survey are anonymous, participants have the op- tion to elect to receive a free personalised report reviewing their cyber resilience and be bench- marked against peers.
Working in consulta- tion with other rural re- search and development corporations, the project aims to explore poten- tial cyber threats to pro- ducers’ business data, productions systems and intellectual property.
“While targeted at one industry in this case, a reliance on IT systems is a vulnerability all in- dustries face.”
The research is being undertaken by BDO Australia and funded through the AgriFutures Australia National Rural Issues program, which aims to facilitate agri- cultural growth by ad- dressing current national and cross sectoral issues facing the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector.
Whether you’re an es- tablished $100 million corporate farm or a new fishing business, greater awareness of potential threats is key to imple- menting best practice mitigation strategies and staying ahead of mali- cious cyber activity.
are as a sector.
The survey is an im-
Ms Medway hopes that 12 months on we are better positioned to ask ourselves the tough questions about how prepared and resilient to cyber attacks we really
portant step in helping answer those questions andbenchmarkourpro- gress.
CHOOSING the best pumps, where a two-year
gineer John Hales said, to be cleared out in the
pump for pumping waste- water from piggeries or processing plants means taking the time and trouble to analyse performance and the types of pumps required.
life cycle is often normal. The pumps also need to be robust enough to handle the job and have that indispen-
“To prime, there are three simple steps.”
event of blockages. “Imagine, being able to
The choices are submersi- bles, long-column sump pumps and more recently, the introduction of Aus- sie’s GMP big, robust self- priming centrifugal pumps.
the front of the pump.
In a normal installation, the discharge is through an elbow mounted on the top of the pump, but the key feature is the design of the
“Step two, make sure the suction hose or fittings going into the pump body are completely airtight, so there’s no danger of air leaks in the suction line.
“Bones, feathers and par- ticles of meat or flesh will pass straight through the pump without effort.”
Aussie Pumps believes that the big self-priming pump concept works better, not only because of its ease of maintenance but also for its ability to withstand the issues that pumps in appli- cations such as these expe- rience.
pump body itself.
For a self-priming pump,
“Step three is to start the motor or engine, depending on the drive system in- volved.
Aussie’s semi-trash pump range now includes a 3” pump that not only has the capacity to move over 1000L per minute but can also deliver heads up to 70m.
Corrosion is one con- sistent problem, particularly for cast iron submersible
Aussie Pumps’ chief en-
That in turn creates a vacuum inside the pump that allows the check valve mounted in the pump suc- tion port to open, allowing water to be sucked into the pump body through the suction hose or pipe as- sembly.
Experience has shown Aussie Pump engineers that using submersibles in ap- plications such as this, and long-column sump pumps, can create real difficulty.
sable ‘self-priming’ feature. Self-priming means that the pump is mounted out- side the pit or tank and draws its water through a suction line connected into
“Step one, fill the pump bowl with water through the priming plug mounted in the top of the pump body.
clean out the pump without having to disconnect pipe- work, as you do in the case of an end suction pump,” Mr Hales said.
the body will include the ca- pacity for it to hold enough water to prime the pump.
“What happens next is basic physics.”
“That’s a breakthrough product for us,” Mr Hales said.
The priming process is simple and virtually fool- proof.
The water in the pump body is expelled to the dis- charge.
“It means that the liquid can be pumped further, or higher, depending on the application.”
Aussie GMP self-priming pumps are quick to set up and simple to maintain.
Best of all, semi-trash and trash pumps from the Aussie GMP product range all include a front opening port that enables the pump
“It’s easy and provides real advantages of conveni- ence,” Mr Hales said.
“We hear about the incon- venience of lifting pumps out of the pit for service, where with a self-priming pump mounted outside the tank or pond, service can be carried out with a min- imum of mess and incon- venience,” Mr Hales said.
Aussie’s 2” through to 6” pumps are all designed around a trash or semi-trash configuration concept.
The smaller pumps of 2-4” are regarded as semi trash, though they have big open non-clog style impel- lers and feature silicon car- bide seals and a stainless- steel wear plate.
“It’s the new way and every day we find more customers moving to our self-priming centrifugal pumps for these wastewater applications.”
For extreme applications, 316 stainless-steel cast im- pellers can be provided as an option.
Further information, in- cluding a new catalogue on Aussie GMP pumps, is readily available from Aus- tralian Pump Industries or distributors around Aus- tralia.
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Page 14 – Australian Pork Newspaper, April 2021
www.porknews.com.au