Growing up on one of the most remote stretches of Western Australia shaped Andrew Coppin’s life in ways he couldn’t have predicted.
“As a kid, I grew up in Western Australia, one of the most remote places on the planet,” Andrew told WLJ. “My dad had farming and ranching operations, and I spent most of my spare time on a farm or ranch somewhere.”
Those formative years instilled a deep respect for land, livestock and water—long before he would become the co-founder and CEO of Ranchbot Monitoring Solutions, a company transforming how ranchers manage one of their most critical resources: water.
After exploring some early business endeavors and studying for his university degree, Andrew launched a 25-year career in global finance, working in New York, Hong Kong and beyond. Rising from stockbroker to director of a firm managing $15 billion with 500 employees, he seemed far removed from cattle country. But the pull of the land never disappeared.
“I’d sort of done most things you could do in the world of finance I was in,” Andrew said. “Call it a midlife crisis, call it what you will, but I was becoming disenfranchised. I wanted to do something worthy and thought, ‘What’s my legacy going to be?’”
That question pulled him back to agriculture. “I loved that time of my life,” Andrew explained. “There weren’t many people in ag tech really trying to solve these complicated problems—like how we’re going to feed more people with the resources we’ve got, and those thoughts just led me to a greater calling to invest my time and money into those areas.”
Brewing a solution
The turning point came at a pitch night where Andrew met Craig Hendricks, a software developer presenting an idea for remote water and infrastructure monitoring. “I told him, you’ve got the right idea but the wrong execution,” Andrew said. They met for coffee, and “the rest is history.”
Together, they launched Farmbot in Australia—branded Ranchbot in the U.S.—to tackle a simple yet costly problem: ranchers driving long distances to check tanks and pumps that 95% of the time don’t require attention. They built 100 prototypes, each rigorously tested in real-world conditions for a year to eliminate every bug before scaling.
According to Andrew, the company has sold 35,000 sensors worldwide, monitoring water for 10 million cattle and 15 million sheep. Farmbot employs approximately 70 people, and Ranchbot currently has 20 employees, with plans to expand. Andrew relocated to Texas about 18 months ago after years of long flights to expand the brand in the U.S.
How Ranchbot works
Ranchbot is more than a sensor—it’s a comprehensive monitoring network designed for the harshest environments. By placing sensors in tanks, pipes, wells, pumps and reservoirs, Ranchbot continuously monitors water levels, flow rates and pump performance every minute of every day—not just a few times a day. If water is falling too fast, pressure is too high or a pump fails, the system sends real-time alerts via satellite or cellular networks. Ranchers can select the notifications they prefer, ranging from low-level alarms to high-priority warnings. Andrew emphasizes that “making really hard things look simple is hard,” but Ranchbot’s combination of robust design and advanced algorithms achieves just that.
The economics are equally practical. Each unit costs between $500 and $1,500 and operates for approximately $1 per day, providing a return on investment within three to four months. Many ranchers deploy dozens of units. “I have customers with 30 or 40 of these things, and they will utilize over the coming years as they seek greater productivity and cost savings,” Andrew said. “It’s a no brainer when you think that within a few months, they’ve paid for themselves.”
Beyond water, the Ranchbot platform is expanding. In Australia, ranchers can overlay pasture mapping, integrate weather stations and connect security cameras—features already starting to roll out in the U.S.
“We only build things our customers want,” Andrew notes. Each year, the company surveys customers to rank potential innovations and commits to delivering the top three. Last year’s list included remote pump control, security cameras and weather stations, all of which are now part of the product line in Australia.
Ranching and technology
Andrew believes technology and tradition can complement each other.
“We can be really respectful of cowboy culture and heritage and still drive the need to innovate,” he said, underlining the balance between tradition and innovation. “Our technology allows ranchers a lot more time for roping, hunting, family, and church than if they’re just driving around checking stuff that doesn’t need checking.”
Looking ahead, Andrew sees artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and space-based communication networks driving the next wave of change. That connectivity, Andrew notes, will enable everything from virtual fencing integrated with water management to computer vision systems that monitor pasture health and animal well-being.
“Data is powerful, but data needs AI and machine learning to make it productive,” Andrew explained.
Ranchbot is already testing prototypes that analyze digital signatures from pumps to forecast failure days in advance. Cameras may soon track which cows are drinking, identify illness earlier than a human could and even estimate weight or monitor bodyscore across pastures.
“The earliest sign a cow is sick is when she stops drinking,” Andrew said. “A camera can tell you that long before a person notices.”
However, Andrew emphasized that the goal is not to overwhelm ranchers with numbers. “We don’t talk about data; we talk about actionable insights,” he stressed. “There’s no point giving a rancher raw data if all they can ask is, ‘So what?’ We tell them the consequence—what it means for their grazing, their herd, their bottom line.”
Collaboration is another focus. “No rancher wants seven apps to run the farm,” Andrew said. Ranchbot is integrating with grazing apps like CattleMax, weather systems such as Davis, and soil moisture and security camera providers. The goal is a platform that simplifies management while respecting each rancher’s unique needs.
Andrew acknowledges that some producers remain cautious. However, he believes the benefits—saved time, lower costs and peace of mind—will win them over.
“I hear from ranchers every day: ‘This thing has changed my life for the better. Why didn’t I do it 10 years ago?’” he said.
His own journey reflects the balance he hopes to foster across the industry. From a boy in remote Western Australia to a global entrepreneur in Texas, Andrew has come full circle. Ranchbot Monitoring Solutions embodies that arc—uniting deep respect for tradition with cutting-edge tools that help ranchers steward land and water more effectively. — Charles Wallace, WLJ contributing editor
