iFarm: Where technology & agriculture collide

When most people think about agriculture, usually the last thing they think of is technology.

I remember my first introduction to modern technology within the agriculture industry. I was working on a grass seed farm, and the harvest was entering its final phase. I was asked to get off the combine and to help plow the fields. On my first day of training on the Case tractor with ATI tracks, which allows the tractor to easily navigate over loose dirt, I was shown a “new way of farming.”

There was a feature on this tractor which allowed you to set the width of your plow and it would help you turn your tractor around. Once turned, it would emit a steady beep tone which would increase in frequency until the tractor was perfectly aligned in the field, allowing the farmer to not plow the same area twice, as well as to not miss a strip of dirt. It was mind-numbingly cool at the time because I had never experienced something like this. Ever since then, I have been infatuated with technology in the agriculture industry.

With staff shortages throughout the agriculture industry worldwide, technology is becoming increasingly helpful and, in some cases, almost necessary. We have seen technology flourish in most sectors of the market and the agriculture business is no exception.

Let’s quickly revisit the grass seed market.  After the seed is delivered to the company warehouse, it has to be cleaned, then packaged. Grass seed used to almost solely be packaged into 50-lb. bags. It was required to be bagged, weighed, stitched shut, then put on a pallet and stacked in a separate area of the warehouse. Even since I worked there, which was about 10-15 years ago, technology has boomed, even in the warehouse.

There are now robotic arms that dispense the grass seed, straight to the correct amount, and when I say correct amount, I mean 50.0 lbs., not 50.2 or 49.7.  It then seals the bag and stitches it shut if needed, and places it on a pallet. This means you only need one worker operating a forklift and moving the pallets, but as long as seed is being added to the machine, there is no need for additional workers. Not only does it save hours on labor, but it can  process multiple bags of seed each minute, saving money each time a second ticks by.

Technology is spanning across agriculture. Take wineries--utilizing solar-powered robots that traverse across the land on four wheels that “remember” each vine in the vineyard, while simultaneously pruning each one. Or look at the cattle industry--how about a robot that helps herd your cattle? Personally, I still like dogs that do that sort of thing, but if you run a huge operation, having many dogs to herd your cattle could be time- consuming. Say your cattle operation is a dairy operation--now they have almost exclusively robotic-powered milking parlors. Rotary parlors were already making a surge across the country, but they would still require workers to walk behind each cow to verify the attachment of the teat-cup shells from the milking machine. Imagine taking all workers off the milking parlor floor and being able to utilize them in different operations at the dairy.

We’ll never know how far technology will launch the agriculture industry. Although it seems that sometimes the agriculture business gets stuck in the past, we can see that technology and,  more specifically, robotics is becoming a staple in many agriculture-driven industries. Don’t get left behind!

"iFarm" is written by Stuart, a former Mac consultant and agricultural advocate. Read more about Stuart on our Authors page!