Autonomy Is Shaping The Future Of Farming

The world of agriculture is rapidly advancing with the continuous need to produce more with less. One of the most exciting advancements is the use of autonomy in the fields. Brian Luck, the State Extension Specialist of Biological Machinery Systems has been doing research in this field.

“It’s a new budding space for equipment companies,” says Luck. “There are a lot of start-up companies putting this technology in already existing equipment.”

Although there are lots of farmers already using some form of autonomy such as auto-steer, the industry is not quite ready for full autonomy. This hesitation is due to legal and safety issues that may come from the use of full autonomy. This could change in the next couple years. According to Luck the safety worries that people are having about full autonomy should be put to rest. This is because the machines would have over a million sensors to monitor every part of the machine.

One of the biggest reasons this technology has taken the agriculture industry by storm is the lack of labor. This type of machine would allow farmers to be able to continue farming the same amount of grown with less people, while still getting the necessary rest. Luck believes at some point in the near future we will see farmers running their whole farms from their homes.

UAV

Another technology being used and researched more is the use of UAV’s or drones in spraying fields. With these, the person sets a path then the machine does the rest. Currently this technology is being used mostly for fungicide application.

“We are not seeing any difference in the UAV applied fungicide to the top-down method used by most,” said Luck. “We are currently looking at prop wash and the extra drift caused by the machine, which is a cause for concern by some.”

Luck explains that when looking at chemical application it is much harder to get approval for autonomous technology. This is due to the environmental impact it could have if something went wrong during the application.

The possibilities for autonomy in agriculture are great and will be the future of production for the world. Having this technology available will help the farmers be able to continue to produce more with less and have greater efficiency. With lots of questions and concerns still up in the air for autonomy, one thing is for sure, and that is that it is an exciting time to be in agriculture.