Ready Set Grow Podcast - Farmer using DOT Autonomous farming and robots in the future

[furrowtickler]

I’m a software developer, I just farm on the side to guarantee that I’m broke.

There is no autonomous vehicle algorithm that can figure out how to work our fields which can have 40 holes/runs with water per 1/4 section. Or at least not without leaving too much precious little non mud we have left.

Kinda like batteries that will save the planet ??

[woodland]

But that's taking away all our fun! Ii like what I do and take pride in it.

Yes. For sure.

And what do we as society gain from this? More unemployment and laziness? I refuse to use the ATM at the bank, self checkout, and other devices that eliminates staff. It’s one thing to run bigger more efficient equipment and quite different to eliminate the operator.

Maybe it’s just me though............

P.S. I don’t foresee a robot anytime soon that’s able to cruise around the calving field in a snowstorm at 3 am and make the call wether that heifer needs a pull or the calf that just fell out needs a hotbox and which to deal with first. Guess I’m still required for a little while yet here😉

[biglentil]

Farmers are arguably the most self sufficient and resilient group on the planet. Of course the globalists want us replaced by a robot.

[ajl]

I think the large scale adoption of this technology is a long way off. What is needed now is that central banks stop printing money allowing interest rates to rise, government start getting back to sound budgeting and laying off about 2/3 of their labor force, and then the labor vs capital decision is not always in favor of replacing labor with capital. Large, inefficient farm operations would be replaced by smaller and more nimble competitors. Fruit and vegetable production would be more decentralized and less dependent on foreign labor. The implication of all this is that autonomous farming systems would not see large scale adoption because they are not all that efficient in most applications unless capital is artificially cheap.

[furrowtickler]

There may be a small place for this tech where it’s already being used .. orchards and very high value row crops like vegetables and irrigated crops . Used to be highly intensive manual labor faring industry. They can replace a huge unreliable work force
In low value commercial crops , it will be a while with far lower net returns and huge fluctuations in facing Mother Nature full on .
There is a place for this tech , just not frost , drought , market prone dryland farming in western Canada.., JMO

[AlbertaFarmer5]

It seems like an odd priority when one looks around the world at Agriculture.
When much of the food produced in the developing world is done almost completely by manual labour, it would seem like there is much lower hanging fruit than to eliminate the last few operators of an already massive efficient mechanized piece of equipment, which is doing the equivalent work of thousands of subsistence farmers.

[Ache4Acres]

There is no doubt there is a future ahead with 100% robotic automatic equipment on every farm. It will start in pockets and expand. Humans have tried to compete against robots in every other facet and ultimately the robots get too good. It will happen here too.

20 years from now you will be hard pressed to find a new tractor with a cab

[Dr Tone]

My grand father passed away long before auto-steer, I often think it’s something he wouldn’t imagine possible.

Maybe we’ll see autonomous hover machinery in the swamp. 😂

[Rareearth]

Maybe swarms of drones doing the field spraying of herbicides, pesticides and biologicals is more believable or easier and cheaper.

Autosteer adoption was a sneaky slow, then massive now 98% adoption uptake. It will all come down to economics profitability and opportunity in the future.

[Dr Tone]

Maybe swarms of drones doing the field spraying of herbicides, pesticides and biologicals is more believable or easier and cheaper.

I can 100% see it happening. In fact it’s already started for small scale specialty crops.


https://www.dji.com/ca/mobile/t20