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jelizondo [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Wall Street Journal published a look at new automation for farms, as reported by Mint [livemint.com]

Drones, AI and robot pickers: Meet the fully autonomous farm

In the verdant hills of Washington state’s Palouse region, Andrew Nelson’s tractor hums through the wheat fields on his 7,500-acre farm. Inside the cab, he’s not gripping the steering wheel—he’s on a Zoom call or checking messages.

A software engineer and fifth-generation farmer, Nelson, 41, is at the vanguard of a transformation that is changing the way we grow and harvest our food. The tractor isn’t only driving itself; its array of sensors, cameras, and analytic software is also constantly deciding where and when to spray fertilizer or whack weeds.

Many modern farms already use GPS-guided tractors and digital technology such as farm-management software systems. Now, advances in artificial intelligence mean that the next step—the autonomous farm, with only minimal human tending—is finally coming into focus.

Imagine a farm where fleets of autonomous tractors, drones and harvesters are guided by AI that tweaks operations minute by minute based on soil and weather data. Sensors would track plant health across thousands of acres, triggering precise sprays or irrigation exactly where needed. Farmers could swap long hours in the cab for monitoring dashboards and making high-level decisions. Every seed, drop of water and ounce of fertilizer would be optimized to boost yields and protect the land—driven by a connected system that gets smarter with each season.

Andrew Nelson, who has tested agriculture technology for Microsoft as a consultant, launches a drone to take multispectral images of a field to document drainage and the amount of weeds.

Much of the technology to power an autonomous revolution in agriculture already exists or is nearly ready for market launch.

“We’re just getting to a turning point in the commercial viability of a lot of these technologies," says David Fiocco, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. who leads research on agricultural innovation.

A McKinsey survey in 2022 found that around two-thirds of American farms use digital systems to manage their farm operations, but only 15% of large farms and just 4% of smaller ones have yet invested significantly in robotics or automation. Fiocco expects the use of robots to rise dramatically in the coming years.

Autonomous tractors

Tractors that can plant, till and harvest with little, or only remote, human supervision are moving from prototype to practice.

Traditional manufacturers and tech startups are placing big bets. Monarch Tractor, a Livermore, Calif., firm, has rolled out an all-electric, “driver-optional" tractor now working vineyards. Its MK-V model can run up to 14 hours on a charge and be ready to roll again after six hours plugged in. Farmwise, another California company, has developed an AI-guided mechanical weeder and tiller that uses computer vision and robotics to identify and pluck weeds, running day or night, reducing the need for herbicides. In April, salad giant Taylor Farms acquired Farmwise, citing the technology’s promise to cut labor costs and support more sustainable farming.

Fruit-picking robots and drones

Automation, now most often used on large farms with wheat or corn laid out in neat rows, is a bigger challenge for crops like fruits and berries, which ripen at different times and grow on trees or bushes. Maintaining and harvesting these so-called specialty crops is labor-intensive. “In specialty crops, the small army of weeders and pickers could soon be replaced by just one or two people overseeing the technology. That may be a decade out, but that’s where we’re going," says Fiocco of McKinsey.

Fragile fruits like strawberries and grapes pose a huge challenge. Tortuga, an agriculture tech startup in Denver, developed a robot to do the job. Tortuga was acquired in March by vertical farming company Oishii. The robot resembles NASA’s Mars Rover with fat tires and extended arms. It rolls along a bed of strawberries or grapes and uses a long pincher arm to reach into the vine and snip off a single berry or a bunch of grapes, placing them gingerly into a basket.

Remote sensing, image analytics

he SoilOptix system set up for mapping, with a gamma-radiation spectrometer on the vehicle, a soil-core sampler at left, a computer for data-collection monitoring and RTK GPS tech

A crop is only as healthy as its soil. Traditionally, farmers send topsoil samples to a lab to have them analyzed. New technology that uses sensors to scan the soil on-site is enabling a precise diagnosis covering large areas of farms rather than spot checks.

The diagnosis includes microbial analysis as well as identifying areas of soil compaction, when the soil becomes dense, hindering water infiltration, root penetration and gas exchange. Knowing this can help a farmer plan where to till and make other decisions about the new season.

The virtual fence

New technology is also changing livestock management. The creation of virtual fences, which are beginning to be adopted in the U.S., Europe and Australia, has the potential to help ranchers save money on expensive fencing and help them better manage their herds.

Livestock are given GPS-enabled collars, and virtual boundaries are drawn on a digital map. If an animal approaches the virtual boundary, it first gets an auditory warning. If it continues, it gets zapped with a mild but firm electric shock.

Is this what Bill Gates is doing with all the farmland he owns? [landreport.com]

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