Cancel OK

Automating Ag

Less labor, more innovation in the fields and in the air
AT-Final

Technological innovation continues to transform agriculture, and in the twenty-first century goals have evolved as growers seek to cope with labor shortages, reduce water usage, better target chemical applications, and increase efficiency. Hear the latest from those developing solutions and the broad impact of their real-world applications.

Like their predecessors, growers continually seek new technologies. Self-driving tractors, drones that scour the land for pests, and robots to pick fruit are just a few of the advances in use or being tested. Experts say these, as well as a number of highly anticipated tools, have the potential to transform agriculture as surely as the cotton gin.

Agriculture, in general, and the fresh fruit and vegetable industry in particular, are not yet highly automated according to Minos Athanassiadis, managing partner at Fresh Link Group, an advisory services firm for agriculture-related businesses headquartered in Bakersfield, CA. Nonetheless, he and others in the field see forces at work that will lead to an automation revolution in the industry.

Less Labor, More Information
The driving force behind much of today’s automation is the ongoing labor shortage. “The labor shortage is at a critical state; farmers are leaving crops in the field because labor is too expensive or there’s not enough available,” confirms Manoj Karkee, associate professor at Washington State University, working on a prototype for an automated apple harvester. With between 15 and 18 billion apples harvested for fresh consumption every year in Washington State, growers often struggle to find enough workers to pick them.

The same problem faces strawberry growers on the opposite coast, inspiring collaboration among competitors to find a remedy. Gary Wishnatzki, cofounder of Harvest CROO Robotics and owner of Wish Farms in Plant City, FL, spearheaded efforts to develop a robotic strawberry picker due to the dwindling labor pool.

He believes Mexican demographics are mirroring our own, with an aging workforce and families having fewer children. Combined with Mexico’s expanding economy and the availability of better paying jobs, why should workers cross the border into a volatile political atmosphere? In the not-too-distant future, Wishnatzki believes Mexico itself will become “an importer of labor.”

Research by R. Karina Gallardo, another associate professor at Washington State University, echoes Wishnatzki’s observations. Immigration from Mexico, which provides 70 to 75 percent of agricultural labor for all specialty crops, is not only declining but highly unpredictable. “The H-2A Visa brings in a pool of workers,” she contends, “but relying on H-2A immigration is not a sustainable solution in the long run.”

Twitter

Technological innovation continues to transform agriculture, and in the twenty-first century goals have evolved as growers seek to cope with labor shortages, reduce water usage, better target chemical applications, and increase efficiency. Hear the latest from those developing solutions and the broad impact of their real-world applications.

Like their predecessors, growers continually seek new technologies. Self-driving tractors, drones that scour the land for pests, and robots to pick fruit are just a few of the advances in use or being tested. Experts say these, as well as a number of highly anticipated tools, have the potential to transform agriculture as surely as the cotton gin.

Agriculture, in general, and the fresh fruit and vegetable industry in particular, are not yet highly automated according to Minos Athanassiadis, managing partner at Fresh Link Group, an advisory services firm for agriculture-related businesses headquartered in Bakersfield, CA. Nonetheless, he and others in the field see forces at work that will lead to an automation revolution in the industry.

Less Labor, More Information
The driving force behind much of today’s automation is the ongoing labor shortage. “The labor shortage is at a critical state; farmers are leaving crops in the field because labor is too expensive or there’s not enough available,” confirms Manoj Karkee, associate professor at Washington State University, working on a prototype for an automated apple harvester. With between 15 and 18 billion apples harvested for fresh consumption every year in Washington State, growers often struggle to find enough workers to pick them.

The same problem faces strawberry growers on the opposite coast, inspiring collaboration among competitors to find a remedy. Gary Wishnatzki, cofounder of Harvest CROO Robotics and owner of Wish Farms in Plant City, FL, spearheaded efforts to develop a robotic strawberry picker due to the dwindling labor pool.

He believes Mexican demographics are mirroring our own, with an aging workforce and families having fewer children. Combined with Mexico’s expanding economy and the availability of better paying jobs, why should workers cross the border into a volatile political atmosphere? In the not-too-distant future, Wishnatzki believes Mexico itself will become “an importer of labor.”

Research by R. Karina Gallardo, another associate professor at Washington State University, echoes Wishnatzki’s observations. Immigration from Mexico, which provides 70 to 75 percent of agricultural labor for all specialty crops, is not only declining but highly unpredictable. “The H-2A Visa brings in a pool of workers,” she contends, “but relying on H-2A immigration is not a sustainable solution in the long run.”

The Technology Challenge
Unfortunately, despite the need to reduce reliance on human labor, there are other factors preventing the widespread use of automation. “Technology companies have often seen the fruit and vege-table industry as being too small in terms of acres and too complicated,” explains Athanassiadis. “As an indication, there are more than 90 million acres of land planted to corn while less than 300,000 acres planted to lettuce. That’s 300 times more acres of corn than lettuce.”

The different requirements of growers also pose challenges. “The needs of a lettuce grower in Salinas and those of an apple grower in Wenatchee or of a potato grower in Idaho are very different,” observes Athanassiadis. So the tech companies often go to large scale agriculture and broad acre crops like corn, soybeans, and cotton. The produce industry, as a result, is often neglected.”

The Good News
Regardless of the challenges, there are efforts throughout the country to bring automation—through various methods—to a variety of crops from celery and cabbage to apples and berries.

A mechanical harvester is one item high on the wish list. Karkee’s apple harvesting prototype uses a camera to find the fruit, a robotic arm to reach for it, and a soft pneumatic hand to actually pick it. It was first developed in 2013 and is designed to solve inherent problems like damaging fruit and not having the ability to remove extraneous items like sticks.

This model has much promise: “It’s faster and gentler,” Karkee says. “It doesn’t bruise the fruit.” He hopes the mechanical picker will be on the market in the next three years, though the technology itself will be shared. “We test it, validate it, and share the design information and data with the public,” he says. “Companies that are interested can take it from there.”

Currently, Karkee is trying to improve the prototype’s agility. “A human picks an apple every two seconds; the robotic hand picks one every four to five seconds. We’d like to get that down to three seconds,” he notes.

More Good News
In Florida, Wishnatzki continues to test the robotic strawberry picker. Like the apple picker, there are various problems to overcome, including the need to pick a strawberry field every three days to prevent the fruit from becoming overripe.

Harvest CROO Robotics was founded in 2013 and 20 percent of the U.S. strawberry industry is invested, Wishnatzki says. Like the apple harvester, the strawberry picking machine uses a vision system to identify the berries and determine if they are ripe enough (by color) to pick. An apparatus then grabs the plants and holds the leaves back. A wheel with multiple claws rotates around the plant and picks the berries.

“Picture a Ferris Wheel,” advises Wishnatzki. “It picks the first berry, turns and spins, and picks the next one.” He predicts the machine will be available to growers by 2020. Initially, the robotic pickers will be offered at no cost to investor-growers. Later, they will be available for purchase by others.

Better yet, Wishnatzki believes the technology is adaptable to harvest other labor-intensive fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, bell peppers, and table grapes.

Striving for Efficiency
Efficiency is another significant goal for growers, including Tanimura & Antle, Inc. in Salinas, CA, which purchased PlantTape, an automated transplanting system, in 2014. The technology was developed by a company in Barcelona, Spain.

“We took the original concept and made it better,” asserts Brian Antle, president of PlantTape USA. “We made it more robust for how we plant in North America.” The system uses a tape made of two layers of biodegradable tissue, filled with a mixture of peat and vermiculite to hold seeds. Special trays are used to wet the tape for germination, and once plants are viable, machinery pulls the tape from the tray, trims it, and places the transplants into soil.

Antle says each tray contains about 900 plants, double the usual amount for transplants. In addition, nongerminated tape can be stored for future plantings. Tanimura & Antle is currently using PlantTape on 25,000 acres. Antle estimates the system is six times faster than traditional transplanting, uses 97 percent less peat, 20 percent less fertilizer, 20 percent less water, and requires 80 percent less labor.

While PlantTape has proven successful, it will not work for all crops and there can be complications. Growing practices must be adjusted for the system to work. “If you give it the same amount of water and fertilizer, plants will grow too quickly and become too big,” cautions Antle.

Conserving & Adapting
Like Antle, Chadd Buurma of Buurma Farms, which operates a 700-acre farm in Gregory, MI and a 1,300-acre farm in Willard, OH, is concerned with preserving resources and being more efficient and resourceful.

For his part, Buurma has adopted the use of electrostatic spraying. “It uses less water and less chemicals,” he explains. “It does a better job of getting to the product: the leaf is completely surrounded, top and underside. We can reduce the amount of crop-protecting chemicals we use.”

Besides targeting the plant, the sprayer has other benefits such as reducing water use. Buurma says water use is now five gallons per acre instead of 20 for crops like radishes, beets, dill, and mustard greens. It also saves time. “You get more done in an hour if you’re not filling up with water all the time.”

Repurposing Equipment
While robots seem to be the future, Athanassiadis says many growers are using technology adapted from other uses and industries. “The iPhone is an example: it enables the use of countless apps to help growers scout their fields, ensure regulatory compliance, and have more efficient operations. Similarly, cloud-based applications enable growers to track operations without having to be at a particular location or office.”

Cascade Farms, Inc. in Lynden, WA uses a John Deere guidance system to direct self-driving tractors on 500 acres of certified seed potatoes. “The GPS technology is getting more and more refined when you’re talking accuracy,” shares Blake TeVelde, manager, at Cascade Farms. “It’s come so far in 10 years,” he notes, in terms of both accuracy and reliability.

TeVelde also appreciates the tracking capabilities. “It drives the tractor down the row and keeps it straight,” he says, adding it also “keeps track of how many seed pieces per acre or per row—to make sure you’re not skipping spaces in the row.” A downside to the GPS system is the need for updates as technology changes; replacing a software subscription for GPS receivers can cost about $1,000 per unit.

Cascade Farms is mulling over another type of technology for its fields—a drone to monitor crops. Though the grower has yet to take the plunge, TeVelde believes a drone could save both time and labor. “It has infrared cameras that can detect diseases, then you can go out and check it by hand,” he says.

One deterrent for purchasing a drone is the fear of obsolescence. “The technology is changing so rapidly,” TeVelde remarks, “even drones a year old are already out of date. There’s [always] new and better stuff out there.”

On the Horizon
As growers strive to become more efficient and less reliant on human labor, experts say it is only a matter of time before robots are as good or better than humans working in the fields. “We don’t have to be perfect; we just have to be better,” says Wishnatzki.

Whether it’s robots or GPS technology, Antle and TeVelde agree they’re constantly trying to find ways to farm better. “All the technology we use is to make us more efficient,” TeVelde confirms. “That’s the name of the game.

Twitter