DES MOINES, IOWA (RFD-TV) — Finding affordable workers has been a challenge for the agricultural industry in recent years, and some are seeking to address this issue with autonomous equipment.
“Trying to see if there was a way that I could grow on 7 to 10 acres with the few people I have, and then use autonomous equipment and some kind of higher value equipment, like to see if there were possibilities,” explained Chris Jagger, an Oregon grower, who has been studying the problem on his farm.
Jagger noted that while technology has advanced significantly, transitioning to fully autonomous systems could prove challenging.
“And I don’t think the technology’s there yet for our scale of farm,” Jagger said. “And so, that’s kind of my vision for the future: a 7- to 10-acre owner-operator kind of operation could be done with a couple of really well-paid employees and a fleet of autonomous tractors.”
Jagger tells aginfo.net that the labor situation has been a problem on his farm for the last ten years, and he’s calling for changes to keep smaller operations afloat.
Software developers at John Deere Digital are addressing labor challenges with their Operations Center, which opened in 2014. However, designers say it has only improved over time, enabling farmers to make decisions on the fly.
“The operations center gives the ability -- for any farmer, regardless of size, regardless of expertise-- to go in, make plans, execute their own on-farm trial, and understand a bit better what’s making money for ‘me,’” said Ryan Stien, go-to-market manager for digital products with John Deere.
Stein continues, providing a real-life example of the technology in action: “If I had a field of corn that I planted this year, and maybe I wanted to try fungicide on a part of it; or even maybe two passes of fungicide on a certain part; or maybe I wanted to try an in-season fertilizer versus a single dose of fertilizer at the start of the year, and analyze what is my ROI on that decision. Did I actually see a yield lift? And was that yield lift profitable for my farm?”
He recommended farmers reach out to their local dealers to see how the program can work on their operation.
