2020 vision: what will the future of farming look like?

All aspects of life have and will continue to be changed by technology developments. There have also been very many references to agri-tech, or agri-technology, in the farming media over the last few years. EU agriculture is now firmly pointed in the direction of the Green Deal with a host of Farm to Fork and sustainability initiatives included in the roadmap for its future.

What is agri-tech? It is simply the use of technology to improve all aspects of farming and the process of growing, be that of animals or crops.

What are the benefits of agri-tech overall? Much of the development in this area is following technology employed for some time now in manufacturing systems. The goal of these advancements is to ensure safe farm practices, minimise labour inputs for farmers and contractors, increase throughput in much faster times and to improve quality with the overall effect of reducing costs.

Examples of agri-technology

For example, positioning systems as fitted by Topcon to many farm machines around Ireland make the activity of cutting silage safer, easier and faster. Functions such as control of headland turns and use of GPS for auto guidance on passes have made it viable to use this technology in smaller fields.

The use of various vision sensors fixed to crop harvesters facilitate the mapping of yield.

Data retrieval from these sensors allows farmers to sow seeds and apply fertilisers at variable and lower rates, leading to a more uniform crop yield while lowering input cost.

The John Deere HarvestLab suite is strong in this area and utilises vision systems which are intrinsic to monitoring in real-time plant development. It works using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which will evaluate various characteristics of a forage crop such as dry matter digestibility, starch, moisture, and protein levels.

Uniform crop yields reduce costs to the farmer by putting less pressure on the power and transmission elements of machines. This has the effect of lower fuel consumption per hectare and of reducing emissions due to smoother operation. Claas, for example, has added Tractor Implement Control (TIM) as part of its offering to certain loader wagons in their range. This takes the human judgment out of speed control and other functions of the pulling tractor, culminating in easier operation, maximum wagon capacity and better throughput.

Other technology developments

Currently, farmers all over the world spray herbicides across large areas to prevent the growth of unwanted plants. This approach led to the development of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to engineer crops to be resistant to specific broad-spectrum herbicides like glyphosate.

Genetically edited or genetically modified crops have been a bone of contention for some time now. Now agri-tech companies are beginning to offer an alternative to herbicide. EcoRobotix of Switzerland has developed a robot that can work 12 hours a day using solar power and employs cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify all plants in fields. With four wheels and computer control, the robot can work by itself, identify the plants that are the “weeds”, and accurately apply the right amount of herbicide to kill that single unwanted plant (spot spraying). Using this technology, the company claims that it can reduce the use of herbicides by 20-fold.

Blue River Technology, a Californian company, has developed a product based on similar technology and machine learning. This product is tractor-mounted and this smart spraying system claims to only use 10% of herbicide volume that would normally be used by standard spraying techniques and equipment.

With tight margins in agriculture, farmers are being forced to compete on cost

Escarda Technologies uses multispectral sensors and computer vision algorithms to detect and classify all plants in a field. After weeds are identified, a laser beam is used to eliminate or seriously damage targeted plants (the weeds). Sensing cameras are attached to an all-terrain robot, or even a tractor add-on, to find and target unwanted weeds.

Drone technology is playing its part also, whereby autonomous drones can monitor, spray and even plant crops with field analysis capabilities. They can produce 3D maps using scanners, thermal sensors, cameras and ultrasonic echo technology. 3D images for ground analysis can assist with seeding patterns, decisions on drainage and also nitrogen requirements.

The capacity to use lower amounts of chemicals in crop production obviously translates into lower-input costs for farmers. We must also remember that extensive use of large amounts of pesticides can cause toxicity in our soils and our watercourses when used over long periods of time. They can also be damaging to environmental organisms such as birds, fish, beneficial insects and non-target plants, while being detrimental to biodiversity and that fine balance within ecosystems. Drinking water can also be affected.

Technology in livestock farming

So far, this article has concentrated on how agricultural technology improves the production of crops in different ways. Now, I want to look at how technological developments have affected the increasing animal numbers and food derived from animals.

The coming decades will be challenging for farmers as the global population is expected to increase to nine billion people by 2050. According to UN predictions, this is up from 7.3 billion in 2015. This will inevitably increase the demand for all types of food, including animal products.

The increase in livestock production must be managed in a way that does not negatively affect animal welfare and which produces safe foods for human consumption. This upward production shift will have to happen at the same time as reducing environmental impact while the sustainability of farming and its economic viability is maintained or improved.

Again, technology has a lot to offer here. Genomics is breeding using known DNA (genotype) characteristics or traits. This helps predict how the offspring of an animal will perform in the future. Animals receive DNA from their parents and a DNA profile from a hair or tissue sample can be compared to the DNA profiles of older animals (reference population). Genomic, performance and ancestry data can then be combined for an animal giving a better prediction of its genetic makeup.

Reproductivity technologies are also developing. In the coming years, fertility will be improved because of genetics, better management of nutrition and better reproductive management tools.

Wearable sensors are now commonly used, especially in the dairy sector. Accelerometer collars such as the Moomonitor+, developed by Dairymaster, detects the cow’s neck movements. This herd management tool includes connectivity to a farmer’s smartphone app and other computer devices and signals when cows are in heat.

Other observations, such as grazing time and rumination time, are also indicated and “out of norm” observations can help to flag possible health issues. Tympanic or reticular temperature measuring devices can identify time of calving onset, time of oestrus and some health issues like fever.

Robotic tools

Robotic milking systems are well established in Ireland. Such systems allow farmers to dedicate more of their valuable time to other important and essential farm activities. Dairymaster, Lely and DeLaval are among the manufacturers who supply, install and maintain these machines.

Milking systems with in-line progesterone measurement capability can automatically detect interval from calving to commencement of luteal activity, identify oestrous cycle characteristics, and provide heat alerts.

To date, we can see how sensor technology along with more user-friendly software systems have revolutionised many of the activities in farming. In conjunction with this, the internet of things (IoT) is pivotal to existing and future development in agri-tech. IoT covers the communication between devices – many small, wireless, low-powered devices such as sensors need to communicate with base computers and controllers.

Agri-tech, in conjunction with the internet of things in farming, is pushing smart farming or connected agriculture forward. Parallel to this, we see advances taking place in the ability to capture or record, analyse and assist in decision-making (artificial intelligence), using large amounts of data (big data analytics) without any human input.

With tight margins in agriculture, farmers are being forced to compete on cost. There is increasing pressure on being compliant with new environmental directives. New and emerging agri-technologies will drive costs down; automation in the fields will allow 24-hour operation; smaller but more numerous machines – ag-bots – will be within the reach of farmers and they will cause less soil compaction and damage due to their lightweight construction.

In terms of mechanisation, swarms of robots will be more renewable and are better suited to battery power. This will allow for on- or off-grid charging at remote-charging stations on farm, all adding to the need for more sustainable agricultural operations in the coming decades.

Agri-tech needs to advance solutions to combat the effects of methane emissions from growing farm animal numbers, as well as provide viable alternative uses for farm wastes such as slurry. The continuing research in the bioeconomy is working on extracting more value from existing biological streams and wastes in a more renewable and sustainable manner.

Agriculture 4.0, the coming agricultural revolution, must be a green one and science and technology will have to be central to this. Agriculture 4.0 will have to look at the demand for food, not purely for innovation’s sake but to address the real food requirements of our global population and re-engineer the value chain.

One new technology to keep an eye on is the use of nanotechnology to enable the application of nanoparticles of fertiliser or pesticides, for example, to be delivered appropriately to plants over time with the aid of biosensors.

Financial transactions, along with recording and traceability of all data sets in agriculture, will move to decentralised formats such as Blockchain, the distributed ledger technology. This technology will reduce fraud and inefficiencies, improve food safety and other transactions and payments to farmers.

This technology will also help to reduce food waste, identify contamination in food and questionable labelling practices will be more transparent and easier and faster to detect.

Technology is certainly with us to stay and there is plenty more to come. Irish farming and agri-tech companies are very well positioned to lead this global revolution in agriculture.

* Chris O’Donoghue, is a lecturer in agricultural, mechanical and manufacturing engineering, at IT Tralee and he is also the chair of the Institute of Agricultural Engineers in Ireland and a member of the International Committee for EIMA Technical Innovations.

The Irish Farmers Journal is hosting a webinar titled: Sustainability and Agri-food – the next decade on Tuesday 3 November at 3pm. Featuring Tom Arnold, chair of the Irish 2030 Agri-Food Strategy Committee along with Tara McCarthy of Bord Bia, Dr Mark Lyons of Alltech and Juan Aguiriano of Kerry Group.

Submit your questions to our panel by emailing webinar@farmersjournal.ie or send to 086-836 6465.

You can view the webinar FREE at www.ifj.ie/2020vision

2020 Vision is supported by Bord Bia, Alltech and Kerry.