Precision Farming Dealer editors encounter a variety of articles, social media posts, podcasts and videos that offer a unique look at various aspects of our great agricultural industry. Here is our favorite content from the past week:

Best of the Web This Week is brought to you by Salford Group.

Salford Group


As global leaders with the widest range of spinner spreaders and air boom applicators in the industry, Salford Group has got you covered. Backed by over 400 application-specific dealers, eight North American parts distribution centers and revered in-field application support, we’re the partners you need to make your business as productive as possible.

Jenner Precision Showcases ‘Wow Factor’ to Sell Autonomy

Customers got a close-up look at Raven’s OMNiDRIVE during Jenner Precision’s Autonomy Demo Day July 19 in Fairbury, Ill. In the video below, Jenner's Nate Kelson narrates as a tractor pulling a grain cart to autonomously drive alongside a combine while harvesting. At the 2022 Precision Farming Dealer Summit, Jenner manager Bryan Fehr said demos are vital to selling autonomy — ”The wow factor is when they can actually see it run. The selling process is seeing and believing it.”

SwarmFarm Founder: ‘Big and Fast is Obsolete,’ Fleet of Robots is the Future

SwarmFarm, a company that leases robots in a farming-as-a-service model, sees fleets of small robots as a preferred alternative to heavy machinery that requires skilled labor to operate. In an interview with the Western Producer, SwarmFarm founder Andrew Bate asks why anyone would choose to put an operator in a 600-hp tractor when four 150-hp robots can do the job faster and without a paycheck. ““The high-speed disc planters are cool, but in a world of autonomous implements, do we really need to go seeding at 15 kilometers per hour if the seeder works 24-7?”

In the past two years, SwarmFarm robots have mowed or sprayed more than 200,000 acres autonomously. The company is developing seeding and fertilizer machines.

Canadian Ag VC Firm Names Agtech Startups to Watch

If you’re interested in a peek behind the curtain of venture capital investments, you’ll want to listen to this entire episode of the Growing the Future podcast, but we’re particularly interested in venture capital firm Emmertech’s investments and companies to watch. Starting around 51:00 in the episode, Sean O’Conner and Kyle Scott of Emmertech explain why they’re watching Lucent BioSciences, a company that creates carbon-neutral and non-polluting fertilizers, TechBrew Robotics, which created a mushroom-picking robot, among other agtech startups.

The Alfred's of Candaian Ag Tech Podcast episode

Opinion: Big Data in Ag Likely to Have ‘Detrimental’ Environmental, Social Impacts

Price discrimination for seed and chemicals, data breaches, design biases favoring large operations and too much corporate control of agriculture and data are all downsides of big data in ag, according to this article by Kelly Bronson, Canada research chair in science and society at the University of Ottawa. Whether you agree or disagree, the points are worth considering when thinking about the big-picture future of ag.

In just a few decades, canola has become one of the world’s most important oilseed crops and the most profitable commodity for Canadian farmers.

Robot of the Week: Ekobot Autonomous Vegetable Weeder

The autonomous Ekobot weeder pulls weeds among rows of vegetables with high precision. The robot uses artificial intelligence to detect and dig up weeds as it moves through the field, decreasing farmers’ costs, herbicide use and environmental impact. Ekobot released a video of the robot in field trials in April and said the system would be ready for launch in 2022. The company’s website says it will be demonstrating the robots in Sweden and the Netherlands.

 

Is there something you want to share in "This Week"? Send us an email.

More from this series

 

Best of the Web This Week is brought to you by Salford Group.

At Salford Group, we have range - in our product lineup and when it comes time to apply. As global leaders with the widest range of spinner spreaders and air boom applicators in the industry, we’ve got you covered. Salford’s BBI and Valmar applicators are proven over millions of acres and range from simple, durable fleet spreaders to precision, variable rate machines engineered for high acreage, custom application. Backed by over 400 application-specific dealers, eight North American parts distribution centers and revered in-field application support, we’re the partners you need to make your business as productive as possible.

Salford Group


Click here to view past "Best of the Web This Week" updates.