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When you think about hi-tech jobs, you maybe don’t think farmer. After all when you drive past a field you see plants, maybe a tractor or two and people harvesting. Seems pretty straight forward and basic. However, you might not be seeing the whole picture.
Aaron McQueen of AA Crop Company is introducing hi-tech tools to his fields. The Fisherville farmer grows corn, soy bean and wheat in a rotation. By rotating his fields he is able to maintain soil health and reduce effects like erosion.
One of the high tech developments in agriculture has been the introduction of drones. McQueen has started using drones in a number of ways in his fields, spreading fertilizer for example. There are times when field conditions prevent a ground unit from going into them. This is not a concern for drones as they skim over the surface of the plants.
To be clear, these are not tiny recreational drones. The drones are close to six feet across and can carry 50kg of fertilizer. McQueen admits that the current scale of drones is a little smaller than he’d like commercially. He is hopeful though, knowing that the technology is in its infancy stage and believes they will be very useful in the coming years.
McQueen has also begun using drones combined with AI technology to count plants in his fields. With each flight the AI gets better and better at recognizing the plants and improving the accuracy of the counts. This can be a time consuming task for a farmer, but with an AI drone a 100 acre field can be flown over in 20 minutes. This is a great way to alert the farmer to any potential growth problems or insect infestations.
Written by Jeremy Hall