Potato Review

www.potatoreview.com POTATO REVIEW NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 39 MACHINERY “GPS guidance has also become more popular over recent years with most farmers having some form of guidance from a simple lightbar system to full auto-steer, ISOBUS compatibility and section control.” Dispensing with tractors Some growers are looking at dispensing with tractors altogether in some applications, in favour of robots. e FarmDroid, fully autonomous, solar-powered robot capable of precision drilling and weeding has joined the OPICO line up. It uses ultra-accurate GPS to record exactly where it places each seed. On each subsequent weeding pass, it has no need to identify what’s a weed and what’s not – it simply knows where the crop plants should be and works around them. “We believe robotics will form the backbone of the next major step in technological development for agriculture,” says OPICO Managing Director James Woolway. “While it’s early days, we’re coming to the UK market with a product that is tried and tested. e timing couldn’t be better with rising energy costs, labour issues and environmental factors at the forefront of UK farmers’ minds.” As input costs rise, collecting and analysing data from tractors and farm machinery to improve operational e ciency is also a growing trend, says Farol Director Kevin Newman. “We are collecting data like fuel consumption on eld operations and spray/ fertiliser application information. We can then use this data to pinpoint ine ciencies which we can help to improve. “A key talking point at the moment is idle times. At busy times on the farm, it’s easy to jump out of a tractor or machine to do a quick job which turns into a big job. By leaving the tractor/machine running operators are using fuel, eating into servicing hours and negatively a ecting its residual value. “When diesel was 67p/litre last August [2021], leaving the tractor on might not have been at the front of everyone’s mind, but at £1.10/litre, there is a signi cant cost. We have been working with farms and their operators to try to help them improve idle times where possible. “Another area o ering a cost saving opportunity is precision agriculture applications. We can use data from the John Deere Operations Centre to analyse applications and make sure fertiliser and chemicals are being applied accurately. If these are applied incorrectly, they can damage yield, costing the farm greatly.” ➜ “We believe robotics will form the backbone of the next major step in technological development for agriculture.” The FarmDroid, fully autonomous, solar- powered robot capable of precision drilling and weeding has joined the OPICO line up. Growers are looking for low disturbance direct drills.