Agriculture: Future Farmers

Across the centuries, the tools farmers use have morphed from horse-drawn plows to enclosed-cab tractors equipped with GPS systems and onboard computers. As farmers struggle to manage more animals and more acreage at lower cost, they are accelerating their adoption of new technology by drawing on the latest advances from artificial intelligence to aeronautics and robots. Heres a look at three specific examples, one that has taken hold, one thats brand new and one thats still in development.

UDDER HAPPINESS: High-Tech Milking
Two years ago, the Austin Family Farm, an organic dairy in Oakville, about 90 miles southwest of Seattle, installed two huge robotic milking units to replace 14 milking stations. Where workers once had to lead the cows into the stalls, clean their udders, attach the hoses that milk the cows, then clean out the stalls, the new units do all that work automatically.

Now, the cows go to the stalls when they feel like being milked according to their natural rhythms. As a cow approaches the stall, the system reads an RFID ear tag that carries valuable information about each cow and tracks how much milk shes producing. If a cow gets the green light to enter, the robotic milking unit automatically dispenses grain, scans and cleans the udder, attaches teat cups for milking and releases for the next cow. The milk is piped directly to a central storage tank. If necessary, an operator can take over control, using each units computer touchscreen to do manual milking.

With this system, you give a cow permission to enter depending on where she is in lactation, says dairy farmer Ron Austin, a partner with his parents in the farm, which is a member of the Organic Valley Family Farms cooperative. The cows seem to like the system, which typically handles 60 to 65 cows per unit in a 24-hour period, Austin says. While the two robotic systems that milk the 120 cows cost about $500,000, they provide a return in terms of labor saved and milk production gained. Its less stressful, Austin adds. They come on their own. Theyre more relaxed, not being pushed in.

Its also nice for the farmer. We just have more time for other projects, he says. You get in a little earlier at night.

Introducing the system wasnt easy. Initially, the dairy saw production decline as the farm retrofitted an old barn and the cows adjusted to the new process. Earlier this year, however, milk production began rising as the farm got accustomed to the system and found the right nutritional combination for the cows feed.

Other dairies had better transitions, Austin admits. They bought more cows and built new. [But] were starting to see more turns of cows going through.

Austin still keeps a watchful eye on the robotic system, frequently monitoring it from each units computer screen or from an office computer. He can log in to check online, even when hes out of town, and a smartphone app will notify operators of any problems such as a temporary shutdown of one of the units.

As the milk is collected at each unit, it is checked for traces of blood or any other contaminants. If theres a problem, the system automatically diverts the milk away from the main storage tank. The system can also be programmed to divert milk in special situations, such as when a cow gives birth.

Austins robotics unit is built by DeLaval, a Swedish company. Other dairies use units by Lely, a Dutch manufacturer. Washington state has about 480 dairy farms and ranks 10th in total milk production in the United States. Austin says small family farms like his are trying to survive by focusing on more profitable niches like organic milk and keeping up with technology.

I think everyone is learning how to farm in this different way, he explains. The advantages have outweighed the disadvantages.

GAINING ALTITUDE: Drone Crop Scouting
Farmers who have thousands of acres under cultivation face the seemingly impossible task of knowing what is happening to their crops at any given moment: What areas need water, fertilizer, pesticide? Which plants are healthy? Which ones are not?

Brad Ward of Spokane has found a way to help farmers answer those questions, thereby lowering cost and raising yield. He is a partner in an Idaho-based enterprise that recently received a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate fixed-wing, 24-ounce unmanned aerial vehicles for crop scouting and zone management service. Wards clients use eBee drones made by senseFly, a Swiss company. The units are equipped with special cameras to collect images for examining plant health in minuscule detail. Ward uses the images to create a mosaic map that helps farmers target where to apply herbicides and fertilizers and how much to use.

Well take a 200-acre field and take some 500 photos that well process altogether to create a three-dimensional map, says Ward, a partner in Advanced Aviation Solutions and its parent company, Empire Unmanned. We have the GPS coordinates of each pixel.

Analysis of color spectrums and their ratios is valuable in gauging plant health, Ward notes. The drones multispectral camera captures green, red and two bands of infrared. Vegetation absorbs light energy in the process of photosynthesis. Healthy plants absorb blue- and red-light energy and reflect the green. Well-adjusted vegetation also reflects more infrared energy, while unhealthy plants lose some ability to reflect infrared light and start to reflect more visible light in the spectrum other than green think yellow or brown.

From the drones captured images, a detailed follow-up analysis can pinpoint specific plants that are under stress, lacking nutrients or being attacked by insects. The analysis, saved on a thumb drive, is fed into a tractors onboard computer, which then uses GPS to guide and control feed rates and spray accordingly.

Farmers can break up fields into smaller zones, [then] apply more fertilizer to the weaker soil, says Ward. And they can use pesticides or water where the images reveal an insect problem or a lack of moisture. Water can also be applied based on moisture rates. A farmer needs data, and thats where aerial imaging helps, Ward adds.

The FAA is expected to confirm broader regulations for commercial drone use by 2017, but it granted the exemption for agricultural use because of the combined expertise among members of the partner companies that formed Empire Unmanned. A retired U.S. Air Force pilot, Ward spent nine years working with the Predator and Global Hawk drone programs, and had worked on unmanned aerial vehicle policy for the U.S. Air Force.

Ward says Empire Unmanned will charge $3 an acre for its service. It has crews set up to operate drones from Spokane and Pullman, and plans to follow up with operations in the Tri-Cities and Moses Lake. Some potential clients who run wheat farms were eager to have drones check on winter wheat in March because of a narrow time window to replant sections if necessary, Ward says. Also, a few vineyard customers and fruit growers sought aerial checks on irrigation and pockets of disease.

Drone technology is going to save the farmer time, says Ward.

THE FINAL FRONTIER: Robotic Apple Picking
One of the last labor-intensive bastions of agriculture is fruit growing. With immigration controls tightening, minimum wages rising and a skilled-worker shortage worsening, growers are stepping up efforts to boost productivity. Packing houses have already introduced labor-saving automation like vision systems that assist with sorting apples. Some apple farmers use mobile platforms to help workers reach apples more easily. Now, researchers are pushing the final frontier by developing robotic arms and the artificial intelligence necessary to allow machines to pluck apples and cherries without damaging them.

Washington State University Assistant Professor Manoj Karkee is on a team developing a robotic arm system designed to work with one human handler. Karkee works at WSUs Center for Precision & Automated Agricultural Systems in Prosser. The facility is also testing a targeted shake-and-catch machine for harvesting still at the conceptual stage. Karkee hopes to test the robotic arm prototype for apple picking this fall.

Were working on human-robot collaboration, Karkee says. Its a product with a robotic arm, a robotic hand and a set of cameras. Everything will work together to find where the apples are on the tree, reach them, detach them and put them in a bin. The human will help if the robot is having difficulties, perhaps if an apple [that needs picking] is [situated] behind other apples.

The current prototype will have only one arm and hand, but commercial systems could have a dozen arms and hands attached to a mobile platform. The challenge, Karkee explains, is to pick the fruit quickly without bruising it. Earlier efforts couldnt overcome this barrier, but new technology, such as simpler and faster robotic hands and arms with a limited number of motors and joints, makes the task less daunting. High-resolution cameras help find the apples and then guide the robotic arm to reach and pick them.

Modern horticulture also makes picking more amenable to mechanization. Growers such as Auvil Fruit Co. in Orondo use what Karkee calls modern fruiting wall architecture in which apple trees are grown in single rows with tall, narrow canopies. Canopy depth is small in these kinds of trees and, therefore, no fruit, or only a very small percentage, is hidden inside the canopy, explains Karkee.

Another advantage is we are collaborating a human with a machine in our methods, so if an apple is still hidden, a human can help. Also, were understanding better how humans pick apples. Were taking video recordings of the motions and that will be used to design a robotic hand.