Potato Farming in the Future

Expect to see more innovations driven by electrification and artificial intelligence.

Farming is rapidly changing, in part due to environmental factors and shifts in the ag workforce, but perhaps even more thanks to emerging technologies that can be leveraged to make farming easier, more targeted and more efficient.

So, what’s ahead for Canada’s potato farmers of the future? Spud Smart reached out to several experts to get their take on big picture innovations coming up in potato production technology and equipment.

Electric Power

Corey Steidley is sales director at Spudnik, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of potato farming equipment. He said a big development at his Idaho-based business is the move from hydraulics to electrification in potato planting and harvesting machines.

“Traditionally, all of the potato equipment in the world has been adjusted hydraulically. Electric function is far more efficient, just from a horsepower and torque standpoint,” said Steidley.

He noted Spudnik is collaborating with other ag equipment companies to offer more electric options for potato farmers.

An example of that is the company’s latest AirSep potato harvester. The machine’s wheel drive is powered by a PTO attachment on new John Deere 8R series tractors that have electric variable transmissions. Spudnik says this allows the harvester to do a better job separating potatoes from dirt clods and rocks.

“It’s to a customer’s advantage if companies like Sputnik and John Deere are collaborating together to make our systems integrate,” Steidley said.

According to Steidley, the plan is to introduce electrification technology to all of Spudnik’s potato harvesters and planters.

“Right now, it’s only offered in our air harvesters on a limited basis. We’re still a couple years away from mainstream production in offering of this technology, but it’s coming,” he said. “In the future, there will be electric options across our product line.”

Steidley added an important goal is to reduce the costs associated with electrification implementation. “We’re working with different vendors and different technologies to hopefully bring that cost down to where it’s close to or equal to the cost of hydraulic adjustment.”

Allan Equipment Manufacturing, which designs and builds potato planters, harvesters, crop carts and windrowers in York, P.E.I., recently introduced the electric Revolution planter. Its power and control systems are fully electric, powered by an onboard diesel generator set (genset).

According to company president Trent Cousins, the electric system enables potato seed singulation and placement to be controlled much more efficiently than with mechanical and hydraulic systems. As a result, the machine can cover more acres in a day by planting potatoes more quickly and accurately.

Cousins said the planter can travel at speeds of six-plus m.p.h. while maintaining 90-plus per cent accuracy in potato seed spacing and population. He adds it also has the largest seed hopper in the industry, with a capacity of 60,000 pounds of seed.

“We are excited for electric power from tractors, like the John Deere EVT, to become more widely available and proven,” said Cousins. He added once that happens, it will eliminate the need for the genset on the Revolution planter and make its electric power option even more efficient.

Since introducing its first electric-powered harvester back in 2004, Allan Equipment has been integrating electric options across its entire line of field equipment.

“When we first began producing electrically powered field equipment it was not widely accepted, but it is becoming more and more popular and accepted by the industry,” Cousins said.

Rise of AI

Jacqueline Keena is managing director of EMILI, a Manitoba non-profit working to expand the business of digital agriculture in Canada. EMILI’s Innovation Farms just outside Winnipeg, is a proving ground for leading edge equipment and technology to enable farmer-centric innovation.

Keena said there are all kinds of examples of how artificial intelligence is finding its way into agriculture applications, everything from robotic weeding and disease and pest scouting to the marketing of farm products.

“AI and machine learning tools optimize decision making (and) increase skills and knowledge,” she said. “These innovations provide farmers with vital insights to inform sustainable and profitable crop production decisions from field to field.

“It is now possible for farmers to use sensors powered by artificial intelligence to analyze moisture and nutrient levels in their soil. Autonomous equipment enabled with computer vision software can also be programmed to deliver targeted amounts of fertilizer and other crop protection products addressing pests and weeds, while assessing overall crop health,” Keena added.

“Producers are adopting satellite imagery, drones, visual recognition-assisted robotics, autonomous harvesting vehicles and a range of sensors — all continuously feeding data on soil health, pest management, weather conditions and more into cloud-based platforms powered by artificial intelligence that converts data into predictive analytics accessed by farmers and agronomists on their mobile smartphones.”

Allan Equipment’s new Revolution planter illustrates the growing role of data and sensors in potato production equipment.

According to Cousins, the planter features advanced telematics and remote connectivity, which enables the machine’s operating system to be monitored and updated in real time to improve its performance. It also relies on seed sensing technology, developed by a sister company of Allan Equipment called Bluefield Seeding Solutions, to ensure the accuracy of seed singulation and placement.

“The massive amount of data the planter collects through its sensors and control system allows the planter to learn from its mistakes and successes,” said Cousins.

“When designing the planter, we took inspiration from planters and seeders from other crops, such as high-speed corn planters and large air drills that are used to plant wheat and pulses. Historically those industries have tighter margins and have had to adopt a high rate of technological advancement to achieve greater efficiencies.”

Marc Kermisch, chief digital officer at farm equipment manufacturer CNH Industrial, is among the many proponents of AI-led innovation in ag equipment and technologies.

As a presenter at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit held in San Francisco, Cal., in March, Kermisch said he believes they’ve really only scratched the surface on how AI, machine learning and computer vision can add value for producers.

“You couldn’t ask for a better convergence of technology that actually allows us to change the lives of our farmers,” he said. “The future is bright in agriculture as we try to feed eight billion people.”

Kermisch said farming practices have been static for generations, but that’s rapidly changing due to smart, highly automated machines that are transforming farms and making agriculture more efficient and productive.

He noted new tech from Augmenta, a company recently acquired by CNH Industrial, is an example of that.

Augmenta uses computer vision and machine learning to create real time insights into crop health as a piece of farm equipment moves across a field at up to 20 to 25 miles per hour. Producers can then leverage these insights to adapt management on the fly to changing crop conditions.

Other smart machine opportunities in the works at CNH Industrial include:

• Autonomous tillage, already in CNH test fields, is expected to be customer ready by 2025.
• Green-on-brown automated spraying, which efficiently and precisely eliminates weeds before they compete with emerging crop, is set to launch in early 2025. CNH says this benefits the environment and can also reduce input costs by as much as 30 per cent.
• Green-on-green automated spraying, capable of precisely targeting of weeds within an emerged crop, is CNH’s future goal. According to CNH, it’s something that could result in 90 per cent input savings on weed control.

Ag companies like John Deere, BASF and Bilberry are also utilizing AI, machine learning and computer vision to develop green-on-green spot sprayers.

Here in Canada, a Saskatchewan startup called Precision AI has produced one that flies. Its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sprayer is undergoing extensive testing in Canada and U.S. and could be ready for commercial release as soon as next year, according to Warren Bills, vice-president of business development – agriculture at the Regina-based company.

Self-adjusting Machines

Precision AI’s flying sprayer illustrates how autonomous farm equipment is now taking another leap forward — self-adjusting machines that can regulate crop inputs as they go in response to changing crop or environmental conditions, all without any human assistance.

“With the level of vision accuracy, we can accomplish with our system, which is as good as a human eye, we’re able to calculate and compute probably at a quicker speed than a human can. Plus, we’ve got the advantage of comparing information to millions of data sets across multiple years,” said Bills.

Steidley noted Spudnik and its German parent company Grimme are making significant investments in AI-based optical sorting technology to help take the human element out of potato harvesting and handling.

“We have a big footprint (and) a lot of engineering horsepower going into self-adjusting machines that can adjust on the fly without human interaction,” said Steidley.

“Like the sorting technologies that are in the warehouses and the French fry facilities, that same optical AI-based optical sorting technology can be put into harvesters, windrowers and the field sorting equipment that we have now.

“With that technology, you’ll be able to adjust your speed chains, adjust your sorting tables, and adjust your fan speeds based on what the input and the output of the product is at any one location on a machine,” Steidley added.

“One of the key things we are focused on is being able to do this at scale and volume. Right now, the technology is not available yet to do that at scale and volume that our customers need at harvest time.”

Steidley said like so much associated with AI-led innovation, the advancement in optical sorting technology needed for self-adjusting equipment is progressing very rapidly. But he’s hesitant to predict when such machines be widely available to potato farmers.

“Is that one year, two years, five years down the road? We can’t say yet, but we are working towards that,” said Steidley.

“The technology is developing faster than companies can implement it, so that’s one of the things that we’re wanting to be cautious of. There is no reason to develop something right now that will be obsolete tomorrow,” he added. “We are trying to look far enough in the future to where we can.”

Autonomous Agronomy

Bills sees autonomous agronomy as a natural extension of the AI transformation taking place in ag technology and equipment.

“I see the work happening already, where (farmers) are making better decisions in a shorter period of time based on actionable data, not just on gut feel and experience,” he said. “We need more intelligence, so this is a good way to augment human intelligence with computer intelligence.

“I think we’ll see more autonomous agronomy recommendations being made virtually and digital twins of fields becoming the standard, so that we can scale up more advice without having to put more boots on the ground.”

Having enough boots on the ground is growing problem on many farms these days due to labour shortages, but Steidley maintains the AI revolution can help solve that increasing farming’s appeal to young people.

“Fewer and fewer people are wanting to engage in large-scale production agriculture, and for those that do, we want to help them catch a vision for the exciting nature of agriculture,” he said.

“The younger generation … has grown up in a different world. They’re able to run technology better than they’re able to run mechanical technology,” Steidley added.

“It’s not just turning wrenches and playing in the dirt anymore. It’s laptops, it’s smart phones, it’s drones. There is a lot of amazing and exciting technology in agriculture right now (and) the people who are going to be the most impactful to agriculture in the future are really going to be on the technology side.”