Ag Expo pitches tech solutions for farms

By Vicky Boyd

The World Ag Expo, celebrated as the largest outdoor farm trade show on the planet, lured throngs of attendees last week eager to see the latest in agricultural technology.

Amid field demonstrations and more than 1,200 exhibits at the Feb. 13-15 event at the International Agri-Center in Tulare, expo presenters pitched agricultural innovation as a means to address farm labor challenges.

Visitors included Eddie Soares, a walnut grower near Exeter who also custom harvests and prunes walnut and pecan orchards. Arriving with his family in tow, he checked out high-tech nut sweepers, including one that employs computer vision guidance.

“The innovation and research and development brings me out,” he said.

Exhibitors included Paul Welbig, precision segment lead for New Holland North America, a major equipment manufacturer that emphasizes technology to improve farm efficiency.

New Holland was one of numerous equipment manufacturers that showed off autonomous or efficiency-enhancing machinery as potential answers to farmers’ struggles with rising labor costs and decreasing worker availability.

“The over-arching goal for New Holland and our technology partner is to address all of those constraints: labor or the cost of it and efficiency,” Welbig said. “You see a lot more automation because of labor availability or lack of skilled labor.”

Welbig and Raven field systems specialist Mike Terry pointed to a Raven rate control retrofit kit that allows farmers to more precisely control air-blast sprayer applications. Raven is owned by equipment services company CNH, which also owns New Holland.

Typically, tractor drivers towing power takeoff-driven air-blast sprayers have to be skilled at maintaining a constant speed to ensure uniform applications. But small-rate controllers on each nozzle increase or decrease spray output based on ground speed, resulting in a more uniform application even with an operator who may not drive smoothly.

The individual controllers also maintain droplet size and allow the driver to completely shut off nozzles before making a turn, which saves material and reduces off-target movement. In addition, the computerized system creates maps that can be used to guide future applications and document applications for regulators.

Orchard Machinery Corp., also known as OMC, has exhibited tree pruning and harvesting equipment for decades, dating back to when the expo was known as the Tulare Farm Show and held on the Tulare County fairgrounds.

Last year, the company launched the Shockwave X autonomous tree shaker, which uses computer vision-guidance technology developed by Bonsai Robotics. Unlike GPS, which relies on satellite signals that can be interrupted by dense tree canopies, vision guidance uses on-board cameras and computers to determine precise locations within an orchard.

In addition to being self-steering, the Shockwave X uses a patented pivoting shaker head that shakes each tree without stopping. The World Ag Expo named the shaker one of its Top 10 new products this year.

“It’s not just removing the operator — it’s doubling the speed of harvest,” said Tobbie Wells, OMC president and CEO.

This year, OMC introduced its first off-the-ground harvester for pistachios. It comes with the same patented shaking head as the Shockwave X. By the start of harvest, she said OMC hopes to have it outfitted with the vision-guidance system. OMC also plans to run the new pistachio harvester in its custom-farming division, she said.

“The name of the game right now is to show what we can do on the cost-savings side: Where can we save?” said Wells, an accountant by training.

Flory Industries, which manufactures nut harvesting equipment, also began showing its nut harvesting equipment at the legacy Tulare Farm Show. As the expo evolved and grew, so too did the company’s offerings.

New this year for Flory is the Visionsteer add-on technology, which can be installed on the Super V62 nut sweeper originally launched in 2009, Flory representative Stuart Layman said.

Based on computer vision-guidance technology developed by Bonsai Robotics, Visionsteer is similar to lane-assist in a car. It keeps the sweeper in the middle of the tree rows, increasing operator safety and efficiency while reducing fatigue.

“It keeps you going straight down the row, and you’re now able to pay attention to where your corners are and other things,” Layman said.

At the same time, the system’s telematics allows the grower to remotely monitor sweeper operations and track engine hours and maintenance.

While World Ag Expo exhibitor FarmWise Labs has been at the event for only three years, its in-row weeders and precision cultivators have gained a following for reducing hand weeding.

“It makes sense with the state of labor in California,” said Paul Elliott, FarmWise senior account manager. “(Labor) costs are not going down, and availability is getting lower and lower.”

The company originally introduced the self-propelled Titan weeder. But based on industry input, it launched the tractor-pulled PTO-driven Vulcan two years ago. On-board computers use artificial intelligence and machine learning to differentiate between more than 60 weeds and 40-plus crops. They then guide small blades to mechanically remove individual weeds with sub-inch accuracy.

The largest Vulcan module configuration can weed three 80-inch beds at a time. A single operator can typically cover about 20 acres during an eight-hour shift, Elliott said.

Attendees at the World Ag Expo included Tim Valente of Lodi, who works at A.I.M. Inc. building mechanical wine grape harvesters. Valente has been attending the gathering for the past four years to check out manufacturing trends.

“I’m a welder, so I like to see all of the new technology for fabrication and all of the new welding stuff people have,” he said.

This year, Valente brought his 3-year-old daughter Avery for the first time. “I wanted to bring her last year, but she was a little too young to walk around,” Valente said.

As they made their way slowly past equipment displays en route to the welding and fabrication booths, Avery ran from one tractor to the next, climbing into the driver’s seats.

(Vicky Boyd is a reporter in Modesto. She may be contacted at vlboyd@att.net.)