Can Robotics Lead to Farming Better Rather Than Bigger?

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Get big or get out has been the mantra for many in American agriculture for a long time. But some think that trend is changing. Australian farmer Andrew Bate says as his farm grew, he noticed the downsides to farming more and more acres.

Bate… “Like many farmers out there, you got successful by farming more acres. I mean, you know, farms have got bigger and as we expanded, you know, we bought bigger equipment, bought the biggest tractors we could get. We bought the biggest sprayers we could get, bought the biggest planters we could get. And the pivotal moment for me was while the ego got bigger and, you know, we farm more acres and we're more efficient and we're saving labor and doing all that stuff and machines that got too heavy, they got too cumbersome because they're so big. You know, when we were spraying, we're cutting huge wheel tracks across our paddock, causing huge amounts of soil compaction and damage, we're wasting more.”

Bate eventually started SwarmFarm Robotics, partially in an attempt to lower the impact of his farming practices.

Bate… “You know, starting SwarmFarm was a step in the other direction. It's like, well, how do we farm better? So for me, robotics was this chance to launch into smaller machines that were lighter weight, that were lower impact, that was simpler. And it was a chance to start saying, well, what if we change the farming system? Can robotics change the way we put seed in the ground? Can robotics change the way we plan our crop rotations? Can we look at different ways of harvesting with technology and robotics? And that's what really got me excited.”

Bate manages Bendee Farming and is the CEO of SwarmFarm Robotics.