Reading Time: 6 minutes Bigger doesn’t always mean better — but that’s been the story of farm machinery for decades. However, could the era of huge, hulking tractors and the big implements they pull be coming to an end? Norbert Beaujot thinks so, even though the founder of SeedMaster spent most of his career building some of those increasingly […] Read more
Meet DOT: the self-driving power implement
A Saskatchewan-based company has developed an autonomous tractor — minus the tractor
Are you ready to step out of the cab forever?
Special Report: Will farming make a u-turn? Those long, long hours seeding can be drudgery but watching fields being sown on a tablet is brand new territory
Reading Time: 3 minutes Autonomous farm equipment would not only radically change how crops are produced, but the lives of farmers themselves. Norbert Beaujot thinks they will embrace being freed from the tractor cab. “At one end of the scale you get the young, 35- to 40-year-old farmer who really wants to get going with anything new and high […] Read more
No internet, no problem, says DOT developer
Special Report: Will farming make a u-turn?
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you don’t have good internet, would the DOT platform work on your farm? No problem, said Owen Kinch, field research manager with SeedMaster, the developer of the driverless machine. A high-power, high-range Wi-Fi network comes as part of the DOT package, with SeedMaster essentially acting as the internet service provider, he said. “The user […] Read more
Pulling needs lots of horsepower, and that means more weight
Special Report: Will farming make a u-turn?
Reading Time: 2 minutes The developer of the DOT Autonomous Power Platform says it will substantially reduce soil compaction and cut fuel usage by up to 20 per cent. It’s just physics, said Norbert Beaujot. “There is a big waste in pulling something versus having it mounted onto the body of the prime mover,” he says. “(Pulling) burns more […] Read more
The automated future has arrived, says robotic farming expert
British researcher showcases the ‘Hands-Free Hectare’ project at Farming Smarter conference
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farming using only robots may sound like something out of the year 2050 — but the producers of a barley crop in the United Kingdom argue it’s here now. Researchers at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, England, along with a U.K. precision ag company successfully grew a crop using only automated machines as their farmhands. […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
