The latest in ag tech is seemingly from ‘a world beyond’.

Agriculture has seen tremendous shifts in technology in the past 30 years, some of which have been beyond the expectations of most in the industry. The advent of GPS technology was thought to be an evolutionary leap compared to enhancements to tractors or sprayers. Then came variable-rate technology, auto-steer, precision planting technology, aerial and satellite imagery, among others, to tempt producers.

At the Grain Farmers of Ontario’s annual March Classic, last month in London, a panel discussion addressed technologies and concepts that make some equipment and systems seem archaic by today’s standards. The panelists included Chuck Baresich, President of Haggerty AgRobotics, Dr. Doug Baumann, Chief Technology Officer with Vive Crop Protection and Paul Raymer, Co-Founder and President of SoilOptix. The session was moderated by Joe Dales from RHA Ventures.

The challenges with many of the technologies of the past three decades have revolved around user-comfort, cost-efficiency and applicability. Secondary to those has been answering the question: How much technology can be adopted without a producer becoming overwhelmed? That became an added stress when, for a period of seven or eight years, it seemed that each week brought a new technology platform or monitor for the tractor or sprayer cab.

The ‘next level’
The reality within the agri-food industry is that technology waits for no one. But that reality could make an entrance with the necessity facing many producers today, to measure every last aspect of their practices and the results in the barn or the fields. That’s where the cost-efficiency of robotics, nanotechnology and soil analysis may find their upside applicability.

Paul Raymer spoke of his company’s move to a technology that uses gamma radiation for soil sampling, or more specifically proximal gamma-ray spectroscopy. The system detects low-level concentrations of uranium, thorium and potassium in the soil, enabling agronomists to calculate the amount of fertilizer or other inputs needed in a particular zone. The goal, as with most forms of precision ag, is to generate more data to help producers make better-informed decisions. The big difference is time: where conventional means require eight to 10 hours to sample and analyze a field, that same assessment is now done in seconds using the gamma spectroscopy.

The technology is actually improving the ability to measure variances in soil texture, which has a huge impact on how nutrient levels can impact crop performance. The intensity of the gamma radiation scan increases the quality of the soil maps that are generated.

“This is all to the credit of the skilled team we have,” said Raymer, noting all of their development is done in Ontario. “We’ve partnered with Niagara College, to help us develop, from-the-ground-up, a data automation system to be able to take our input field data and output it into something useful to farmers.”

Raymer adds the use of cameras and sensors is evolving in all aspects yet he concedes that commercialization remains a challenge: it can take years before revolutionary technology is adapted by a wider customer base. But curiosity has fueled the greatest amount of growth in technology, aided by networking with retailers, agronomists and advisors.

He also assured the audience that they’re still conducting conventional soil analyses, often in order to calibrate the gamma-radiation scan, with about one sample for every eight acres.

“We are in position of being a 100 per cent Canadian company that sells 99 per cent of our wares in the U.S.”
Dr. Doug Baumann, Vive Crop Protection

For Chuck Baresich, adoption of robotics in field operations has been slow, mainly because of the size of available units that can perform various functions compared to the size of fields for cash crops. Yet the move to autonomous machinery convinced him there was potential for robotics in the field and he launched Haggerty Robotics in 2021.

“We’ll be operating over 30 robots in Ontario in a range of crops, mostly doing seeding of some kind and weed control but also some other new tech, a lot of it involving cameras, sensors and data analysis,” said Baresich. “We have a busy summer ahead of us.”

Like scientific advances to help with soil analysis and robotics, nanotechnology has been cited for its immense potential, yet its progress has been slowed by a blend of uncertainty with applications and regulatory issues in Canada. Still, Dr. Doug Baumann traced his interest in nanotechnology back to the 1990s when a former employer noted the similarities between nanotechnology and human health and nanotechnology and agriculture.

It’s been a slow climb but after 15 years, Baumann called Vive Crop Protection “a North American pioneer”. To date, it is the only Health Canada/Pest Management Registration Agency (PMRA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EP) registrant to combine any crop protection chemical with nanotechnology. That, he added, is an important step because as familiar products age, they lose efficacy.

“(We) take trusted agri-chemicals that are perhaps 15 or 20 years old, use nanotechnology to make them the best version of themselves,” said Baumann. “We had a five-year commercial head start in the U.S. because of the different regulatory regimes in the two countries. With that head start, we are in the awkward and interesting position of being a 100 per cent Canadian company that sells 99 per cent of our wares in the U.S.”

Future considerations
Asked for a summary of the next five years in their respective sectors, Baumann explained that instead of joining a larger partner with resources and standing, Vive chose to go it alone and stay relatively small. They’ve aligned themselves with one domestic distributor -UAP Canada -and have seen steady growth. The company has one domestic distributor -UAP Canada -with seven different fungicides, insecticides and nematicides available in the U.S. and one in Canada.

“It’s an attitude, where one per cent matters,” he added, noting that waiting for ‘the next big thing’ may take more time and involve greater risk. “With the one per cent approach, it has less risk but also increases the rate of adoption.”

Some of what’s driving innovation for soil testing and analysis has been the increased awareness of the importance of soil health, particularly in the past five to seven years. As more producers look to science to help them grow more while caring for their soils, the need for highly specific soil analysis also continues to grow. Despite any slower-than-desired growth in adoption of certain technologies, Raymer only sees the positives of innovation based on his travels around Canada, the U.S. and other countries of the world.

“There are a lot of good minds working in the right direction,” he said. “A lot of people are aspiring to get what we have and aspiring minds are creating what we need.”

“The reality is that software, sensors and AI are leading to predictive technology.” Chuck Baresich, Haggerty Robotics

As for the future of agrobotics, Baresich indicated that rapid change in technology can hamper the adoption of new systems. He pointed to non-GPS systems employing cameras and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) as one innovation in the robotics space. It makes auto-steer outdated, but it has a tighter window and the technology has to work, has to be efficient and it must enhance yield or the viability of a crop or make it a higher value product.

“There’s opportunity in the horticulture sector beyond chemistry for weed control, but the technology that’s coming with respect to lasers, to use in alternative ways is very interesting,” he said, mentioning LiDAR, specifically. “There’s a general understanding about data, but it’s (limited). The reality is that software, sensors and AI are leading to predictive technology. It’s close and it’s not to take away from farming, but to give you a better handle on decision-making.”