June 2021 - 4

=
EDITOR'S LETTER
Methodical path to automation
During the recent International Forum of
Agricultural Robotics Open Day 2021, a roundtable
presented a panel of experts to explore the challenges
of funding, developing and introducing robotics and
other autonomous machines to U.S. growers.
Moderated by Julie Peyrache, investment manager at
CAPAGRO; Praveen Penmesta, CEO of Monarch Tractor;
Gabriel Youtsey, CIO at the University of California;
Walt Duflock, vice president of innovation at Western
Growers and Alain Pincot, owner of Betteeravia Farms,
shared some spot-on perspectives.
" If you look at the last 60 years, the farm count in
the U.S. has dropped by almost 40%, and farm size has
gone up by over 40%, so we have fewer operators, but
bigger operators than a few decades ago, and it has had
a big impact on labor, " Duflock said.
" Specifically, there's two types of farmworkers - hired and family farm workers
- and both have had massive decreases in the last 50 years. The overall labor drop
is 68% across both categories. What's been happening is that larger operators are
buying the family farms, and they're not replacing farm workers from the family
with hired farm workers. They're replacing them with a lot of automation. "
However, " in spite of hundreds of millions of dollars of startup investments and
hundreds of startup launches over 10-plus years, building this stuff is hard, and
building this stuff takes a long time, " Duflock said. " One of the biggest challenges
with harvest is that every crop requires its own robot. What works for apples doesn't
work for strawberries, and what works for strawberries doesn't work for lemons. "
Of growing importance is the need for solutions that are developed by pairing
those who understand technology with those who are agronomic specialists.
Youtsey pointed to Blue River Technology, a company that worked with the
University of California (UC), Davis, to develop a weeding solution that was ultimately
purchased by John Deere. It involved a process in which " uncommon collaborators "
contributed to the common goal. UC is partnering with Western Growers to identify
obstacles to technological solutions that arise during the process.
" We're really trying to get more pre-competitive alignment between the
universities, startups, government entities and the larger established companies to
collaborate on things that really can't be done in a vacuum by one small start-up, "
Youtsey said. " These things need to be done more systematically across industries.
Bringing those uncommon collaborators together is going to be key moving forward,
and that's how we're trying to help solve the problem. "
Gary Pullano
Editor
Pincot said his company has experienced a return on investment and enabled the
coverage of labor force gaps with the autonomous weeding machines he purchased
for his operation in Santa Maria, California.
" We are replacing crews of 10, 12, 18 people with machines roaming through the
field, " Pincot said. " What we see right now in terms of automation, however, is that
the equipment that is autonomous is not necessarily replacing multiple people. It's
a little bit of a concern to our growers that some of those machines just replace a
tractor driver.
" The target for us is being able to replace entire crews of tired people. That's our
number one priority. "
Primary needs for specialty agriculture include data, sustainability and
accessibility tools.
" Just an autonomous tractor is not going to solve the challenges, " Penmetsa said.
" What we need to figure out is how to automate operations, whether it's harvesting,
planting, cultivating and all the other operations that happen on the field.
" One of the challenges we are also seeing is that the farm economics currently do
not support multimillion-dollar machines. This hugely limits how many people can
access the technology. Technology has to be accessible and scalable. "
Ag tech companies commonly provide full-service support for growers. Companies
rent machines to producers and will also operate the equipment, collect and
analyze data and partner with third-party suppliers when necessary for full-service
management of a project. This enables farmers to avoid the need to hire and train
highly skilled operators, manage data sets and work outside their skill sets.
" Ultimately, I think we're going to need more and more of these robotic solutions
out there because farm laborers are only getting harder to find and the aging
workforce is real, " Duflock said.
Fruit
Growers
News.com
WATCH. READ. SHARE
FRUITGROWERSNEWS.COM
Mansfield appointed associate director of
Cornell AgriTech
Anna Katharine Mansfield, an enologist
known for her work in elevating the success
of New York state's craft beverage industry,
has been appointed associate director of
Cornell AgriTech, effective July 1.
Data shows rise in average temperatures
across the nation
When 30-year averages of daily
temperature fluctuations from thousands
of stations around the country indicate a
steady change in average temperatures
over time, there are tangible implications
for agriculture, energy consumption and
many other aspects of daily life.
Small-scale Florida growers linked with
post-pandemic option
In the works is a new bilingual program
designed by a team at the University of Florida
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
The team intends to arm small-scale growers
with the tools to access marketing and business
options.
Fresh apple holdings sit at 18% less than a
year ago
The U.S. Apple Association has released
Market News, its seventh report on the 2020
apple crop. According to the survey, this
year's fresh apple holdings on May 1, 2021,
totaled 38 million bushels, 18.8% less than
the inventories reported for May 1 of last
year.
WANT TO HEAR MORE FROM FGN?
Sign up to receive our monthly e-newsletter, eFGN, featuring exclusive
articles, videos and photos not seen in the pages of FGN magazine.
Visit www.fruitgrowersnews.com/signup to sign up today.
facebook.com/
FruitGrowersNews
THEY SAID IT
If (the FDA) or your customer finds listeria on your
product, your apples, that's a recall, and then that
brings all the negative business consequences. "
-MARTIN WIEDMANN, CORNELL UNIVERSITY
P. 20
4 | FruitGrowersNews.com
twitter.com/
FGNews
youtube.com/
TheFGNtv
linkedin.com/
showcase/fruitgrowers-news
http://www.News.com http://www.FRUITGROWERSNEWS.COM http://www.fruitgrowersnews.com/signup http://www.facebook.com/ http://www.twitter.com/ http://www.youtube.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/ http://www.FruitGrowersNews.com
June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2021
