IS AI THE FUTURE OF FARMING? Isaac Allison

IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THE FUTURE OF FARMING?

Agricultural production has tripled between 1960 and 2015 with the world’s population growing from 3 billion to 7 billion. With this it has put added further pressure on farmers to deliver high yielding crops to help feed the population. This is shown by a UN study saying that food production will need to increase by 50% with the increased 2 billion people that need to be fed. Therefore, with the AI been introduced into agriculture it tackles the labour challenge due to less people entering the $5 trillion industry. This new technology helps aid to two major sides livestock and arable.

AI Arable farming

AI has had a huge impact so far with the major tractor brands creating GPS tractors that drive in

straight lines by themselves, this helps increase yields by reducing soil compaction and time is saved as the same land isn’t over worked that saves time. The main leader in this fields is John Deer with their Greenstar GPS that cost $1050 for an annual subscription with a new John Deer tractor costing over £150,000.

Farmers are now also using AI to create seasonal forecasting models to help improve accuracy and increase productivity. This allows them to accurately predict upcoming weather patterns months ahead to help the farms make better decisions when planting crops. This technology is helping smaller farmers due to small farms produce 70% of the world’s crops.

AI used in drones allows farmers to analyse their fields from the sky, this can be used to show how good the yield is and help identify areas of the fields that require more work to increase yields. By farmers using this its reducing their total cost by only buying the required products needed meaning more money left in the bank to re-invest.

AI technology can also be used on arable farms to identify diseases in the plants, pests and poor nutrition of the plants. Further to this the AI sensors can detect, and target weeds then decide which herbicide that need to be applied within certain regions to increase plant yields.

AI livestock farming

AI technology is been used in livestock farming too. The most recent advancement is farmers place GPS collars onto livestock like sheep and cows, with this GPS collar on the animal it enables the farmer to create an invisible boundary in the field. This is due to COVID sourcing fencing materials has been hard with people been unable to work. The average cost of pricing of agricultural fencing is £7-10 per metre. Then replacement cost of the fence been £10 per metre. So, with these collars on the animals, it reduces fencing costs as less is required due the invisible boundary been set up. These collars can also improve the health and welfare of the animal by the farmer been able to monitor health of the cattle by been given early distress alerts and carving distress alters. These collars also allow the farmer to monitor the herd group that can help improve their welfare as the farmer can see what they require leading to better milk and meat quality leading to the farmer making a higher profit.

Another recent modern technology that has entered the livestock scene is the ‘Lely Astronaut’ costing £20,000 second hand. This piece of technology auto milks the cows by using lasers to mark up onto the right park of the cow leading to more efficient milk extraction than other technologies. With miking required both morning and evening taking up a lot of time, using this robot to do it allows the farmer to get more done in the day and less time milking. This technology can read each cow then analyse their milk quality then relay this information to the farmer so they can see what is needed to improve the milk quality.

In conclusion, AI will help with the future development of the agricultural industry with it been more efficient with less time been lost by human error. With the AI been able to complete tasks quicker and to a higher standard it will increase the yield of crops leading to farmers receiving more money to revives back into their farms.