We’ve all heard of Tesla cars driving themselves, in fact it’s almost old news. The distant, almost non-existent hum on the road behind when suddenly, out of nowhere, the great white electric lawnmower drifts past you, disappearing once again. The autonomous farming game has changed over the past few decades, the self-drive technology has come far in the agricultural world and by 2031 is expected to market for around 114 billion pounds according to Fact.mr. Could this be the future of farming?
Is Autonomy Killing the Culture in Agriculture?
Farmers have been confronted with the reality that they need to produce more product, in less time, with the same amount of land – all the while keeping up sustainability. So, what can they do, double their labour? Double their hours? You may be sat there scratching your head; enter self-driving tractors. No, this is not a scene from Wall-E, but the new and exciting possibility for farming. Autonomous, fully driverless technology can pick up the routine, repetitive and labour intense work for a fraction of the price. Sounds too good to be true, but this time, it’s not.
Free Labour – As Good as it Sounds?
There is a huge shortage of labour workers in the farming industry, and according to the California Farm Bureau Federation; 20% of farmers are unable to finish harvest due to 70% of labour-intensive farms having a shortage of workers. Autonomous tractors are designed to take the hard part, and free up farmer’s valuable time, and – get this – you won’t have them waiting for a pay check at the end of every month.
In case I haven’t quite sold it to you yet, these machines are able to work 24/7, in nearly all weather conditions and in any visibility. That means more harvest, less cost.
Farming for Free
Autonomous vehicles are essentially computers, meaning that they can process and store information such as farming data. They can record what has been done, how many times, resulting in how much product has been farmed. Farmers everywhere are wiping tears from their eyes; God is good, they cry.
But not as good as Cavonix, with decades of experience in rapid development software resources. Cavonix specialise in mobile autonomy; a complete, real and unmanned farming recruitment specialist for navigation and perception. They put the Auto in Autonomous.
In Conclusion
So, saving money, labour, time and money – yes, the repetition of money was very intentional – do you want to take a step into the future with us? When producing more at a lower cost there is no doubt that autonomous, self-driving assets are the future for farming – are you the farmer who drives, or is driven?
To answer my question from earlier, it is all as good as it sounds. Nothing comes close to saving costs and increasing profits, improving accuracy of seed plantation to the decimal point, and essentially saving yourself work – isn’t that the dream?