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These robots provide a high-tech solution to an age-old farming problem: how to get rid of weeds

By
tammiehoeme
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0

Celia Hack
Harvest Public Media

Greenfield Robotics, a Kansas-based company, is hoping to move agriculture away from herbicides. They’ve developed robots to take on a labor-intensive process — cutting weeds down.
Three yellow, bug-like creatures crawl in perfectly straight lines across the dead grass of a flat, brown February field in Cheney, Kansas.
These are the namesake of GreenField Robotics. Two lights peer out from each side of the boxy machines, almost appearing like eyes. Blades whir at their base, about a half an inch from the ground – the perfect height to chop weeds, though there’s nothing to cut down on a frigid winter day.
They stick out in an otherwise rural landscape – and GreenField CEO Clint Brauer said he frequently hears from curious passersby.
“All the time,” Brauer said. “I’m always surprised, though, how little people notice.”
Brauer founded the company in 2018. The start-up has now grown large enough to attract investment from Chipotle’s $100 million venture capital fund and to secure partnerships with dog food and baking mix brands.
Brauer grew up on a family farm in Haven, Kansas, but moved to California after high school to work in the tech industry. In 2010, he returned home after his dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He attributes the use of herbicides to his dad’s diagnosis.
“The more I learned about farm chemicals and stuff … the more I thought there’s a decent chance that this came from that,” Brauer said.
The move sucked Brauer back into the world of agriculture, where he started seeking ways to eliminate herbicides. He tried farming organically, but it was too expensive to be accessible to many buyers.
Another option was no till farming, where farmers avoid turning over the dirt to reduce erosion and improve soil health. But it’s a method that leans on herbicides.
And in 2015, Brauer was starting to notice the weeds in his fields were becoming resistant to chemicals anyway.
“There was no good way to get rid of those weeds, even though we had sprayed many times,” Brauer said.
“So, what do we do? And so that was the beginning of this idea of – what if we just cut those weeds?”
Cutting weeds by hand wasn’t exactly a 21st-century answer. So Brauer thought: What about robots? He reached out to software and machine-vision experts and started prototyping robots.
By 2021, the company had manufactured a two-and-a-half foot-tall working robot. And it pulled together different technologies, like drones, to create extremely precise maps of crop fields. The robots follow the maps, so that they’re unlikely to accidentally chop down a crop instead of a weed.
“They plant the crop, we count about 10 days, normally, the crops emerge, and we fly over it with a drone,” Brauer said. “ … That’s where AI – we have machine vision that automatically recognizes everything that’s going on in that field.”
Thirty to 40 days later, Brauer sends out the robots.
In 2022, the company partnered with MKC, a major agricultural cooperative, to reach farmers who might use the product. In 2023, GreenField Robotics worked with 25 to 30 Kansas farmers, Brauer said. The company currently has a fleet of 20 robots and 15 employees
This summer, Brauer said the company is planning to work the weed-cutting robots on over 20,000 acres.
John Niemann is a farmer in Reno County. He tested GreenField Robotics for the first time last spring on 80 acres of a sorghum field, leaving 10 acres untouched to compare results. He had treated the entire crop with herbicides earlier in the season.
“We saw higher yields where we used the robots, versus the 10 acres that we did not,” Niemann said.
That’s because the weeds that didn’t get chopped down in the 10 acres competed with the crop for moisture, hampering the yield.
“The robots are part of a toolbox, is how I would look at them,” Niemann said. “There is no magic bullet in farming practices. You need to have a lot of tools in your toolbox.”
Niemann says the robots are a useful tool to reduce reliance on chemicals. Plus, he said the cost was comparable to herbicides.
Brauer said the economics is always his first pitch to farmers, and the robots are compelling because they damage less of the crop than chemicals do.
The company is also adapting the robots for other uses, like planting cover crops and soil testing.
“We are on a mission,” Brauer said. “This is not about enrichment. This is – we’re building something that can’t be undone. And so we’re going to eliminate these chemicals.”
This story was first aired and produced by KMUW. It’s being distributed by Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.

https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2024-04-08/these-robots-provide-a-high-tech-solution-to-an-age-old-farming-problem-how-to-get-rid-of-weeds

Digital Edition 04.17.24

By
tammiehoeme
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0
digital edition

Digital Edition 04.17.24

Here’s how Kansas’ wheat crop is looking so far according to Kansas Wheat

By
Guest Columnist
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A late March freeze, blustery days of blowing dust and predicted 80-degree afternoons — the dramatic springtime weather in Kansas can leave everyone wondering what exactly is coming next, especially wheat producers watching their stands green up after the winter.

Kansas Wheat caught up with farmer leaders from across the state to check on how this crop is stacking up compared to last year’s drought-stricken fields.

According to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) crop progress report for the week ending April 7, 2024, winter wheat was rated at 49 percent good to excellent, 37 percent fair and 14 percent very poor to poor. A third of winter wheat, primarily in the southern tier and central-to-east regions of the state has jointed, ahead of both last year and the five-year average.

Producers are currently spraying a good stand of wheat for bugs and worms in far western Kansas, where Jason Ochs farms near Syracuse. The area is in a pocket of Kansas that received adequate, but extremely variable, moisture over the winter, which was just enough to keep them out of drought status and maintain a good stand of wheat.

The wheat drilled in absolutely beautifully, and we got a good stand right off the bat,” he said. “It’s a nice change.”

The cold temperatures at the end of March did burn just the tips of wheat, but Ochs was more concerned about spraying and getting that next round of moisture than freeze damage. He reported the top two to four inches is starting to look pretty dry.

“We missed the last three or four moisture chances, so optimism is going down a little bit,” Ochs said. “As of now, it looks like we are going to definitely raise above-average yields. I don’t know how you cannot be a little excited about that.”

A swath through central Kansas is in moderate drought, having missed out on the winter moisture that benefitted the western part of the state. That’s certainly true where Martin Kerschen farms in Reno and Sedgwick counties. He reported that ponds are still dry, and the wheat is starting to show that blue tint, indicating drought stress. He is also more concerned with the impact of upcoming 80-degree days this weekend than with the singed tops from the freeze late last month.

“Without moisture, it’s not going to be the best of situations,” Kerschen said. “But it looks a lot better right now than it did last year. That’s one positive.”

Near Plainville in north-central Kansas, Mike McClellan also feels like he’s always waiting for moisture. He planted his wheat late, waiting for rains, and some of it did not come up until the first part of March. The late emergence prevented freeze damage since the wheat was not in as vulnerable of a growth stage.

“Most of the wheat in our area is really small and has taken off now, so that helped us get through the freeze ok,” McClellan said. “Now we’re starting to get some growth and all of a sudden we’re starting to worry about moisture again.”

With four days of wind at more than 40 miles per hour, that next rainfall event is critical. However, he pointed out that he did not cut any of his winter wheat last year, so this year still has him feeling better about this crop’s chances.

Further north, near the Nebraska border, Chris Tanner feels like the drought may finally be breaking where he farms around Norton. He had nice fall moisture to drill in his wheat and then had a couple of torrential downpours and a few snows that maintained good moisture.

“Our profiles are a lot better than we’ve had in the last three years,” Tanner said. “It feels better coming out of a drought rather than going into it. We’ve done our time.”

The wheat in this area was not far enough along to suffer from cold temperatures, but a few spotty fields are showing a little stress. At this point, however, he is feeling optimistic about this year’s crop.

“We’re a lot better off than we have been in the last several years,” he said. “Right now, it’s one of the better-looking crops that I’ve seen in the last 10 years.”

Follow along with Kansas Wheat at kswheat.com for more updates from the field as the 2024 wheat crop continues progressing to this summer’s harvest.

 

Blender Pie

By
Debbie Dance Uhrig
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‘If’ I would have had a bit more time this weekend I would have enjoyed a warm blender pie from the oven. When I think of springtime or even warm cozy coffee times this simplistic pie always comes to mind. It doesn’t usually stay around past a few hours, because it is delicious while it is still warm from the oven. Or a few hours later, about the time it should head for the refrigerator.

Actually; this past week I’ve been faced with a serious ‘clean’ the house mode. I’m one of those who cannot cook or basically ‘function’ if the house is not tidy. It’s almost like when your parents said: ‘You can play when your room is clean.’

I have been doing quite a bit of studying this week. Finished a new recipe which I will debut the last week of the month, after it greets an event in Lewistown, Missouri on the 20th of April. I’m also working on a cherry bread recipe. For several years I have desired to capture the essence of a cherry bread that was once made in Leavenworth, Kansas. The writing stage is pretty close, and then I’ll be ready to feed the neighborhood, and get responses. I can hardly wait to get it done.

You obviously will need a blender, or a food processor to make this yummy pie.

Don’t forget to stir in the coconut by hand, at the very end. Another good thing is most of the recipe calls for ingredients you will readily have on hand, except for the coconut. If you don’t like coconut, just leave it out, I would miss it, but if you don’t like coconut, you don’t like coconut!!!

Those with big gardens are probably busy putting in the early vegetables. Our property doesn’t have enough sunlight or flat space for a garden. This doesn’t mean I don’t can. Right now, I’m looking at blueberry syrup, and I’ve stumbled upon ‘cherry bounce’, which was George Washington’s favorite cordial. His was usually made with quality bourbon or whiskey, mine is going to be made with vodka. Then there’s the vacuum sealed blueberry pancake mix to go with the blueberry syrup. I can’t imagine not using our creative skills which can bring so much happiness and joy to those in which we share. About now you may be asking yourself this question: ‘Why did they call the cherry cordial cherry bounce?

All I know is I can already see the ‘cherry bounce’ in a tall clear glass with a slice of lime and sprite. Of course, there are cherries in the there too. Enjoy your week friends, bake a quick pie and enjoy a bit more of life. Simply yours, The Covered Dish.

Coconut Blender Pie

2 cups milk

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup biscuit mix (can make your own, check on-line)

4 eggs

1/4 cup soft butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup Sweetened Angel flaked coconut

Combine all ingredients except the coconut in the blender. Blend on low for 3 minutes. By hand, stir in the coconut. Pour into a greased 9-inch pie pan. Let stand about five minutes and then bake in a 350-degree oven for 40 minutes. The pie is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Use a thin knife like a parey knife, not a butter knife. Serve warm or cold. I like mine served with a dollop of fresh whipped cream, and a sprinkling of cinnamon or toasted coconut on top. Serves 6-8 persons.

If company drops in unexpectedly this is the perfect rescue dessert.

Canaries in the Water

By
Steve Gilliland
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0

Many a good fisherman has cut his or her “teeth” on bluegills, often catching them from a farm pond with nothing but a hook and a bit of worm under a bobber. Some of us can even remember catching them with a cane pole and an old cork fastened on some sort of heavy cord. They’re feisty fighters and provide just enough action to get and keep a youngster “hooked” on fishing. When spawning, they scoop out oval shaped beds in the pond bottom, and in defense of their spawning ground, the little rascals will chase about any bait or lure thrown into the water.

I recently stumbled across another role for bluegills besides helping kids learn to fish. Do you remember how coal miners of years ago carried caged canaries into the mine with them to detect toxic air? It seems the birds were able to detect toxins in the air well before the miners could, and by watching the birds’ reactions the miners would be warned in time to exit the mines before breathing the poisoned air. It seems that some time back the Army developed a system of using bluegill fish to detect toxins in drinking water, much like the canaries were able to do with air in the coal mines. The original process was named IAC 1090, or Intelligent Aquatic BioMonitoring System, and though it was developed by the Army for its own use, the system is currently used to monitor the drinking water at Fort Detrick, Maryland, plus several large cities including New York City, San Francisco and Washington DC, and since 911, even more large US cities have begun using bluegills to help protect their water supplies.

It seems bluegills are extremely sensitive to toxins in the water where they live, so the system works by employing bluegill fish at water treatment plants. Each fish is kept in an individual plastic case that is described as looking like a trunk made into an aquarium. Fish do a three week tour of duty and are then replaced. They are kept inside at the water treatment facility and water is piped through the case, where electronic sensors monitor each fish for what amounts to “fish coughs.” Much like we humans cough to expel something foreign from our respiratory system, bluegills do the same by flexing their gills to expel something foreign, say a grain of sand, from their breathing passage. The instruments pick up these “coughs” and other irregularities and send the information to computers that constantly compare it to the fish’s normal behavior. If the computers sense that enough of the fish are upset by something in the water, they automatically trigger water samples to be taken and notify workers.

Bluegills are best able to detect non-biological threats such as pesticides, mercury, cyanide, heavy metals, fuel spills and phosphates. By monitoring the fish, workers are not able to tell exactly what toxins they are reacting to, just that there is threat to the drinking water that needs immediate attention. One article I found said that the Army had tested bluegills against 27 different toxins, and the fish detected them all.

The system at Fort Detrick tests both the raw water coming into the plant and the fully treated water just before its leaves the treatment facility. One example of the bluegill’s effectiveness cited a situation when the computer monitoring the fish sensed that the bluegills sampling the raw water pumped from the river had become agitated. The incoming water was immediately shut off and samples taken, revealing that someone had evidently washed a pesticide truck upstream in the river. The incoming water was so poisoned that all the fish that initially sensed it died, but not before the threat had been

addressed and identified. In this case the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia also benefited from the bluegills, allowing it to shut off its incoming water also, which was being pumped from the same river just one hundred yards upstream.

A spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, had this to say about their system that uses the little fish to protect its drinking water. “We appreciate that there’s an irony to this, that the oldest technology in the world -life- is now being combined with high technology to keep the water supply of the region safe. We want to use what works, and if that means we have to become fish keepers, then we will.” So the next time you catch a mess of bluegills, look upon them with a whole new respect! Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.

Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].

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