Minions, robots and farms’ drive to downsize
IF you have kids or grandchildren of a certain age you’re bound to have heard of the little critters known as Minions which have been key characters in some recent animated blockbusters.
These little yellow helpers dressed in blue dungarees and goggles sprung to mind the other day when I was at a farming conference.
Focusing on how high-tech inventions could help farming in the future, one of the speakers took a different line from normal, one which made a deal of sense to me.
Anyone who has been near a farm in recent years will have been amazed at just how big the equipment used to plough, sow and harvest crops is becoming.
And while these giant machines allow one man to chomp through many acres every hour, they often weigh in at 10, 15 or even 20 tonnes.
True, they have huge, wide tyres to spread their load – but the damage these juggernauts of the fields cause to the soil is beginning to be recognised as a serious problem on many farms.
For, as good gardeners know, you need a good structure in your soil to grow decent crops. It’s important that there are tiny pores and spaces for air and water to move about between the roots – but big, heavy machinery can cause soil compaction.
On top of this, the speaker said, while new technology offers much greater accuracy, the fact that the machines are huge – with sprayers and spreaders often covering bouts of more than 100 feet every time they drive over the field – means that this level of precision can’t be used to full advantage.
So, he suggested that in order to address these problems, rather than sticking doggedly to the ever bigger route, lots of smaller machines should be used instead.
But while the lack of people wanting to work on farms has necessitated bigger machines which allow one man to do more work, technology is now available to allow a number of smaller machines to follow and copy what one of their number does.
His plan, I think it was called swarm technology, meant a whole lot of little robots running about and (hopefully) following the orders given by their leader. A bit like the Minions.
Guessing some of the audience might be wondering if smaller machines could cope with such a workload, the speaker reminded them that they only needed to look back a few decades to see it being done by wee grey Fergies across the land.