The evolving technology of the tattie dreel
THIS week sees Scotland play host to a major international conference on precision farming – which looks at how high-tech farm machinery, backed up by the latest in computer software can help feed the world in the coming decades.
Things have changed a lot on this side of farming since the conference was last held in the UK 20 years ago.
The organisers say technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence – using information generated from crop, soil and livestock systems – have evolved to the stage where they can offer radical solutions to the issues farmers have faced for years.
And these techniques are now being used across the world – with speakers from America, Australia, Europe and China, set to explain the recent developments in the use of technology in vineyards, mountain pastures and cropping systems.
“We are learning more precise and efficient ways to grow livestock and crops without using so many pesticides, wasting nutrients or damaging soils,” one of the researchers told me.
At farm level there has been a huge increase in the use of computers and other technologies to improve the levels of accuracy – 60% of tractors sold these days use satellite guidance systems.
But as well as helping farmers grow more by putting the seed in the right place with the right amount of fertiliser, it has also changed some of the skills which are required for doing many of the jobs.
As someone said, when tatties were being planted it used to be the most experienced and respected tractorman who started drawing up the dreels.
His expertise and keen eye were enough to make sure these were kept razor-straight and everything else followed on from those first carefully drawn dreels.
However, nowadays it’s often one of the youngest lads who gets sent into the field first to set up the GPS system on his tractor and then let the technology take over, allowing the tractor to be accurately guided by a unseen satellite, high up in space.
But while some think that this technology is de-skilling the job, there’s still a fair bit of talent required to make sure that the guidance system is properly set up and running as it should.
And this is often more easily done by someone who has grown up with PlayStations and Nintendos – and who knows how to get the digital TV to record programmes.