TECH MEETS AG
CHICO >> Cutting edge technology was the focus of the inaugural Precision Ag Day at the Chico State University Farm on Wednesday.
Several vendors from various agricultural companies across California gave outdoor demonstrations highlighting the latest in farm technology. The demonstrations were focused on many different technologies. Shuttle drivers drove attendees consisting of community members, students, farmers and Chico State faculty and staff to each demonstration and attendees could decide which stop to go to.
“I am so thankful to all of you for being here,” said Patricia Stock, Chico State’s Dean of the College of Agriculture, who spoke in a welcoming address at the farm pavilion before the demonstrations began. “I hope everyone has fun.”
At one of the posts, representatives from drone supplier Advexure demonstrated their drones. The drones have cameras and sensors which do large scale mapping. Drones allow employees to look at vegetation in orchards and other parts of farms.
Cody Thomas is a Chico State graduate who grew up in Colusa. Thomas is the Advexure vice president of Business Development and performed most of the demonstration along with colleague Doug Wiedman. Both men did demonstrations of automated flights using cutting-edge drones over walnut orchards and processed the data online. The data was transcribed in real time for viewers. This gave ag day attendees close-up examples of the aircrafts, flights, data processing and data dissemination.
“The more data, the better,” said Thomas.
Lidia Segoviano is majoring in agriculture education at
Chico State. She was happy to be at the event.
“I think it is a great opportunity for Chico State and the community to see what is up and coming in agriculture,” Segoviano said. “There is a stigma that farm technology is outdated. There are conversations which are happening to bring in new things. It’s the future of agriculture and helps keep our minds and hearts open.”
Lucas Cahn-Evans is a mechatronics engineering major. He came out to see the demonstrations Wednesday.
“It’s nice to see the farm,” Cahn-Evans said. “It’s my first time here. I was impressed with the drones.”
At the Orchard Rite demonstration, Sales Manager Jeremy Hill demonstrated a tree shaker. The diesel-run Monoboom tree shaker vehicle shook walnuts out of a tree, scattering leaves everywhere.
“This is used worldwide,” Hill said. Before the vehicle was founded, he said people used mallets to shake nuts out of trees. Hill enjoyed demonstrating at the event.
“This is educational,” Hill said. “It’s my first event. It gets people out to see what is out here.”
Chico State student Silas Ochsner sat in the Monoboom vehicle to demonstrate tree shaking. He is majoring in plant and soil science.
“It’s cool to see the technology,” Ochsner said.