Ag Tech expo in Pocatello shows new farming technologies
Flying machines that take pictures, farming equipment controlled by your cellphone.
Those are just a few examples of new technology shown at the Ag Tech expo in Pocatello on Tuesday.
It was all about the latest and greatest in farming.
Drones is one of those latest things. They capture overhead infrared images of crops. Those images help show the health of the crop and allow farmers to see problems before it’s too late.
“This will give us some data in the middle of the season,” said Tyson Coles, who works for a drone services company, Empire Unmanned. “That way if we find a problem area or something that we need to address, we can address it.”
The darker the color on the images, the healthier the crop. It’s the lighter areas that farmers need to have tested.
Testing is where AMS and its new soil probes can help.
“We go out and do composite sampling of the fields, so they use our soil probes to sample down 0 to 24 inches deep to get nutrient analysis,” said Hari Anestos, an AMS sales manager.
Drones and analysis can be done on anything.
“We use them quite a bit on a wide range of things,” said Coles. “Potatoes, sugar beets, wheat fields, barley fields, some rangeland pasture.”
Drones cost about $4 per acre, which the companies said the cost of can easily be covered by a good crop.
The Ag Tech expo had more than just soil probes and drones.
Agri-Line Irrigation is combining modern technology with farming. Irrigation pivots can now be controlled with your cellphone, tablet or even a computer at home.
If there’s an issue, farmers will also know that immediately.
“It will send them a text message and let them know there’s a problem at that location,” said Brady Bradford, who works for Agri-Line Irrigation.
This can be especially helpful to farmers with a lot of acreage.
“You can monitor those systems,” said Bradford. “It saves you gas, time, especially if you’re short on labor. One man can actually take care of more acres in a more efficient manner.”
In 2014, the FAA granted Empire Unmanned permission to fly drones commercially under Section 333.
