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Is This Weed-Spotting, Yield-Predicting Rover the Future of Farming? (Google X)
- rmason 5y agoI'm a bit fascinated by this project because in my last career I worked as a fertilizer company agronomist. I ran teams of college students each summer who worked as crop scouts. The scouts walked fields and tried to determine: 1. Were there any weeds and which type? What was the density and would it be worth respraying? 2. What's the plant population? Did the farmer achieve his goal for the number of plants? 3. Are the plants showing disease? What disease(s) are in the field? Is it economic to spray a fungicide? 4. What's the estimated yield for this field? If it's corn what's the approximate harvest moisture? Are the plants standing well at harvest? I'm excited because it appears that Google's Project Mineral can achieve every single one of these goals. However I was left wondering if it could do it economically?