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The higher value crops (fruits, veggies) have different and more difficult problems than maize,soybean,wheat,cotton which are grown in huge fields with known pa
by kickout 4y ago
The higher value crops (fruits, veggies) have different and more difficult problems than maize,soybean,wheat,cotton which are grown in huge fields with known parameters (thanks to precision planting, etc.). Having machines till the space between these rows would be an easy proof of concept. Syncing and coordinating multi machines in one field would be step two. There's 200M acres like this and farmers would be happy to pay between 10-100 _per acre_ depending on frequency and task performed.
- bombcar 4y agoThe problem is the "easy crops" are already harvested by a machine that's GPS guided and nearly infinitely wide; at that point hiring some farmer to "pilot" it is cheap.
- dragonwriter 4y agoTangential, but the people that are hired are farm laborers not farmers. The farmer is the person doing the hiring (or, rather, on behalf of whom the hiring is done, whether directly or indirectly.)
- bombcar 4y agoTrue - and an important distinction. Hiring someone for $20/hr to sit in the cab of some multi-million dollar harvesting machine isn't that hard. I think it's a bit of an area that doesn't really benefit from more efficiency (except on the things that have to be picked by hand) - farmers don't even bother flattening their land to make it easier to plant/harvest, as the machines handle slopes and hills just fine.
- Ekaros 4y agoI agree it is an area that we have probably already reached peak from labour efficiency stand point. Ofc, machines can get slightly bigger and methods slightly more optimised. But there is good reasons to keep a human in loop and near to fix any immediately fixable problems. Or just to fill fertilizer or empty the load.