73 Better Farming | April 2024 Ontario Ag Marketplace Farmers have been using A.I. on their farming operation for years and some of us for decades. We just called it a GPS System, and then called a Precision Ag system. Now it is an A.I. system. There have been a few changes and advancements in the industry on base models and its profiles of operation. Because it has a new name, doesn’t change what it does or how it works. I remember when GPS Systems first came out, explaining at trade shows how to program a system. The farmers would say, “OH THAT’S TOO COMPLICATED”. My answer back was, “It is the same process as your banking machine. You read and answer the question and hit enter. You’re the A.I. The unit computes the details and you get to drive on.” Adopting the thought that A.l. is nothing new, is a simple changing of your mind set. You need to have the willingness to advance your farming practices, and to adopt the future programs and processes, that fit your farming operation. A.I. is the sustainable, profitable way of the farming future. A.I. technology is quickly being adopted by the younger generation of the farming community. This will assist the older generation in becoming acquainted with the working components of the systems. For you who don’t have that youth option find someone, nephew, niece, College Ag student - to help with this process. Your future in farming might depend upon it. With new governmental rules and guidelines being created I see big problems for the future farmer who doesn’t have cropping data, to refer to as their standard cropping practice. The problem is that very few companies are providing a complete solution. Farmers are getting scammed into purchasing products at the best price, and not knowing if what they just purchased is compatible with what they already own. The answer to this is to deal with a company that provides a complete, compatible line of products. Pricing becomes irrelevant. I see the future farm having A.I. controlling, operating and managing the reproduction of crops. By having adopted such a program, it will reduce the stress of crop preparation, and the planning of the purchasing of the seed fertilizers and chemicals in the amount and volumes needed. All this will be done, with only a few inputs by you such as to the number or acres or ha of what the crop will be. You hit the enter button and that information gets processed. It tells you how much seed and fertilizer is needed in bags or totes, and chemicals in litres, jugs or bags. The results are based on past farming history. “OH NO! There is no past farming history, no farming data to work with, no inputs and no yield data.” As I said earlier, farmers and farms need data for future farming sustainability. Future farming will be a process, and I call this process micro managing. The managing part of the A.I. program will ask for you the farmer to input specific details like crop growth and NDVI nutritional plant health, plant root health, etc. In the fall you will input what weeds are still growing, where are they growing, and what weeds didn’t get controlled by the spray. With that data you can back track through your cropping data and see why this happened - not enough chemical, the wrong chemical, operator error, the weather didn’t cooperate at that time. Like all my articles I address a problem and then try to explain why it is a problem. Then I give you my solution. I cannot help you pick the chemicals needed for your farming operation, but there is a solution for your chemical usage. The product name is “QUICK DRAW” a self-contained system, that mixes the water and chemicals precisely as required for the sprayer tank being refilled. There are three sizes of the units - 3, 6, 9 product mixing banks, with a powder container for bagged dry chemicals. The onboard computer controls the complete refilling process, from auto starting of the gas engine, to pumping water into the chemical being injected into the flowing liquid, to clean water flushing of the hoses, and the engine auto stop feature. The computer will adjust the chemical being used in ratio to the volume of liquid being put into the refill order. The orders can change because of wanting a top up of solution that might be a 1/5th of a tank mix, or you only have a small amount of ha. left to spray. The computer will calculate all those numbers for you. The days of having a little bit of chemical left in a jug and dumping it in as extra punch to the mix should be gone. We sell and handle the “QUICK DRAW” system. It is currently available, and with the new regulations on some chemicals, it is one of the few products that meets the needed handling requirements for these chemicals. This is another product adopting the A.I. format. As you can see A.I. is the new name for Precision Ag and just like precision ag, it is the future of sustainable Ag! Morley Wallace A.I. ANOTHER NEW NAME FOR PRECISION AG By Morley Wallace
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