The Reality about Digitalization in Farming – Question and Answer Session

University of Nebraska – Lincoln Author

08/31/2020 Added

4 Plays

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Michael Horsch. Michael Horsch responds to questions from the audience.
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[00:00:07.890]At this point in time, we'll turn it over to Greg Kruger.
[00:00:10.480]And we'll have a question and answer session
[00:00:13.090]for about 10 minutes here with Michael online.
[00:00:16.580]Yeah. So anybody that has questions,
[00:00:18.310]so please type those into the chat box and send them to me.
[00:00:22.720]Or you can raise your hand and we can unmute you.
[00:00:26.900]But Michael, that was fantastic.
[00:00:29.519]I'm sure that you've stirred the beehive here
[00:00:33.260]a little bit with Pross beef production,
[00:00:38.380]how big drive in the state of Nebraska?
[00:00:40.999]So that's a tough message to hear for sure
[00:00:43.620]and I'm sure that there's many minds out there swirling.
[00:00:46.470]But I wanna go on a little bit different direction.
[00:00:49.800]You and I have had some conversations over the last year,
[00:00:53.340]around many different topics,
[00:00:55.430]but one of them was really around the need for agriculture
[00:00:58.630]to move to controlled traffic.
[00:01:00.990]Can you talk a little bit about that
[00:01:02.500]and what you see in terms of the need
[00:01:05.780]for adoption of controlled traffic
[00:01:08.060]before we get into robotics
[00:01:09.560]and some of the other precision AG tools?
[00:01:14.035]Can anybody hear me?
[00:01:17.680]Do you hear me?
[00:01:18.513]Because I only, I don't see anybody except you.
[00:01:21.690]Okay.
[00:01:24.640]Well...
[00:01:30.130]I mean, as we had talked about this, I mean,
[00:01:33.100]when you were over also last year here in Germany
[00:01:36.150]and we also looked at what were the kind of research work
[00:01:40.210]we were doing on the also uncontrolled traffic.
[00:01:42.970]I mean, the basic idea that's behind
[00:01:47.236]this controlled traffic idea, which is not our idea.
[00:01:49.970]This control traffic thing has been around for,
[00:01:52.550]for the last 20, 30 years or even more.
[00:01:54.930]And it's only been possible since we had GPS
[00:01:57.960]or auto track systems that we actually could make it work.
[00:02:02.930]I mean, the first idea about control traffic
[00:02:07.790]always was and still is that you try to avoid tracks
[00:02:11.140]in the fields and try to avoid running up and down
[00:02:13.970]in the fields all over.
[00:02:15.360]And if you compact the only compact a track,
[00:02:20.440]a path and except the compaction there
[00:02:24.100]and the rest of the field, don't try to compact.
[00:02:26.610]And then the wider the equipment goes,
[00:02:28.200]if you go 40 foot or 60 foot increments,
[00:02:30.990]this is where it makes more sense
[00:02:32.270]than 10 foot or 12 foot increments.
[00:02:37.710]So far, we only changed one farm over
[00:02:40.808]to almost a hundred percent controlled traffic.
[00:02:44.320]It's about eight years ago.
[00:02:46.470]And we also brought in some researchers
[00:02:49.770]to do some practical research on it.
[00:02:54.440]I mean, I should not say that we find
[00:02:58.870]big impacts of controlled traffic,
[00:03:01.270]especially on heavier soils in terms of yield increases,
[00:03:05.850]just because we've eliminated a lot of compaction
[00:03:08.740]over the field and kept it only to the 40 foot system
[00:03:13.070]we're using there.
[00:03:14.610]Yes, we see some signs
[00:03:16.320]and especially when we have some wet falls
[00:03:20.360]and we had to do some wet tillage and whatever,
[00:03:23.900]then obviously you could see a difference on heavy soils.
[00:03:26.980]Linus was not so much heavier.
[00:03:28.320]So where we've done controlled traffic,
[00:03:30.631]and fields where we haven't been control traffic.
[00:03:32.880]But that's not the main idea today,
[00:03:35.610]why controlled traffic is such an important thing
[00:03:39.250]to play was for us.
[00:03:40.560]The most important piece for us,
[00:03:42.940]why this controlled traffic thing is so critical
[00:03:46.870]or so important is this is the pathway into autonomy.
[00:03:51.840]Because if you're not into a controlled traffic mindset,
[00:03:56.760]the way you run your equipment, the way you digitalize
[00:03:59.330]your farm and the way you run your path,
[00:04:02.700]and whatsoever.
[00:04:04.510]It's a hard, I mean, you have a hard time introducing robots
[00:04:07.690]because the robots, they will continue to stay stupid.
[00:04:10.760]I mean, where does information come from?
[00:04:12.750]Which direction to go and you go up a field
[00:04:14.790]or get it down the field and then you have a path
[00:04:16.581]where it's wet and you should go a little slower
[00:04:20.310]and then there's the downhill path you should slow down.
[00:04:22.820]Otherwise, if it speeds up,
[00:04:24.420]it will not make a turn at the end and end up in the ditch
[00:04:27.340]whatever, you know?
[00:04:28.200]Where do you get all this information from?
[00:04:29.970]I mean, the best way to do,
[00:04:32.220]to get this information from is to have a path system,
[00:04:34.650]which is not only for robots also for the manned equipment,
[00:04:39.370]which then as you go up and down the field over the years,
[00:04:42.130]you collect data in the path and each section of the path,
[00:04:45.439]you basically allocate certain data to the sections.
[00:04:50.410]Now like here, you have to slow down here,
[00:04:51.940]you have to speed up,
[00:04:52.800]here you have to do to lift some elements up
[00:04:55.470]because the rocks will rip up the shanks
[00:04:58.090]and whatsoever, you know?
[00:04:59.710]And that's actually what makes controlled traffic for us
[00:05:04.660]so intriguing.
[00:05:05.900]That it is, this is actually the most important piece
[00:05:09.930]actually to make robots work because the robot piece
[00:05:11.790]is only the final piece.
[00:05:16.180]All right. I've got another question asked.
[00:05:19.530]If you can discuss a bit more about the hybrid farm
[00:05:21.970]in Illinois and in particular,
[00:05:23.950]what types of crops are you growing?
[00:05:25.112]What are the farming techniques you're using
[00:05:27.820]and what are you trying to accomplish there?
[00:05:31.160]Well, it's a little bit of pity
[00:05:32.360]because ever since Corona hit us,
[00:05:35.201]I have a very good farm manager there, Daniel Fulton,
[00:05:39.350]you know him.
[00:05:41.290]But the idea was that, especially myself also,
[00:05:45.740]I would have spent quite a bit of time there
[00:05:47.160]in the last four months implementing some neutral work
[00:05:51.330]and actually discuss with them.
[00:05:53.710]So far, what we'll be doing there
[00:05:56.520]and what Daniel has been doing there,
[00:05:58.640]he is now implementing an organic farming piece there.
[00:06:03.160]And, so he's building an organic farming rotations
[00:06:06.720]with alfalfa crop to start with and stone and so on.
[00:06:10.810]And we want to also do a little bit of
[00:06:12.830]an organic controlled traffic farming approach there
[00:06:16.430]on top of the conventional controlled traffic approach
[00:06:20.350]there.
[00:06:22.840]So I cannot talk much about yet the exciting stuff we do
[00:06:28.650]because so far, really Corona has kind of taken quite a bit
[00:06:33.970]of the momentum out in terms of our ideas
[00:06:41.056]to implement there.
[00:06:43.160]Yes, we're doing crop work wise.
[00:06:47.080]Daniel is implementing a few other crops there
[00:06:49.820]and playing around with them.
[00:06:52.140]The longterm idea is to get a little bit
[00:06:56.140]out of the corn-soybean rat race thing there,
[00:07:00.110]and try to put a few more crops in there
[00:07:04.300]and using both for organic and for conventional farming
[00:07:08.480]and controlled traffic approach in the trial work.
[00:07:13.768]And at the end of the day,
[00:07:15.950]and this is what we're doing here in Europe too,
[00:07:17.860]is we think that the ultimate solution lays between
[00:07:23.460]which we call a hybrid,
[00:07:25.030]or there's a new word which has been out there.
[00:07:29.107]The new buzzword is called regenerated farming.
[00:07:32.670]This is nothing else,
[00:07:33.503]but what we call always ever since hybrid farming.
[00:07:36.530]And that's where we think when we put
[00:07:39.370]the two things together,
[00:07:40.310]the organic piece and the conventional piece,
[00:07:43.130]that's where we think where we should start looking for
[00:07:46.210]in terms of finding, hopefully a better way of farming,
[00:07:53.020]which matches with the needs of the futures of society.
[00:07:56.910]All right, I've got another question for you, Michael.
[00:07:59.130]And it says, "What is the higher hurdle?
[00:08:01.440]The technical one, or robots are doing the right thing,
[00:08:04.870]or getting a regulations in place and letting the system,
[00:08:08.750]or basically letting the system go?"
[00:08:13.305]Didn't get that quite.
[00:08:15.266]Which is the bigger hurdle?
[00:08:17.270]The technical one with the robot to do the right thing
[00:08:21.090]or the political regulatory world. Again, Russians did too.
[00:08:28.544]I mean, from a manufacturer's point of view,
[00:08:32.700]if you was going to go into production and selling things
[00:08:36.430]still there, regulatory,
[00:08:38.347]and the legal thing is probably the biggest hurdle.
[00:08:41.360]We have basically decided that for awhile,
[00:08:45.770]we don't care much about this.
[00:08:47.870]Cause we don't let innovations,
[00:08:49.650]we let on let the legal side stop innovation
[00:08:52.040]like it does with the big corporates, you know?
[00:08:55.780]That doesn't sound right in my mind.
[00:08:58.850]But still, if it comes to implementing technologies,
[00:09:03.410]hopefully pretty soon we'll start showing,
[00:09:05.800]not only showing a few things,
[00:09:06.900]also implementing a few things.
[00:09:09.360]Definitely the regulatory and the legal thing
[00:09:11.690]will be a hurdle.
[00:09:13.570]We have a few ideas to get around this,
[00:09:16.570]to become a little, let's call it semi robot robotized.
[00:09:22.900]I don't want to talk too much about it
[00:09:24.110]because I don't want to get my competition right now,
[00:09:33.198]to listen to what we're doing.
[00:09:35.330]We think we have some, we've found over the years
[00:09:38.360]a few interesting pathways,
[00:09:40.390]which we hope that we can come get into the markets.
[00:09:45.070]Obviously probably limited amount of numbers of machinery
[00:09:49.190]and actually get it to work and get a little bit
[00:09:51.700]around this regulatory thing.
[00:09:56.300]Real briefly, in terms of your experience globally,
[00:10:00.460]where are the regulatory challenges is going to be greater?
[00:10:02.890]Will that be in the US or Europe or somewhere else?
[00:10:08.160]I mean, from our European point of view,
[00:10:16.260]definitely US this is one of the biggest hurdle of all
[00:10:19.920]because with your liability system
[00:10:22.300]and with your lawyers running the country.
[00:10:29.306]Well, it's the way we look at it.
[00:10:30.139]Lawyers running the country, you know?
[00:10:33.160]Probably United States is probably
[00:10:36.960]one of the hardest markets to try to get around regulatory,
[00:10:45.390]the legal things.
[00:10:47.252]We have markets where we we will get going,
[00:10:50.880]is like in Brazil and in Brazil, you know,
[00:10:53.380]when you're out there in both big farms where nobody lives
[00:10:56.277]and everything is confined
[00:10:57.830]and you have a hundred thousand acres in one piece
[00:11:00.870]and there's a fence going around and so on.
[00:11:04.750]And there's nobody there actually divert.
[00:11:07.906]Then, there it looks like it's going to be the easiest.
[00:11:11.510]Same as in Ukraine and Russia,
[00:11:13.900]where we have quite a bit of customers that say
[00:11:16.657]"We don't care and we don't need to care."
[00:11:21.520]I know even in Europe,
[00:11:22.680]now we are figuring out ways, looks like we're finding
[00:11:25.660]some ways where we will get going.
[00:11:28.720]So yes, there's for us, there's enough playground out there.
[00:11:32.690]Once we have some serious product coming out,
[00:11:35.380]that we can actually bring it to them, to certain markets
[00:11:38.370]and make it work and get some more,
[00:11:40.980]more feedback from having more population up there.
[00:11:45.980]Well, I really appreciate your time, Michael,
[00:11:48.540]and I hate to cut it short cause I could sit here
[00:11:50.500]and have a conversation with you all day.
[00:11:53.440]I learned a lot again this morning, and again,
[00:11:57.720]really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule
[00:11:59.990]to join us.
[00:12:00.823]I know that we've got quite a time change
[00:12:04.162]and we're now cutting into your evening activity.
[00:12:08.330]Oh, I'm fine.
[00:12:09.700]We really, really do appreciate you coming in
[00:12:13.260]and please don't be a stranger
[00:12:15.640]when you're back in the US again.
[00:12:17.630]No, no.
[00:12:18.463]I hope I'm not losing my visa since I think the speech
[00:12:20.410]to you guys, and somebody makes sure
[00:12:23.230]that they don't let this guy come back
[00:12:24.743]into the country again.
[00:12:28.280]Thank you. Thanks again.

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The Reality about Digitalization in Farming – Question and Answer Session

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