Interviews with farmers – what technologies are you using?

We’ve interviewed seven farmers from across Europe who’ve been using a range of different precision and digital agri-tech solutions on their farms. Their experiences are shared in the Video Steps throughout the course where you’ll hear them discussing the realities of using innovative technologies with lead Educator, Alice Mauchline.

You can meet them here:

Erik Jennewein farms in Germany.

Can you tell us about your farm?

Arable farm of 200 ha growing sugar beet, barley, wheat, peas and oilseed rape.

For me, agri-tech means all of the farming equipment plus innovation; how can we use a range of techniques to help us to do a better job and improve environmental performance.

We use precision farming approaches including: auto-track and documentation systems, site-specific techniques, satellite information for decision making and for creating precision maps and section control.

We first adopted satellite technologies in 2003 so we’ve been using agri-tech for 17 years now.

Ben Cooper farms in Wiltshire, UK

Mixed farm of arable cereals; wheat barley and oats and extensive grazing beef. General approach of low inputs for maximum yield.

For me, agri-tech is any way that traditional agriculture intersects with a higher level of technology that ‘adds value’ such as adding precision and science to agriculture through the use of technology.

For cereals, we use a GPS Trimble system for tractor guidance for precision applications of fertiliser and for spraying. We use a satellite based variable rate system for nitrogen applications (using the green leaf area index and biomass to map the yield). We also have grain store management system to manage moisture levels.

We have only been using the variable rate system for about a year, but we’ve been using the tractor guidance for a bit longer.

Mel Curnick farms in the UK

We have a 2,000 acre arable farm in Wiltshire with a poultry unit.

Precision agriculture.

We have 5 John Deere tractors running with StarFire GPS tracking. We use the Contour app for remote digital agronomy.

We have had precision systems for four years but we are just starting to get the full use from it.

Simon Beddows farms in the UK

1,000 ha estate just NE of Reading. Very variable soil type growing combinable crops on approx. 750 ha with a large environmental scheme.

My idea of agri-tech is the use of GPS and remote monitoring of the crop using different techniques.

GPS steering, variable applications of fertilisers, seed and pesticides – predominantly on the cereals.

We started looking at using precision agriculture in 2006 and took it quite seriously from 2008 when we sorted out a system that worked well for us.

Antony Pearce farms in the UK

I manage a joint venture of three family farms so we farm a total of 3,500 acres growing combinable arable crops.

It’s a very wide-ranging term, but for me it’s anything that involves data to improve management of all levels of financial and physical farm performance.

GPS steering. We are an innovative farm so we collect all farm data using GateKeeper software; but we have taken this further to send out job recommendations and to identify areas for improved productivity and for benchmarking.

Tractor guidance probably about 8 or 9 years, controlled traffic maybe 4 years. We’ve been benchmarking using tech data capture in the past two years.

Valerio Vittorio Ventura farms in Ascoli Piceno, Italy

The company’s production includes extra virgin olive oil, monovarietal and flavoured oils, ancient cereals and flours, legumes, chestnuts, potatoes and various vegetables but also truffles, chestnuts and walnuts.

I started with precision farming not such a long time ago… but it is already possible to understand what happens in the field and be able to make the best decisions about operations in the field, fertilisation, treatments, weeding, certification.

Precision farming – using the Agricolus platform and a weather station that detects temperature, humidity and leaf moisture.

For about six months.

Maciej Szeptycki farms in Poland

South Poland, close to the Ukranian border. The farm is roughly 300ha on very good quality, black soil. I grow vegetables; cauliflower, broccoli, onions and root parsley.

I’m excited about the future of agriculture as a whole and digital technologies for sure will improve a lot of tasks we have in farming.
The biggest advantage I see is in semi-autonomous tractors (automated steering based on precise GPS signal) and precision irrigation.

Digital management of product storage and cooling systems and full food chain digitisation from the farm gate. Precision farming – auto steering systems on tractors. We designed our own automated irrigation system and are developing AI based systems to help predict irrigation need.

For six years; since I started my agricultural business.

We extracted the keywords mentioned during our conversations and put them into a word cloud (below) to show which topics were common to all the farmers.

If you’re an arable farmer, please tell us about your farm and experiences with agri-tech in the comments section below.