Thousands of visitors to western Canada’s largest agriculture and farm show are all looking for ways to increase productivity, efficiency and safety, so companies are trying to be on the cutting edge of innovation. At one corner of the grounds at Ag In Motion, large drones give demonstrations of their abilities and applications in the agriculture industry. But they’re not brand new. “We’ve been doing this for ten years now,” said Markus Weber, CEO of LandView. “Drones are in active use by hundreds of farmers for imaging crops primarily for a lot of years. And then over the last three years we’ve shifted from just looking at the crops to actually applying products.” New models continue to enter the market with higher weight capacity and better safety features. That means farmers are starting to use them to apply fertilizers like humic acid, but federal regulations still prohibit the use of pesticides with drones. “We hope that’ll change soon,” said Weber. “In fact, we’ll do more than just hoping, we will try to put some pressure on government to make sure those things change. It’s a federal agency under Health Canada. The provinces do have some role in enforcement of the regulations, but it is primarily a federal responsibility.” Other companies are unveiling products to their customers for the first time at Ag In Motion. “Two really key ones that we’ve launched here are our seven plex family of air hoe drills,” said Colin Rush, director of sales & marketing with Bourgault Industries. “That’s up to 100 feet of productivity, seven different folds, it kind of forms into a cube of steel in transport, so our engineers really outdid themselves there.” It’s also a chance to use computer software and artificial intelligence to compile more data points, giving farmers a better idea what’s going on under the surface. “That allows us to stream data wirelessly into other carriers like John Deere Ops Centre, CNH Field Ops,” said Rush. “Customers want all their data in one site, and we decided to work with those partners in order for Bourgault to be fully integrated into that customer’s ecosystem.” Advances in tractor technology are making a long day much more comfortable for farmers whether it’s a cooler for your lunch, GPS, a cab that swivels 180 degrees, air conditioning or a smoother ride. “These tracks actually have full suspension underneath them there,” said Rick Hubrich, product supervisor for Canada, Claas of America. “So, people are running around 26 miles an hour on the road, usually you feel the ground or the lugs, you feel that vibration. We’ve got a rubber block in there and movable parts in the cab. It’s smooth, better than most half-tons.” Ag In Motion wraps up Thursday.
