Augmenta controls VR granular and liquid applications in real time; the roof-mounted camera analyzes crop conditions
Augmenta is a cab-mounted system with five 4K multispectral cameras, each working in a different wavelength. Artificial intelligence analyzes the plants then makes real time VR instructions that control the application of liquid and solid nutrients, plant growth regulators, fungicides, desiccants and defoliants.
Ron Lyseng
Stories by Ron Lyseng
Risk evaluation app predicts lentil disease
Growers are tempted to shorten their rotation because of high profit potential but the biggest enemy of lentils is aphanomyces root rot. Its spores can remain viable in the soil for a decade or longer.
Tool developed to help build cold tolerant crops
Over the past 150 years, plant breeders have kept meticulous records of successes and failures. But with millions of data points over that length of time, it’s been a gargantuan task to optimize the information and increase the number of commercially viable fall-seeded crops.
Winter lentil survival put to test
SuperCool winter lentils were put to the test this winter, with three of four sites recording total kill; especially disappointing because this was supposed to be a seed increase year. It is disappointing, but not surprising. The Winter Crop Survival Model predicted earlier that sites at Saskatoon, Riceton and Melita would not recover from the […] Read more
Ultra-early seeded wheat can survive
Are the risks associated with planting before temperatures can support a crop worth potential benefits?
When early seeding works it means early harvest and reduced odds of frost damage in the fall, hail and other risk factors. If ultra-early seeding works, it can also provide a grade benefit.
Dormant: fall-seeded winter crops
University of Alberta researcher Graham Collier explains, “In dormant seeding you want the ground cold as possible, so seed sits there without germinating until the following spring. You don’t want the crop to get snow right away because that might insulate the soil and maintain too much heat. If you get germination in the fall, that crop will die. You have a very narrow window of opportunity.
Three years ultra-early on-farm experience
“I think it’s definitely a risk. But I think the upside outweighs the downside, especially in our country out here at Consort (eastern Alberta),” said Farley.
Bacterial inoculant for tubers
XiteBio spokesperson Richard Clement said commercial trials at Shilo, Manitoba have increased potato production by an average of 10 to 44 bags per acre in the last few years.
Seal a seed within a droplet
The QuadApplicator earned its name from the fact that it can apply four main liquid products: fertilizer, herbicide, fungicide plus cover crop seeds ensconced in large droplets of prescribed liquid nutrient.
Hauling the QuadApplicator
The concept of ensconcing one individual seed into one big nutrient-laden liquid droplet, and keeping it safely stable and suspended until it’s sprayed out onto soil, is a mighty challenge. Hauling the apparatus around in the field is also a formidable task. Nonetheless, it is the sort of thing Bob West at R.A.West does in […] Read more
