SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), has partnered with precision farming company SoilEssentials and farmer-owned cooperative Grampian Growers to support the uptake of the innovative Tuberzone potato technology among growers from Angus to Aberdeenshire to the Black Isle.
Part of SAC Consulting’s role has been to gauge more broadly how much support is required among farmers in taking on digital tools.
Cross-industry collaboration is essential to the adoption of precision technology in agriculture, said the project co-ordinator of a recently completed Knowledge Transfer Innovation Fund (KTIF) project
The 12-month Tuberzone initiative, based in the East of Scotland, trialled new precision agriculture tools to predict tuber size of seed and salad potatoes and accurate burn down time for growers to maximise yield and profit margin.
Project facilitator Zach Reilly of SAC Consulting said that the value of projects like these is working collaboratively with all parties with a vested interest – the growers, the tech providers, the marketing co-op – to develop precision technology that is compelling for growers to adopt long-term.
“The flow of new technology into agriculture is exciting but we need to assure farmers that it will meet their needs. When there are many variables and cost implications it’s important to select tools that are going to help your decision-making and your business’ bottom line.
Part of SAC Consulting’s role has been to gauge more broadly how much support is required among farmers in taking on digital tools. We have gained a lot from this experience and it will help us in future projects as we guide farmers through the adoption of new technologies across all agricultural sectors.”
Using a combination of satellite imagery, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and GPS to monitor growth from crop emergence through the growing season to burn down, Tuberzone successfully predicted the graded-out size of Gemson, a salad potato variety owned by Grampian Growers, within 90 per cent accuracy, for the majority of growers.
Jim Wilson, managing director of Brechin-based SoilEssentials, said, “The challenge of seed and salad potato production is knowing exactly when to stop the crop growing and a few days either way can make a big difference to the total value of the crop. Tuberzone allows us to see what is going on under the ground and aids the decision on haulm destruction by giving an individual yield and size distribution for each crop over the next two weeks.
Source: Read the full report on Far Eastern Agriculture here
