27 Aug Brian: Artificial Intelligence

Onida, South Dakota — Technology is an amazing thing. From digital phone assistants to electric vehicles, there’s no shortage of cutting-edge products that promise to improve our lives. Of course, you have to be smarter than the tech to operate it, and sometimes that can be a real challenge. Supposedly artificial intelligence (AI) is about to change all that. Now I’ve been called artificially intelligent a few times in my life, but I’ve always been pretty good with gadgets. That’s good because agriculture has fully embraced a new era of technology with harvesting advancements leading the way.

This isn’t your grandpa’s farming operation anymore. Tech once seen as pure science fiction, like GPS auto guidance or precision yield mapping, are now commonplace. Connected machines constantly stream performance data over a cellular network, sending a work report right to your computer. Need a software update? Download the latest version with the push of a button. Is the combine grain tank full? There is no need to guess. Combine status is shared directly to the grain cart tractor’s display. Need to change the grain’s delivery location? Simply push a new work order to your fleet of equipment right from your smartphone. Even the seats are computer controlled, eliminating fatigue-inducing bumps while offering a massage to help keep you in the seat longer.

Those technologies pale in comparison to how AI is poised to change farming as we know it. Combines debuted AI, automating tasks using a high-speed network with precision no humans can match. Gusty winds affecting your straw chopper? Sonar sensors automatically measure the spread pattern and adjust to equalize the distribution. Dirty grain tank sample? AI reviews millions of camera images from inside the combine, making adjustments and then graphing the results for your review. Too much unthreshed grain? Lasers measure just how much so that AI can improve threshing performance. What’s the protein or oil content of the grain in your tank? A near-infrared reflectance sensor delivers lab-like analysis in real time as you harvest.

The most recent innovation uses cameras that scan the crop in front of the combine, creating a 2D virtual reality map that recognizes weeds, thin spots or areas of down crop. Paired with advanced satellite imagery, AI automates your progress like cruise control in the field, proactively speeding up or slowing down to match conditions. No longer merely reacting, AI is predicting what’s coming and adjusting in advance. Merge all these innovations and suddenly those old science fictions robots are today’s autonomous equipment reality.

Despite all this computer wizardry, not even AI can control the weather. We just can’t seem to short circuit this repeating pattern of rain and humidity here in Onida. We continue to fit in a few hours of harvest here and there, but even AI couldn’t have predicted such a drug out harvest. With weather this uncooperative, harvesters are leveraging the very latest tech to make the most of every minute spent in the field.

Brian Jones can be reached at brian@allaboardharvest.com.

Thank you to our 2024 All Aboard Wheat Harvest sponsors: High Plains Journal, Lumivia by Corteva Agriscience, Unverferth Manufacturing Co., Inc., Merit Auctions, Kramer Seed Farms, Shelbourne Reynolds and U.S. Custom Harvesters, Inc.

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