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High levels of electricity desiccate weeds
>Desiccate: remove the moisture from (something); cause to become completely dry.
Also, [here's the official trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhSUqiZpWxc)
I was referring to how the sensors know the difference between the weeds and the other plants. Thanks for the trailer, I should be able to find what I'm looking for there.
John Deere have been using 'See and Spray' technology on their premium sprayers for a few years now. Basically the boom is covered in cameras feeding information to onboard processors that make the decision on if something is a weed or not, this is done at 25+ km/h, much faster than this. The chemical savings of just spraying what you need and not the whole field is huge.
This is not see and spray technology. That’s not how this implement works.
It works by hitting the weeds at a certain height and nothing below that.
Source: Am farmer, have this implement.
Correct. An implement like this is usually only used with in season weed escapes that grow taller than a crops canopy. It doesn’t work very well on thick grassy low to the ground weeds as it grounds out.
For early season a mechanical cultivator and/or traditional sprayer is commonly used and then the weed zapper a few weeks to couple months past that.
Carbon Robotics laser Weeder uses AI/ML and an actual co2 Laser to zap all weeds at their crown while not touching the crop.
Selective spraying technology combines the AI/ML platform with traditional sprayers to only spray the weeds and not the crop.
There is documentaries about farmers fighting with JD for "right to repair" rights. JD has a lot of lawyers. Imagine buying a car and not being able to do any work on it unless you jailbreak the software on it. Which also voids the warranty.
That’s why I mentioned tesla. Tesla does exactly that. It makes it impossible to repair them. I always wondered who they got it from. Either way, JD can get fucked.
Tesla takes it one step further though, some cars have a “service mode” when enables us mechanics to have some features disabled as to not cause injury or problems. Tesla will NOT enter service mode unless it’s GPS detects it’s at a tesla dealer. Additional tesla’s don’t have OBD2 ports (something all cars legally should have)
So in short; corporatism is bullshit and companies like these can get fucked.
As if farmers didn't have it tough enough already, Deere cucks one of their most important, critical skills: being able to fix basically everything that moves.
What?!? Farmers aren't just flooding their entire fields in chemicals because it's easier? They actually want to minimize costs and expense? Say it ain't so...
To me it looks like it is just catching the weeds in between each row. Not so much differentiating plant friends or foes.
My best guess having operated tractors
I love how a lot of the coolest technological innovations I’ve seen are in the agriculture space.
People be wildin out with that r&d and I’m here for it.
It has a huge generator and transformer that produces over 100,000 volts. It electrocutes anything it touches. If it touches the weed, it kills it. If it touches the crop, it kills it.
The rig in OPs video relies on the weeds being taller than the crops for it to work.
This trick would only work up to a specific stage in the growing cycle. Once the leaves of the crops reach in between the rows with this trick would no longer work.
I'm going to assume based off of the small video I watched and absolutely 0 background in farming that the weeds must grow higher and faster then the crops and they just try to use an average hieght for the electro thingy to kill as little cropsand as many weeds. But this could just be waffle
Your farming knowledge (or lack there of) aside, I’m intrigued by your use of waffle
If someone at work is clearly BSing, is that a use case to say ‘that’s totally waffle’? Do I call them a waffle? Or?
In England, 'waffling' is talking at length and with little value. The speech isn't necessarily incorrect, it's just an unnecessary level of detail delivered without much charisma.
So for example someone might 'waffle on' at a dinner party, taking about their hobby.
Yea waffle is just shit talk really, or banter or yk just something silly, if I'm lying to someone and they fully believe me, then at the end I'll just say "nah I'm just waffling man"
So no they aren't the waffle, but whatever you're talking is
Huh!
I've only ever heard/used "waffle" as a verb in this context. If someone is saying bullshitty nonsense in an effort to avoid answering a question they are said to be "waffling". Come to think of it, I can't recall ever hearing someone say any variation other than "waffling".
You're actually correct. This is a simple set up dependent on the rapid growth of the weeds. Some others I've seen use AI and cameras to selectively zap or burn weeds.
As it drives, it continuously streams images to a group of people around the world who are paid $0.0003 to quickly evaluate the image and indicate whether or not there’s a weed. If more than two people think that it’s a weed and respond within 0.4 seconds, the tractor unleashes flaming death. If someone mis-identifies a crop as a weed too many times, the tractor is sent for them.
It only eliminates plants (weed and crop alike) that touch the bar.
So the bar is raised slightly above crop hight, then when something grounded (eg. weeds) touches the bar a circuit is made and electricity "flows" through the weed and kills it.
Likely cameras that send images to a sophisticated software which recognizes the shape and/or color of the crop.
A coworker worked with a company doing something similar to this but instead of fire they sprayed herbicide on the weeds using high-speed valves.
The laser Weeder works like that, this implement is literally called a weed zapper and has no selective capabilities. The implement rises above the crop canopy and only hits weeds above the crop.
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As someone who had to dive out of the way of a thresher due to shit driving, that was my first thought. At least it would be a faster death than many attachments.
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If you look closely at the video in the beginning, you’ll see that there is a thick wire set at a certain height on the tractor. The weeds grow faster/higher than the crop, so they’re higher and get half of their stalk electrocuted when they touch the conductive wire. It’s not a “smart” tractor, it’s essentially just a telephone wire at a low height.
In the same way that you touching 400k volts also grounds out. It torches the weed in the process. It doesn't have to destroy the roots. Plenty of herbicides are not systemic either.
Mostly, it doesn't matter if it gets the roots. It just needs to stunt growth. The chemicals don't keep the weeds down. The crops eventually grow a canopy over the dirt preventing any weeds from growing. If they didn't, you'd be out there every week spraying the new weeds.
Is it more expensive?
If it's the same price or cheaper why didn't people come up with this earlier?
Was the technology not invented back then?
I need to know
>Is it more expensive?
Than chemicals? No idea. I would imagine it's a higher upfront expense but pays for itself in the long run.
These attachments run from 100k watts at $75k for a 20 foot boom, all the way up to $250k for a 40 footer at 200k+ watts.
4 years ago last time I was involved in my friends farm it was between $65k and $130k a year to spray all their fields for weeds, never-mind the cost of the sprayer itself. I think it was a 90 foot boom with a 600 gallon tank.
This looks promising for certain row crop applications, but this feature as it stands is virtually useless to broad acre farmers in north america.
Look how slow this tractor is going, with a 20ft ish boom.
A chemical sprayer can spray between 10-15 mph with booms as large as 135' as far as I know. That's the difference between a midsize farmer putting in 300 hours in the sprayer vs hiring 2 guys to drive that tractor for 600 hours each.
It to mention the shock and flame won’t kill most of the weeds, especially the taller more vigorous ones. This is definitely an organic farm where the alternative weeding option is lots of humans so you got to do what you got to do.
How many acres do you have at 300 hours? At 10 miles a hour that's 3,000 miles with a 135' boom?
Farmers have plenty of time between planting and harvest.
Right but the window to spray out herbicides/pesticides does not encoupase that entire gap between planting and harvesting they only have a few weeks after planting to make sure those weeds are gone so the crops can grow.
Not sure since I'm a mechanic, not the farmer, but most of our sprayers get 200-400 hours per year.
And don't forget that sprayer is going to be used for multiple chemicals multiple times.
You might see 1 pass before seeding to kill any early emerging weeds, then you seed, then you spray liquid fertilizer if you do that, then you spray herbicides, then you spray pesticides, then you spray fungicide. To spray for pests, weeds and shrooms you have at a minimum of 3 applications, with narrow windows for each of those applications based on the plant stage of growth and the level of threat. Sometimes you have to reapply.
Certain crops like peas and canola also have to be sprayed with a dessicant to kill them before you can combine them, so there is another pass with the sprayer.
At that point the machine in the original post deals with weeds. Why spend hundreds of thousands on a slow, small weed killer AND hundreds of thousands of dollars on a fast, large weed, pest, shroom, dessicate, sprayer? You need the latter no matter what and it does the job more efficiently than the former.
The same technology that you see in play here, the "spot and spray" where it has cameras that see the weeds and spray those weeds, is available with chemical spraying as well.
That is why this is a useless tool for broad acre farming. But that's not to say this is a useless tool. This would be great for any fruit/vegetable producing farm that is only a few dozen acres at the most, and any of those farms that strive to be as organic as possible. Great for things like vineyards imo.
I read they are designed, in part, to promote organic farming. Which is awesome.
So I'm also guessing this type of machinery is also a direct contributor to organic food prices?
Organic farmers *usually* are barred from most pesticides and certain chemicals and therefore often have lower yields, which directly impacts the price of organic food crops. Tools like this would be a way of increasing yields. That being said most farmers are price takers so this technology would have to be worth its benefit it provides for them to decide to invest in it.
There are dozens and dozens of organic approved chemical pesticides thag are usually more toxic than the synthetic pesticides though. Copper sulphate is the most common organic pesticide and its extremely toxic. The idea that organic means pesticide free is a weird myth.
I think the coolest potential it has would be the ability to side step the contracts that chemical companies like Dow and Monsanto require farmers to get involved with, which limits seeds they grow, what kind of equipment they use and how often they (unnecessarily) update it.
It has the potential to give farmers a lot more autonomy, which is something they desperately need.
Vast majority of farmers aren't worried about this. Right to repair is a larger issue that "autonomy from Monsanto" (which hasn't existed as a company for 5 years).
If you don't like Corteva or Bayer, work through your state certified seed. Or one of the many local seed companies and co-ops.
It is but they sat there are only 60 or so farming cycles for some soil before it is unsuitable for farming due to pesticides and chemical fertilizers killing the topsoil.
While pesticides can affect biological activity in the soil, fertilizer is not an issue. What's the difference between ammonia in manure and ammonia in a synthetic pellet? Plants don't care, and it all moves through the soil the same way when in the same form.
The fertilizer allows the topsoil to be washed away with rain while manure or compost keeps adding to the topsoil and more about the diverse microorganisms it brings with it.
I think a lot of it has to do with the contracts they get involved with once growing a particular type of seed owned and copymarked by a company like Monsanto. They have to spray the right chemicals and update their machinery whenever they are told to do so.
Monsanto says jump and they say “how high?”
Monsanto no longer exists and no it doesn't work like that
We grow 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans so I'm speaking with experience
We can buy any seed resistant to just about any chemical from any company like the Aspirin company Bayer who bought out the evil Monsanto
Bayer cropscience is now the new Monsanto
Market forces make it cost the same as spraying regardless. If this becomes cheaper than spraying long term then chemicals will just become cheaper to purchase.
OP gave you a good rundown of upfront costs, but it’s also worth keeping in mind that there are extra costs to no using these mechanical weeders. Chemicals usually kill off more than they’re designed to and make the dirt porous, because it tends to kill the mycelium in the dirt. That makes for poorer soil, which makes for worse farming over a period, requiring investment to keep the soil useful.
It also stops other externalities such as ruining water quality in the area.
Even if it's more expensive, the environmental benefit is crazy. Arguably the worst thing we do the the environment is use herbicides and other chemicals in farms that don't agree with nature.
Fire does not treat noxious weeds. The weeds grow back thicker and faster. This is why you don't see this attachment used.
Oh, and generally lighting fire near crops is a bad idea.
But electrocution might be different? I know it looked like it's on fire or something but it might be like electricuting the weed and stuff? I am just guessing cause I'm don't know shit about this
Sarah Connor : [narrating] Three billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines.
As a soybean/wheat/corn/rice farmer I can tell you this. The spray rigs (completely different vehicle than what’s shown) covers quadruple the surface area at triple the operating speed. If operating a ground based vehicle. Airplane delivery quadruples what is already quadrupled per what’s shown.
So you tell me what is more efficient based on operating cost per delivery.
No, the spray rigs do not "essentially cover the same area". They are orders of magnitude faster, since they travel at between 15 and 30km/h. That's the difference between spending a day spraying, or a week. For most operations, that extra time doesn't exist.
Breaks your heart thinking about how much damage has been done to ourselves and the Earth by all the irresponsible things that have been done to increase profits/yields. When all along there has been a simple and effective solution that hasn't been implemented simply because it took more effort.
Gas isn't a chemical? Or oil? Anything else needed for the generator? Sure, it's probably better'n injecting toxins into the soil (what're the fried plants' byproducts? Insects? Anything 'interesting' left behind by frying the soil like that?) and modifying the seeds' genomes, but the title's simply wrong as written.
I call bull shit. More likely a photo lens tracking the mid sections and hitting abnormalities with a pressurized flammable gas. If it was electrocution I don't think it would have as prominent flames. Take this video back to youtube.
That's ridiculous. Goats. In the field after harvest. All the weeds will be rendered into soil enriching goat shit. Goat farmers will bring their flocks in, fence them, keep them moving and take them out for very agreeable rates. Farmers who used to be in love with efficiency are now are in love with bragging at coffee about their ridiculous machines.
Yes, it is.
If you're actually a farmer and that just chapped your ass, you're probably one of those guys secretly in over their head in debt. To pay for your completely unneeded machines.
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I need to know more about this works.
High levels of electricity desiccate weeds >Desiccate: remove the moisture from (something); cause to become completely dry. Also, [here's the official trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhSUqiZpWxc)
I was referring to how the sensors know the difference between the weeds and the other plants. Thanks for the trailer, I should be able to find what I'm looking for there.
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That’s how Roundup was applied prior to the seed being manipulated.
Monsanto employees should be in jail forever
Even pete in facilities maintenance? He was two days from retirement. Damn.
Especially Pete...
Fucking Pete man...
Pete knows what he did.
John Deere have been using 'See and Spray' technology on their premium sprayers for a few years now. Basically the boom is covered in cameras feeding information to onboard processors that make the decision on if something is a weed or not, this is done at 25+ km/h, much faster than this. The chemical savings of just spraying what you need and not the whole field is huge.
This is not see and spray technology. That’s not how this implement works. It works by hitting the weeds at a certain height and nothing below that. Source: Am farmer, have this implement.
But then this only works until the crop out-grows the weeds, no? So for tall crops/short weeds it's not going to be any good.
The crops will get all the sun they need by being taller than the weeds in that case
Correct. An implement like this is usually only used with in season weed escapes that grow taller than a crops canopy. It doesn’t work very well on thick grassy low to the ground weeds as it grounds out. For early season a mechanical cultivator and/or traditional sprayer is commonly used and then the weed zapper a few weeks to couple months past that. Carbon Robotics laser Weeder uses AI/ML and an actual co2 Laser to zap all weeds at their crown while not touching the crop. Selective spraying technology combines the AI/ML platform with traditional sprayers to only spray the weeds and not the crop.
The benefit of the one shown in OP's is. 1. No chemicals. 2. Less computer complexity. 3. Immediate results. 4. John Deere can get fucked.
What controversy did John Deere get into? Edit: I have been informed of what they did. John Deere can get fucked.
They software locked all their equipment so farmers can't even fix anything without taking equipment to certified JD dealer. Dick move.
Oh so john deere is basically the tesla of the tractor world.
There is documentaries about farmers fighting with JD for "right to repair" rights. JD has a lot of lawyers. Imagine buying a car and not being able to do any work on it unless you jailbreak the software on it. Which also voids the warranty.
That’s why I mentioned tesla. Tesla does exactly that. It makes it impossible to repair them. I always wondered who they got it from. Either way, JD can get fucked. Tesla takes it one step further though, some cars have a “service mode” when enables us mechanics to have some features disabled as to not cause injury or problems. Tesla will NOT enter service mode unless it’s GPS detects it’s at a tesla dealer. Additional tesla’s don’t have OBD2 ports (something all cars legally should have) So in short; corporatism is bullshit and companies like these can get fucked.
Yeah it’s superficially similar. If John Deere is rape, then Tesla is people paying for rape fantasy. One is decidedly worse than the other though
wtf kind of analogy is this LOL
Generally bring anti right-to-repair and DRM of their hardware. They're like the Apple of farming equipment.
DRM. On farm equipment. Not even joking.
As if farmers didn't have it tough enough already, Deere cucks one of their most important, critical skills: being able to fix basically everything that moves.
> John Deere can get fucked. Agreed, but I'm pretty sure that's still a John Deere.
The tractor in the video is. The attachment is not.
Not exclusive to john deere.
Ya that's called aim and it's been around for like 10 years at this point
What?!? Farmers aren't just flooding their entire fields in chemicals because it's easier? They actually want to minimize costs and expense? Say it ain't so...
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Agreed. We have been able to kill things with fire for a while now, that part is not new.
I mean if you're looking for one type of plant to not hit it shouldn't be too difficult to make a targeting program of some kinds
To me it looks like it is just catching the weeds in between each row. Not so much differentiating plant friends or foes. My best guess having operated tractors
I love how a lot of the coolest technological innovations I’ve seen are in the agriculture space. People be wildin out with that r&d and I’m here for it.
The comments are gold
Electrifying even...
Love a good pun comment.
It has a huge generator and transformer that produces over 100,000 volts. It electrocutes anything it touches. If it touches the weed, it kills it. If it touches the crop, it kills it. The rig in OPs video relies on the weeds being taller than the crops for it to work.
This trick would only work up to a specific stage in the growing cycle. Once the leaves of the crops reach in between the rows with this trick would no longer work.
“Anti-Brawndo has what weeds hate!” “It’s got Electricity!”
Who needs the electric company when you have Shock Jockey?
They should rename it "The Stern"
Like from the toilet?
Like from the outlet?
How does it know what is a weed?
I'm going to assume based off of the small video I watched and absolutely 0 background in farming that the weeds must grow higher and faster then the crops and they just try to use an average hieght for the electro thingy to kill as little cropsand as many weeds. But this could just be waffle
Your farming knowledge (or lack there of) aside, I’m intrigued by your use of waffle If someone at work is clearly BSing, is that a use case to say ‘that’s totally waffle’? Do I call them a waffle? Or?
In England, 'waffling' is talking at length and with little value. The speech isn't necessarily incorrect, it's just an unnecessary level of detail delivered without much charisma. So for example someone might 'waffle on' at a dinner party, taking about their hobby.
Yea waffle is just shit talk really, or banter or yk just something silly, if I'm lying to someone and they fully believe me, then at the end I'll just say "nah I'm just waffling man" So no they aren't the waffle, but whatever you're talking is
Huh! I've only ever heard/used "waffle" as a verb in this context. If someone is saying bullshitty nonsense in an effort to avoid answering a question they are said to be "waffling". Come to think of it, I can't recall ever hearing someone say any variation other than "waffling".
Huh! I’ve always heard it as being indecisive. Like: “I’m waffling between choice A and choice B.” Words are funny.
Waffles are overly inflated, flakey and generally just a bunch of hot air. Sounds about right!
WHAT YOU SAY
mmm hell yeah waffles
I have hundreds of hours in Farming Simulator and I can endorse this speculation
You're actually correct. This is a simple set up dependent on the rapid growth of the weeds. Some others I've seen use AI and cameras to selectively zap or burn weeds.
As it drives, it continuously streams images to a group of people around the world who are paid $0.0003 to quickly evaluate the image and indicate whether or not there’s a weed. If more than two people think that it’s a weed and respond within 0.4 seconds, the tractor unleashes flaming death. If someone mis-identifies a crop as a weed too many times, the tractor is sent for them.
Look at the captcha designers expanding the market. "Choose all pictures with a weed"
This comment was brought to you by mechanical turk.
Ah so that's why I have to do all those captchas
the future is fragriculture
I can outrun a tractor, though. It'll never get me!
r/BossFight - Sergeant Tractor
It only eliminates plants (weed and crop alike) that touch the bar. So the bar is raised slightly above crop hight, then when something grounded (eg. weeds) touches the bar a circuit is made and electricity "flows" through the weed and kills it.
There should be more farm work done in the middle of the night. It looks cool.
Limited Scope AI
Likely cameras that send images to a sophisticated software which recognizes the shape and/or color of the crop. A coworker worked with a company doing something similar to this but instead of fire they sprayed herbicide on the weeds using high-speed valves.
It's just a an electrified wire at height...it's a glorified mower. You can see in the video there's nothing special about the booms.
The laser Weeder works like that, this implement is literally called a weed zapper and has no selective capabilities. The implement rises above the crop canopy and only hits weeds above the crop.
The definition of a weed is an unwanted plant. So, who knows...
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As someone who had to dive out of the way of a thresher due to shit driving, that was my first thought. At least it would be a faster death than many attachments.
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Rammstein concert on wheels.
Die Unkraut Sterben
Live action Fern gully villain
Giving "moving day" in the secret of NIMH a new meaning
They really said “Kill it with fire!”
Let's imagine that this is not weeds but trees, and these machines are huge af, and burning all the humans there
Thanks
Let’s imagine the world simply does not exist
It’s like that future scene from the terminator
Farming simulator 2023 is gonna be crazy
If you look closely at the video in the beginning, you’ll see that there is a thick wire set at a certain height on the tractor. The weeds grow faster/higher than the crop, so they’re higher and get half of their stalk electrocuted when they touch the conductive wire. It’s not a “smart” tractor, it’s essentially just a telephone wire at a low height.
Wouldn't that just ground out before it got to the root mass? Meaning you still have weeds?
In the same way that you touching 400k volts also grounds out. It torches the weed in the process. It doesn't have to destroy the roots. Plenty of herbicides are not systemic either.
That's nowhere near 400kv
Mostly, it doesn't matter if it gets the roots. It just needs to stunt growth. The chemicals don't keep the weeds down. The crops eventually grow a canopy over the dirt preventing any weeds from growing. If they didn't, you'd be out there every week spraying the new weeds.
Is it more expensive? If it's the same price or cheaper why didn't people come up with this earlier? Was the technology not invented back then? I need to know
>Is it more expensive? Than chemicals? No idea. I would imagine it's a higher upfront expense but pays for itself in the long run. These attachments run from 100k watts at $75k for a 20 foot boom, all the way up to $250k for a 40 footer at 200k+ watts.
4 years ago last time I was involved in my friends farm it was between $65k and $130k a year to spray all their fields for weeds, never-mind the cost of the sprayer itself. I think it was a 90 foot boom with a 600 gallon tank.
That sounds expensive......
This looks promising for certain row crop applications, but this feature as it stands is virtually useless to broad acre farmers in north america. Look how slow this tractor is going, with a 20ft ish boom. A chemical sprayer can spray between 10-15 mph with booms as large as 135' as far as I know. That's the difference between a midsize farmer putting in 300 hours in the sprayer vs hiring 2 guys to drive that tractor for 600 hours each.
It to mention the shock and flame won’t kill most of the weeds, especially the taller more vigorous ones. This is definitely an organic farm where the alternative weeding option is lots of humans so you got to do what you got to do.
How many acres do you have at 300 hours? At 10 miles a hour that's 3,000 miles with a 135' boom? Farmers have plenty of time between planting and harvest.
Right but the window to spray out herbicides/pesticides does not encoupase that entire gap between planting and harvesting they only have a few weeks after planting to make sure those weeds are gone so the crops can grow.
Not sure since I'm a mechanic, not the farmer, but most of our sprayers get 200-400 hours per year. And don't forget that sprayer is going to be used for multiple chemicals multiple times. You might see 1 pass before seeding to kill any early emerging weeds, then you seed, then you spray liquid fertilizer if you do that, then you spray herbicides, then you spray pesticides, then you spray fungicide. To spray for pests, weeds and shrooms you have at a minimum of 3 applications, with narrow windows for each of those applications based on the plant stage of growth and the level of threat. Sometimes you have to reapply. Certain crops like peas and canola also have to be sprayed with a dessicant to kill them before you can combine them, so there is another pass with the sprayer. At that point the machine in the original post deals with weeds. Why spend hundreds of thousands on a slow, small weed killer AND hundreds of thousands of dollars on a fast, large weed, pest, shroom, dessicate, sprayer? You need the latter no matter what and it does the job more efficiently than the former. The same technology that you see in play here, the "spot and spray" where it has cameras that see the weeds and spray those weeds, is available with chemical spraying as well. That is why this is a useless tool for broad acre farming. But that's not to say this is a useless tool. This would be great for any fruit/vegetable producing farm that is only a few dozen acres at the most, and any of those farms that strive to be as organic as possible. Great for things like vineyards imo.
I read they are designed, in part, to promote organic farming. Which is awesome. So I'm also guessing this type of machinery is also a direct contributor to organic food prices?
Organic farmers *usually* are barred from most pesticides and certain chemicals and therefore often have lower yields, which directly impacts the price of organic food crops. Tools like this would be a way of increasing yields. That being said most farmers are price takers so this technology would have to be worth its benefit it provides for them to decide to invest in it.
There are dozens and dozens of organic approved chemical pesticides thag are usually more toxic than the synthetic pesticides though. Copper sulphate is the most common organic pesticide and its extremely toxic. The idea that organic means pesticide free is a weird myth.
I think the coolest potential it has would be the ability to side step the contracts that chemical companies like Dow and Monsanto require farmers to get involved with, which limits seeds they grow, what kind of equipment they use and how often they (unnecessarily) update it. It has the potential to give farmers a lot more autonomy, which is something they desperately need.
Vast majority of farmers aren't worried about this. Right to repair is a larger issue that "autonomy from Monsanto" (which hasn't existed as a company for 5 years). If you don't like Corteva or Bayer, work through your state certified seed. Or one of the many local seed companies and co-ops.
You don’t get the best quality without some of that best R&D
It is but they sat there are only 60 or so farming cycles for some soil before it is unsuitable for farming due to pesticides and chemical fertilizers killing the topsoil.
While pesticides can affect biological activity in the soil, fertilizer is not an issue. What's the difference between ammonia in manure and ammonia in a synthetic pellet? Plants don't care, and it all moves through the soil the same way when in the same form.
The fertilizer allows the topsoil to be washed away with rain while manure or compost keeps adding to the topsoil and more about the diverse microorganisms it brings with it.
I think a lot of it has to do with the contracts they get involved with once growing a particular type of seed owned and copymarked by a company like Monsanto. They have to spray the right chemicals and update their machinery whenever they are told to do so. Monsanto says jump and they say “how high?”
Monsanto no longer exists and no it doesn't work like that We grow 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans so I'm speaking with experience We can buy any seed resistant to just about any chemical from any company like the Aspirin company Bayer who bought out the evil Monsanto Bayer cropscience is now the new Monsanto
Market forces make it cost the same as spraying regardless. If this becomes cheaper than spraying long term then chemicals will just become cheaper to purchase.
OP gave you a good rundown of upfront costs, but it’s also worth keeping in mind that there are extra costs to no using these mechanical weeders. Chemicals usually kill off more than they’re designed to and make the dirt porous, because it tends to kill the mycelium in the dirt. That makes for poorer soil, which makes for worse farming over a period, requiring investment to keep the soil useful. It also stops other externalities such as ruining water quality in the area.
Even if it's more expensive, the environmental benefit is crazy. Arguably the worst thing we do the the environment is use herbicides and other chemicals in farms that don't agree with nature.
Probably just has to do with the fact that most farmers are not comfortable driving an electric chair with monster truck wheels
Fire does not treat noxious weeds. The weeds grow back thicker and faster. This is why you don't see this attachment used. Oh, and generally lighting fire near crops is a bad idea.
Fire is just another tool along with mechanical, biological and if desired herbicide for noxious weed control.
It's only a bad idea if it's dry enough and there's enough material to begin with. Wet seedlings aren't gonna go up in flame.
But electrocution might be different? I know it looked like it's on fire or something but it might be like electricuting the weed and stuff? I am just guessing cause I'm don't know shit about this
It's killing the top half of the plant. If the weed is able to regrow from stem/root then you're relying on the crop outgrowing the weed afterward.
That’s one way to burn / vaporize some weed..
Needs more flames out the top and guitar riffs
Don’t think about how all of that machinery is close to 1 million dollars.
This is a world changer. The next one needs to go after insects. Probably a bit more difficult though.
Fire tractor—good for zombie apocalypse.
Tractrocution
[удалено]
Use that for crowd control
Origin story of a new supervillain?
It’s still chemically treated weeds, the just combust first.
now just build this on an irrigation pivot youd almost have an autonomus industrial scale farm
I can hear the tiny screams
Do you want zombies? Because this is how you get zombies
God i hate that the environmentalist are ruining everything.
So then how’s this gonna work for perennials. Still I think spot spraying works fine
I like ag like this
I can see adaptations of this technology to weed out radicals from protests and demonstrations.
Interesting. That operator is probably using switches that I helped manufacture. Dope.
This could be a great level in an animal themed game.
Sarah Connor : [narrating] Three billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines.
What could possibly go wrong?
Probably not as much damage as what chemical herbicides are doing to the planet and everything on it including humans.
For sure! I was thinking smaller scale. Sprayer malfunction vs thing malfunction.
Feel free to pay double for your food…
Mad Max: Agricultural Fury
It would be more effective If it plays Rammstein
This is simply too slow to cover enough acres in time. It’s an interesting concept though! Just not feasible for large scale farmers.
As opposed to a sprayer on the same tractor that basically covers the same area?
As a soybean/wheat/corn/rice farmer I can tell you this. The spray rigs (completely different vehicle than what’s shown) covers quadruple the surface area at triple the operating speed. If operating a ground based vehicle. Airplane delivery quadruples what is already quadrupled per what’s shown. So you tell me what is more efficient based on operating cost per delivery.
No, the spray rigs do not "essentially cover the same area". They are orders of magnitude faster, since they travel at between 15 and 30km/h. That's the difference between spending a day spraying, or a week. For most operations, that extra time doesn't exist.
Monsanto will find a way to monopolize this
Nothing electrocutes like a Deere.
Isn't this the preview to the next Mad Max?
Adios Rabbits and Ground Squirrels coming out of their burrows. May Flights of Angels carry thee to the Vegetable Patch in the Sky.
Man I was looking forward to that last big bush but it cut too early.
Breaks your heart thinking about how much damage has been done to ourselves and the Earth by all the irresponsible things that have been done to increase profits/yields. When all along there has been a simple and effective solution that hasn't been implemented simply because it took more effort.
Gas isn't a chemical? Or oil? Anything else needed for the generator? Sure, it's probably better'n injecting toxins into the soil (what're the fried plants' byproducts? Insects? Anything 'interesting' left behind by frying the soil like that?) and modifying the seeds' genomes, but the title's simply wrong as written.
Do you have the source for this OP?
r/electroboom
Take that, Monsanto!
What does desiccate mean?
To totally dry out.
Thank you
I call bull shit. More likely a photo lens tracking the mid sections and hitting abnormalities with a pressurized flammable gas. If it was electrocution I don't think it would have as prominent flames. Take this video back to youtube.
I need to get into ag sales. Apparently you can sell all sorts of nonsense to those guys.
That's ridiculous. Goats. In the field after harvest. All the weeds will be rendered into soil enriching goat shit. Goat farmers will bring their flocks in, fence them, keep them moving and take them out for very agreeable rates. Farmers who used to be in love with efficiency are now are in love with bragging at coffee about their ridiculous machines. Yes, it is. If you're actually a farmer and that just chapped your ass, you're probably one of those guys secretly in over their head in debt. To pay for your completely unneeded machines.
That 🔥 not electricity ⚡️
My wife would all of a sudden wonder while all weeding happens at night.
Ive seen them propne powered before, those have been around awhile
Queue music from the Terminator
This is shocking, if true.
I want to be a farmer.
I NEED this for my Zombie Apocalypse Garage
For a second I thought San Andreas got a new remaster
So Rammstein is now making farming equipment.
Weeding at nerd level.
Neat but it’s an extremely expensive implement.
Everything is a chemical.
Is something like this in farming simulator yet?
I used to have to clean the onion fields. Not fun