F armWise Labs, Inc., an American agricultural technology and robotics company and another resident of WGCIT, also is moving forward on many efforts to mechanize. But it’s also already operating in the space with an automated mechanical machine that uses a combination of AI, computer vision and robotics to pull out weeds in vegetable fields. The company currently has 12 of the weeders in the market and is offering a weekly weeding service to many growers in the Salinas Valley this summer. The company, founded by Sebastien Boyer, is well past the concept stage. “We charge a simple fee per acre for the service,” he said. As a rule of thumb, one machine replaces about 10 workers…a FarmWise weeder can weed 5-10 acres a day. He added the service saves the grower money as the fee works out to be less expensive than the cost of the labor it replaces. As a rule of thumb, Boyer said one machine replaces about 10 workers doing the job manually. Depending upon the crop, a FarmWise weeder can complete the task on 5-10 acres a day. FarmWise continues to offer trials and is marketing the service, but Boyer said the 12 machines now in service are solidly booked for the next 12 months. “Demand is very high, but we are in the process of adding more units,” he promised. He estimated that by early 2023, the company will have expanded its capacity with additional units. The current FarmWise business model is to offer the weeding as a service, providing the equipment and the operator. All a contract customer must do is order the service via a
FarmWise automated weeder
Wireless Soil Moisture + Post - Harvesting Monitoring
Easy to use - Arrives pre-calibrated and ready to install
- No gateway needed - Plant sensor in soil - Harvest sensor with crop - View data in real time Wireless monitoring - Soil moisture - Temperature - Humidity - Geo-location - View data in real time Intuitive software - Customizable alerts
Can be used in: - Vineyards - Row Crops - Nuts And many other crops!
- Multiple soil calibrations - Post-harvest field analysis - Pre-set safe alerts suggestions - Historical data logging - Automated GDD Calculations - Automated Chill Hours Calculations
The complete agri-tech solution:
Fresh-Pack Tracking
Wireless Moisture Sensor
Bruise Spot Analysis
Storage Monitoring
www.soiltechwireless.com info@soiltechwireless.com
JULY | AUGUST 2022
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Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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