
Ask HN: How would you automate my farm - jelliclesfarm
I intend to fully automate my farm from soil prep to harvest within 3 years.<p>As a thought experiment, how would <i>you</i> imagine the automation of an one-acre farm?
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nnn1234
Why does there need to be soil? I would go aeroponics then go vertical. Rowbot
seems a first step if you still wanna do soil based. I would say get fiveof
your best friends start going vertical with aero.

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jelliclesfarm
vertical aquaponics is a closed loop..high risk system which is limited to
growing greens..maybe strawberries. i am not sold on the system.

rowbot is very specific to fertilizing corn. and they are working with just
one or few corn farmers in the mid west now. automation of a farm involves
several tasks.

have you worked vertical aquaponics? its very attractive as a concept. but
farming is a business. lettuce glut is not a way to make money through
diversified crop planning.

thank you for the pointer re crowdraising.co! i was not aware of that
platform. regards.

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nnn1234
You are right. I have not worked in aero/aquaponics .

You are saying the tech is still not scalable? I would love to know more. If
it's pure automation then are robotics of any use?

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jelliclesfarm
Soil farming is self correcting. Aquaponics...in my opinion..is the exact
opposite. It is a fragile facsimile.

Having said that greens like lettuce and kale shouldn't ever be grown on soil.
Again..just my opinion. Take lettuce for example..1.quick turn around
crop..2.you can grow multiple successions..3.it's always in demand all year.
4.needs post harvest hydrocooling. 5. Very stringent packing rules because
it's mostly consumed raw. 6. Cost too high to return on soil. It is THE
perfect aquaponics candidate.

Another one is kale. I am even surprised that people consider it edible but
it's a brassica and at least in California, (farmer hat on now) bagrada bug
has been devastating and kale is the worst thing any farmer can grow.
Guaranteed damage to other high value brassicas like cauliflower or cabbage.
Again..great aquaponics candidate.

I also feel strawberries can be grown in aquaponics/hydroponics system. It's
devastating to the soil. Very high value but harvest cost eats all
profits(that's why we have so many u-pick strawberry farms)

And there are other examples which makes aquaponics worthwhile to extend
seasons and have regular supply..also scalable. I like aquaponics and
hydroponics for those reasons. Carries its risk because an entire crop cycle
can become mush if you lose power for more than a few hours. It's easy to
salvage crops in soil. Like I said..soil farming is a self correcting and
forgiving mechanism. The flip side to the risks of losing an entire lettuce
harvest on aqua/hydroponic set up is that you can seed and harvest next
succession in 4 weeks.

And then there is the whole debate about the nutrient/taste issues re
traditional soil vs non soil farming.

i think robotics in farm and field is a diff kind. It is repetitive manual
labour that robotics will replace. Reduced tillage and soil conservation
cannot be achieved with mechanized automation. Unlike large farm equipment
mechanization and automation, replication of robotic platforms for non-
commodity crops with conservation goals will recreate and rejuvenate our soil
web ecology. Modern agriculture is crude and very fracturing to natural
resources in more ways than one. It's ..I don't know..I would use the word
'obscene' and a somewhat coarse. Soil less automated farms(like aquaponics) is
elegant but elegant on champagne glass stints..fragile and gauche and very
breakable..and not terribly satisfying. There is something very viscerally and
primitively satisfying about working with the earth. You know it when you know
it. There has to be a happy middle ground with technology's help..where you
can sniff the dirt under your nails to get high and still not die from manual
labour...ya know?

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andreicon
surely this must be crop-specific

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jelliclesfarm
Row cropping. Vegetables.

