John Deere recently announced a “vineyard of the future” project with Sonoma County Winegrowers to deploy technology solutions to help wine grape growers better maximize yield, applications and more.
Sean Sundberg, business integration manager for John Deere, says the team at John Deere recognized the importance of the multigenerational farms in the region. He said these families wanted to participate in the project to help ensure the vineyard lands continue to stay in farming. “That's really what engaged us to say there's an opportunity here, that we can help,” he said. “The future is now, and those farmers are looking for technology and embracing technology.”
Sundberg said growers he works with understand how technology can help alleviate the mounting pressures of labor woes, pesticide spray regulations and rising costs of farming. He said farms of the future will likely integrate more electric and battery-powered equipment in the coming years. He believes automation will play a big part in agriculture equipment as it supplements the crews working on farms.
“Automation is not meant to eliminate all jobs,” said Sundberg, noting automation will help growers better deploy existing crews into other jobs on the farm.
According to Sundberg, the other major component of the future of specialty crop farming is the utilization of data. Growers will soon be able to understand how applications in each block or section of the vineyard impact quality and yield. He said growers will also be able to understand other factors that go into yield, including sunlight, irrigation and soil type, to provide a full picture of the growing season and conditions. “Then you can make real-time decisions that are going to allow you to say if I can do this here, I will get that there, and you're going to be that much better off as an operation."
Sundberg also shared how the “vineyard of the future” trial includes utilizing John Deere’s Smart Apply which detects canopy density to help calculate the necessary spray density to better target applications and avoid over-spraying or drift. Sundberg said John Deere will trial Smart Apply in Sonoma County this year on existing sprayers. Initial trials show a lot of promise from a cost savings perspective, but Sundberg said that isn’t the only goal for the growers in the project.
“I think that if you were to ask these growers, they're going to say saving money's great,” Sundberg said. “But it really goes back to am I being a good steward of the land? Am I being a good steward of the environment? And that's exactly what this is helping them do.”
EDITOR’S TAKE:
A wonderful combination of corporate desire to engage with their customers and customers interested in improving the sustainability of their farming operations. John Deere is a leader in technology development and application in agriculture. They are the only ag equipment manufacturer to regularly display at the huge Consumer Electronics Show each year. It is very encouraging to see specialty crops adopting more technology and using the data to help improve their operations. Virtually all farmers/ranchers, whether they produce beef, corn or wine grapes, are looking at how to increase productivity, cut costs and become more profitable. And, of course, they are looking for the best deal on that new or qualified used truck or SUV. As a CAD member you can offer the best deals in the market, which includes AgPack® and put your inventory on AgTruckTrader.com®. We also want to recognize John Deere as a proud sponsor of AgRally each year!
