The world’s first autonomously grown parsnip crop

Another project Agrii has been involved with is with Huntapac, in collaboration with Autonomous Agri Solutions and AutoSpray Systems, funded by the Marks & Spencer Plan A Accelerator Fund, which successfully grew a crop of parsnips autonomously. This achievement is believed to be a world first.

To prepare the field, an AgXeed electric drive autonomous tractor was used for primary and secondary cultivation, says Tom Beach of Autonomous Agri Solutions.

“That was able to do the subsoiling operations and ploughing, which was the first case of autonomous ploughing in the UK. Finally, it did the bed tilling.

“A Robotti was utilised for the subsequent lighter operations because it has a standard three-point hitch to use conventional agricultural implements, but it is substantially lighter and more accurate than a tractor.”

To monitor the crop and guide the precise application of plant protection products, Agrii used a drone equipped with Skippy Scout to do the agronomy.

Skippy Scout is a software system that will automatically fly a drone to selected points in a field and send back high-resolution, leaf-level images to aid with decision-making. The system analyses the captured images and sends a field report, explains Jonathan Trotter.

The successful field-scale trial has demonstrated a 46% reduction in carbon emissions and significant labour and input savings. Naturally, thoughts move to how the system developed by the group can be rolled out on a larger scale.

Interoperability between the systems controlling the decision support tools and machinery is a crucial milestone. This is a challenge Agrii has already begun working on.

“We are looking at integrating Skippy Scout with our digital platform, Contour,” says Jonathan. “This can then be linked to soil mapping through Rhiza, and further into the future, it could export treatment recommendations to the other technologies used within this very project.”