Down on the farm
JEFFERSON TWP — The use of technology has increased on local farms in the past few years to help make planting, managing crops and even milking cows more efficient than ever.
A camera drone lets William Thiele assess the crop conditions at the Thiele Dairy Farm along Route 356 and at the off-site fields the farm relies on to grow feed for its cows.
“I use them for surveying crops at different stages of maturity. When you're on the ground and look out at a field — everything looks the same. In the air looking down, you get an accurate view,” Thiele said.
He gets the aerial view from a drone he flies using the joysticks on a hand-held controller. The camera transmits live views displayed on a screen located on the controller. Thiele started using a drone to help manage crops in 2015.
“I can see what the corn looks like in the middle of the field. I can check for deer and groundhog damage. I can see if corn needs nitrogen,” Thiele said. “I can check for downed trees like after the big storm last year, so I'm not surprised when I start working fields.”
Using his drone to check on a rye field, Thiele pointed out a few bare spots resulting from last summer's rainy weather. Continuing the scan, he pointed out how a circle of dead and damaged crops is a telltale sign of a groundhog feeding, while corn displaying a pale green color signifies soil lacking nitrogen.
Thiele and his twin, James, plant 300 acres to feed their 80 cows and some of the fields are more than a mile from the farm, but his drone easily covers the distance.
Davis Dairy, a dairy farm near Chicora, utilizes automated milking robots on most of its 150 cows.Purchased four years ago, the robots reduce labor costs, measure the amount of grain the cows eat, allow the farm to detect problems in milk and help cows produce milk longer, according to Alan Davis. Before the automated system, Davis said the milking process took two people two hours.“We have some cows still producing milk at 12 to 13 years of age,” Davis said. “We have at least five (cows) over 10 years old.”He added that most milking cows do not last past 10 years. In fact, the peak age is 5 for most cows.When a cow wants to eat, it walks through a closed loop around the high-tech barn to the feed supply. Along the way, each cow passes into a gated area with two exit routes. If they're due for a milking, the gates direct them toward the robots. Otherwise, they pass through to eat. The system operates 24 hours a day.“Cow freedom,” Davis said. “It's less stressful on the animals. The movement of the herd can cause injury and stress when you put them in crowded pens. A cow that works well with the robot will live longer.”In addition to eliminating the stress of chasing the herd into a pen for traditional milking, Davis said automated milking also reduces labor costs.Breeders prefer cows that cooperate with robotic milking machines, he added. A computer gathers information — such as the amount of grain each cow eats and the amount of milk each produces — and detects variations in the milk. A decline in milk production can indicate a cow is sick. The computer notifies Davis via his cell phone if blood is detected in the milk.“It detects any abnormality in the milk,” he said.The barn also features an automated brush that a cow can use to scratch itself. Cows start the brush spinning by bumping into it.
Global positioning system (GPS) technology helps Randy Smith efficiently plant and maintain the crops he grows to feed the 200 beef cows on his family farm near Petrolia.The tractor used for planting, another one used for spraying and a combine all have GPS units that can steer the machines as they plant, spray and harvest without overlapping on finished rows. On-board computers store the rows in each of the fields covering nearly 3,000 acres on and near the farm.“It follows the lines. That tractor will take off and plant on its own. It will steer itself across the field,” Smith said. “People don't realize how much technology there is.”He said he still has to pay attention to make sure seeds continually fall from the planter, and pesticide sprays from the sprayer and hoses don't get clogged. But on the other hand, the GPS reduces the fatigue caused by monitoring the equipment and keeping the tractor on course.The system, which Smith has been using for about five years, also allows him to identify wet spots and seeps of coal and clay in his fields.When planting corn, which costs well over $200 a bag, the computer will shut off any of the 16 rows on the planter if they cross over an area that was already planted. The computer will beep and lift the planter at the end of a row and put it back down at the beginning of the next one, he said.The sprayer operates the same way.“Sprays are getting so expensive you don't want to spray the same place twice,” Smith said.The on-board computers send data to the farm's office computers.“I can track my yield that way,” Smith said.The computer provides images of each field made up of small colored blocks. The colors and a corresponding table show bushel-per-acre yield of each block. Other information harvested — including total yield per acre — is average moisture, the number of acres traveled and the speed traveled.“I thought it was a waste of money when we first started messing with it,” Smith said. “Now that I use it, it makes life so much simpler.”
