Hi, my name is Lyndsey Salutregui from the Homedale FFA Chapter. My speech is going to be about the Mechanical Side of Farming in Idaho. If you didn’t have farming you would have to pay more money at the grocery store and more money to import the food from other states. There are all sorts of new things in agriculture including technology. Like GPS in tractors, irrigating through a cell phone, and your tractor talking to you. Which is what i'm going to talk about today.
The first thing I’m going to talk about is GPS in tractors. The GPS were invented around 1980s by the U.S. Department of Defense. They used to use horses back in the olden days but now they invented a GPS that allows the tractor to drive itself. You can move your body in…show more content… Mobile tech is playing a big role in monitoring and controlling crop irrigation systems. With the right equipment a farmer can control his irrigation systems from a phone or computer instead of driving to each field, moisture sensors in the ground are able to communicate information about the level of moisture present at certain depths in the soil. This increased more control of water and other inputs like fertilizer that are applied by irrigation pivots. Farmers can also combine this with other tech like VRT. VRT stands for Variable rate technology. Variable rate technology you can know what areas of a field are most and least productive. Using your phone to irrigate is a lot better for farmers because there total water usage is now less than what they were wasting previously. So it’s a lot better because they can be using the extra water they didn’t waste. Using the system gives growers more control over their irrigation by delivering accurate data on field and crop conditions, lowering their costs and raising their yields. All you have to have for this system is a computer or a cell phone and connect in to your pivot that runs the water. Irrigating through a cellphone is a big thing now, most big farmers use it and i think other farmers should start using it because it doesn’t waste your water, money, and…show more content… The crop sensor emits brief bursts of red and light, and then measures the amount of each type of light that is reflected back from the plant. It can also measure the amount of fertilizer is being put on your crop. The sensor can be hooked to a tractor or there is a handheld sensor that you have to go to every plant to check the plant. All you have to do with the handheld one is go to the plant and press a button and it will show the number. The strength of the detected light is a direct indicator of the health of the crop. The higher the reading, the healthier the plant is. The tractor crop sensor cost between $16,000 and $20,000 each and the handheld sensor cost around 400 to 500 dollars. There is different types of sensors for measurements they are called electromagnetic, optical, mechanical, and airflow. Electromagnetic sensor is measures the soil particles to conduct electrical charge.Optical sensor uses light to characterize soil. Airflow sensor are used to measure soil air. Mechanical sensors can be used to estimate soil mechanical resistance. This sensor cuts through the soil and records the force measured by loaded cells. Mainly electromagnetic are used. You can use the crop sensor for corn, wheat, rice, and lots more. So crop sensors have a lot of things that go with it and a lot of types of sensors like electromagnetic, optical,mechanical, and airflow, but the crop sensors help
