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“ If for example you ’ re going to do variable rate seeding , it ’ s important to go out into the field and find out how many ears you have and how many shoots you have . You really need a good and committed approach to agronomy . It can ’ t all be done in the office and , just like any good farmer would have done for centuries , you still need to go out and walk the field .
“ You cannot make a decision about how much fertiliser to put on or how much seed unless you go out . Ground truth it .
“ I believe you should apply two calibrations - one is in the yard with the machine and you make sure a certain
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amount flows out over a certain time , but the other calibration is where you go and look in the field and see the reality of what is growing and how this relates to the digital mapping .
But Andrew finds the new drone technology a game changer .
“ What ’ s really exciting is that with the drone technology that ’ s coming in we ’ re able to facilitate variable rate application by no longer having to drive up and down every tram line with expensive heavy machinery . The great thing about a drone is it just zips from one marked area on the map to another in blink of an eye . Drone application is also very new , with the ability to carry up to 50
Proud to support Hessleskew Farm , wishing them continued success .
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litres or 50 kilos and to input it not just variable to where it is needed and highly accurately but also the cost saving of that expensive kit , less compaction and less fuel .
“ We are now providing , through our partners , the first heavy lift agricultural drone weighing 100 kilos and with a 3 metre bladespan . When product or battery is getting low it lifts up away from the crop and flies back fast . It will land at your feet and you will add product or put a battery in and press a button and it will return to its work . It ’ s something everyone will have to consider .
“ It has already proved itself in places not easy or safe for humans to access like whitewashing a greenhouse roof or in agriculture where access to a crop where it is not easily accessed with a machine , but seriously this is a real cost saver for anything that requires zonal application . The rate of progress in drone usage is far faster than I expected when it first came on the market .
While usage of drones may still take a while to work their way into many farmers ’ minds Andrew says it is clear that new technology is something that even more are looking towards to defray cost and make their farms sustainable , while not necessarily buying a new machine with all bells and whistles .
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Hessleskew Farm - Andrew the farmer
“ I ’ ve farmed here nearly all my life . We are a mixed arable cropping farm of 172 hectares plus land rented in for seed potato production in order to maintain a rotation .
“ Certified seed potato production is our biggest single enterprise alongside the wheat , malting barley and vining peas for Bird ’ s Eye , plus a new little venture with a bit of sugar beet into seed production .
“ I am chairman of Yorkshire Seed Potato Growers . We ’ ve grown seed potatoes here for nearly 50 years now and we are still able to find clean land and have no background of eel worm .
“ Historically there wouldn ’ t have been a great deal of root crop production on the Wolds because of the nature of the soil but technological developments in the 70s with stone separators changed that and the soil type has a lot of advantages in terms of potato production because the high calcium levels in the soil gives good cell structure in the potatoes .
“ We are doing a lot of retro fitting of new technology on to older machines for those who can ’ t afford new machines . It can prove cost effective to buy the new technology to go on to the existing machine as an upgrade .
“ This is one of the areas in which our technicians play an important role . I ’ ve had 3 technicians in France recently , for a week doing training on new technology and another technician has spent time training on drones .
Manterra looks after hundreds of farmers all over the UK . Andrew ’ s business is independent of the manufacturers .
“ We work with people , with anybody within reason , and we are one of the biggest independent precision farming experts in UK , but to us it ’ s not about us or them . We all need to work together , to help .
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