Many new technologies are being developed to improve agricultural production.

Sensors, autonomous equipment and big data will all be part of farming in the future.

David Yee is a vice-president with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) in Humboldt.

He says the next generation of farmers is ready to adopt the new technology.

“Whether they are being brought in by parents or grandparents, there is a wave of younger farmers. This younger farmer has been raised on technology. They have a comfort with it and are willing to explore it to see what opportunities the technologies can deliver back to the family farm.”

One technology is autonomous function, which allows the remote operation of equipment.

“Autonomous functions help the independent single farmer. We are going to see DOT technology and other companies start to create master/slave relationships,” says Yee. “It can help a farmer sitting in one cab that needs another piece of machinery operating, but doesn’t have anyone available.”

Sensors will gather information directly from the field. The sensors will be small and less expensive in the future and be implemented in different ways.

“We will see them on tape and in liquid form. These things will be designed to last an entire crop season. They will constantly gather information and send it back.”

Yee adds data compression will be important so it doesn’t result in bloated messages. That means shrinking down the data. Once that happens, very large amounts of data can be moved efficiently.

Yee was one of the guest speakers at Ag in Motion in July.