Two Farmers Review their Agrobotic Weeding Tools

This episode, a return to the topic of robotic weeding technology. This time, I speak with two farmers, each of whom has spent considerable time working using some cutting edge weeding machinery. There has been a lot of hype around robotic- and AI-driven agritech. I invited these two farmers to share their perspectives about the performance of a couple such tools on the farm, in order to get a sense of their strengths and limitations.

First: Gabriel Demarco. Gabe is the head winemaker and viticulturalist at Cave Spring Vineyard in the Niagara region of Ontario. I reached out to Gabe because at his vineyard he’s been working with a battery-operated vineyard robot called TED. It’s manufactured by Naio, an agritech company located in france. In Canada, the TED is distributed by Haggerty Agrobotics, whose president, Chuck Haggerty, we heard from in episode 53 last year.

Then: Matthew Carr. Matt is the BC Operations Manager for the Vegetable Division of Monette Farms, which grows organic and conventional produce for distribution in Western Canda and parts of the western US. Matt has been using a robotic weeder called The Smart Cultivator, manufactured by Stout primarily to tackle weeding in horticultural crops.

This episode of the Organic BC Podcast was funded by the Governments of Canada and British Columbia through the Sustainable Canada Agricultural Partnership. Opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests and not necessarily those of the Governments of Canada or British Columbia. The Governments of Canada and British Columbia and their directors, agents, employees, or contractors will not be liable for any claims, damages, or losses of any kind whatsoever arising out of the use of, or reliance upon, this information.