Youtube video:
Meet Farmbot, humanity’s first open-source CNC farming machine. Pre-orders are available now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNkADHZStDE
This robot is smaller-scale, which is very interesting and may open up greater possibilities for individual food production.
Listen to the benefits!
•Plants seeds and then waters them precisely
•Can grow a variety of seeds in the same area the same time
•Each plant cared for in an automated, optimized way
•You control and configure Farmbot with your phone or laptop, and design your garden like a video game
• Models and software are free for you to download and improve upon, so you can build your own FarmBot, to grow your own food, in your backyard,
Product Website:
https://farmbot.io
Karen
Ticker Guide: AMTD/PZZA • See my holdings here: http://my.fool.com/profile/CMF_KBecks/info.aspx
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Looks more like gardenbot than farmbot to me. And I’m pretty sure that modern planting techniques on actual farms are not so far behind this. The tractors even drive themselves these days.
ThyPeace, or so the farmers in the family tell me.
That’s the interesting part, it’s not large scale and you could have this in your backyard, growing food for your family, with food you like and less work. It might change how you eat and it might change your grocery bill. People want natural, organic, local food - this is a huge helper.
Apparently the unit cost about $3k, and pricing should come down over time.
Karen
Ticker Guide: FactSet (FDS), Papa John’s (PZZA) TD Ameritrade (AMTD)• See my holdings here: http://my.fool.com/profile/CMF_KBecks/info.aspx
OK guys … here’s the perspective of this “FarmBot” thing from a farmer in the midwest … me.
When we plant 200 acres every day, it’s usually done with a 24 row planter - farmbot is a “one row”. These 24 row planters have the technology for seed placement to within one-eighth of an inch horizontally and depth. Depth placement is critical to even emergence which is critical to being able to treat the whole field at the same time for a number of pest problems such as weeds and insects and fungus, etc. These planters also have the capability to give the just planted seed a shot of liquid fertilizer as being planted. This placement is critical so as to not “burn” the new emerging plant but still close enough to give that plant the nutrients it needs. In the “no-til” environment, these planters can loosen the soil immediately around the seed for that critical even emergence. EVERY ROW individually on these planters has these capabilities and can even adjust the “down pressure” for uneven soil conditions.
OK … someone tell me that this is not a “FarmBot” on a large scale. We’ve had this technology for a number of years and it gets better with each passing year.
I say the “FarmBot” is the home gardener’s latest toy the same as the 24 row “John Deere Maxemerge” is the farmers latest planting toy for getting the most from the soil.
BTW, that “Maxemerge” costs over $1000 per row. With costs at $350 per 80,000 kernel bag and we plant at 35,000 to 38,000 seeds per acre, we really need that kind of precision.
Rich (haywool)
46 Likes
Hi Rich,
Yes, this is not a FarmBot on large scale. This seems to be really for backyard gardening or hobby farm type farming, or small family farm type farming, or community gardens, and it’s not about rows and rows of corn.
That’s big boy stuff.
But when you are talking about local, organic, it’s very interesting. Will it have any impact on DE? Oh I don’t know but this is super cool.
I’ve heard ideas for a service business that installs these for people and maintains the systems for backyard food production, or a small farm or homestead that might have 10 of these working and saving a lot of labor and energy costs.
This technology fits into a lot of food trends and I’m curious to see where it goes over the long term. I would love to have one but I’m not so geeky as to want one right away. Give it a few years.
Karen
short DE
Ticker Guide: FactSet (FDS), Papa John’s (PZZA) TD Ameritrade (AMTD) • See my holdings here: http://my.fool.com/profile/CMF_KBecks/info.aspx
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Whoops, I thought I was on the Deere board, sorry for that! 
Karen
Karen
short DE
Ticker Guide: FactSet (FDS), Papa John’s (PZZA) TD Ameritrade (AMTD) • See my holdings here: http://my.fool.com/profile/CMF_KBecks/info.aspx
OK guys … here’s the perspective of this “FarmBot” thing from a farmer in the midwest … me.
Nothing like getting an expert user’s input on the newest thing hitting the airways/Interwebs.
Thanks, Rich!
Cheers,
Jim
Karen,
Curious as to why you are short DE. Would you care to elaborate? Thanks.
Don
Sure, Without getting into the specifics too deep, one of the Fool services I follow made the recommendation.
Karen
Ticker guide, FDS,AMTD,PZZA
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