Grow Skagit Fall 2019 by Skagit Publishing

EYE IN THE SKY

Drones could help farmers inspect crops • Are farm robots, driverless tractors coming? • High-tech for a small farm: “fertigation” helping Sauk Farm • Automation helps Skagit Farmers Supply reduce its labor needs

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Eye in the sky Story by JACQUELINE ALLISON Page 3 photo by CHARLES BILES Skagit Valley Herald

Aerial photos courtesy of CHRIS BENEDICT

FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS, Skagit Farmers Supply has used a drone to get a bird’s-eye view of the fields and equipment of Skagit Valley farms.

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Drones could help farmers inspect crops from above Skagit Farmers Supply graphic designer Brianna Hackler said she flies the drone to take photos for marketing materials. Some farmers in Skagit County are also using drones. Sakuma Bros. Farms bought a drone two years ago to get aerial

An image taken by a drone of a blueberry ﬁeld in Skagit County.

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views of its berry fields, said CEO Danny Weeden. “You can see patterns and areas where (the crops) might not be getting enough water, and are not growing as well,” he said. “It’s useful and beneficial for that alone.”

MORE THAN A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW

In the future, there may be more uses for drones in agriculture. Researchers are looking into the ability of drones with remote sensors to monitor plant stress, said Chris Benedict, agriculture

agent with the Washington State University Whatcom County Extension. Remote sensing is not a new technology. Benedict said satellites and airplanes with remote sensors have been used in farming for decades. Drones have an advantage in that they can fly low over fields. “What has changed is the ability to monitor plant stress at low altitude with better spatial resolution,” Benedict wrote in an email.

This image of the blueberry field on the left was created from several individual images that show light reflected off plants and other on-ground objects. Researchers are looking at analyzing the data from the images to detect plant stress, such as nutrient deficiencies.

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BENEFITS TO FARMERS

Skagit Farmers Supply agronomist Jon Jarvis said the company is interested in offering the drone as a service

“WHAT HAS CHANGED IS THE ABILITY TO MONITOR PLANT STRESS AT LOW ALTITUDE WITH BETTER SPATIAL RESOLUTION.” — Chris Benedict, agriculture agent with the Washington State University Whatcom County Extension

Brianna Hackler, graphic designer at Skagit Farmers Supply, launches a drone Sept. 4 at a farm near Mount Vernon. Skagit Farmers Supply uses a drone to take photos for marketing materials, and is exploring using the drone to help farmers inspect crops. to farmers in the near future, a cheaper option than having farmers buy the equipment. He said the images obtained by drones with remote sensors could help farmers see their higher and lower producing areas. With that information, farmers could tailor their fertilizer use and seeding to get the best possible results, he said. “If you have an area that has a lower potential for yield, you can put less

seeds per acre so they’re not competing as much for the little nutrients there,” Jarvis said. He said there are also specialized cameras available for drones, such as a thermal camera that can detect water stress. For berry farmers that use drip irrigation, that technology could help alert them to a pluggedup line before the plant dries up, he said. “(Drones help you) see a lot you can’t see with the naked eye, and

it does it in a lot faster time,” he said. Darrin Morrison of

Morrison Farms, a potato farm between Mount Vernon and Conway, said drones and other new technology could help farmers become more efficient and improve poor areas of their farm. He said with soil varying from field to field in the Skagit Valley, it makes sense to manage foot by foot, not acre by acre. He said by managing fertilizer use farmers can cut costs while also benefiting the environment. Morrison said he believes the technology will catch on in the next several years, but would like to see more evidence of its benefits. “Sometimes (Skagit

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Valley) is a little bit slower moving, just because economy of size,” he said. “If we had 10,000 acres in the Midwest, it would be a different deal. We’re so diversified that not all this technology is available. We’re hoping some (technology) developed for corn and soybeans will work for our crops.” Jarvis said his goal is for Skagit Farmers Supply to expand its use of drones for the next growing season. “It’s more just getting farmers on board with seeing the benefit and value there, and having something we can charge for a service,” he said. “We’re fairly close.”

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Light reflected off plants is captured on sensors attached to the drone, and that data is analyzed to pick up plant stress, such as nutrient deficiencies, he said. Benedict said Washington State University is using drones fitted with sensors to detect nutrient deficiencies in raspberries and blueberries, the presence of weeds in fields, overall plant growth, and moisture stress. A lot of the research on drone use in agriculture has focused on crops such as corn, soybeans and cotton, he said. There is more work to do for the 40 or more crops grown in Skagit County. “We have to do a lot more research to determine the accuracy and reliability (of drones) that lead to real-world management decisions,” he said. “One of the big impediments is that these devices create so much data, and for someone who isn’t trained or interested in dealing with all that information, it can feel daunting.”

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Rise of the machines Are farm robots, driverless tractors coming?

Story and photos by JACQUELINE ALLISON Skagit Valley Herald

ROBOTS ARE PLANTING CROPS, weeding fields and milking cows on a few Skagit Valley farms, and many farmers use semi-autonomous tractors that can steer themselves.

ABOVE: John Youngquist, a salesman for Farmers Equipment Co. in Burlington, drives a tractor through a harvested corn field Oct. 14 at Marine View Farms near Stanwood. While the tractor has GPS-guided auto-steering, it still needs a driver to operate it. RIGHT: John Youngquist, a salesman for Farmers Equipment Co. in Burlington, points to a tractor’s auto-steering system Oct. 14 at a farm in Stanwood.

Skagit Valley Farm has used a robotic weeder and planter for about five years, and the farm has plans to upgrade both robots, said founder and CEO Tony Wisdom. As vision technology improves, new robots will be better able to distinguish a plant from a weed, he said. And more technology is coming. Wisdom said he expects to see fully autonomous — or driverless — tractors available to farmers in the next 10 years. “If I’m looking in my crystal ball, that’s something I see,” he said.

DRIVERLESS TRACTORS

Tom Shields, Burlington location manager for Farmers Equipment Company, said while today’s tractors still require a human operator, many drive, steer and turn themselves with the help of GPS satellites. He said the technology has improved accuracy in

farming and had reduced worker fatigue. Some companies are developing driverless tractors. Wisdom said in the future one farmer could operate a fleet of autonomous tractors from a station, instead of needing a worker on each piece of equipment. He said technology such as driverless tractors is appealing as labor costs go up and labor is harder to find. However, there are legal hurdles and safety concerns that prevent farmers from using driverless tractors. “I think legislation is not keeping up with advancement of technology,” Wisdom said. “Farmers are at a disadvantage because right now we can’t use autonomous tractors.” He said he believes as sensor technology improves, so will safety. Tractors will be able to correct themselves with the help of artificial intelligence sensors attached to the tractor.

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“It will be a very complex algorithm that will involve deep learning and machine learning — if this, then that,” he said. John Youngquist, a salesman for Farmers Equipment Co. in Burlington, said one of the main concerns with driverless tractors is moving them down a road. “Traffic is probably the worst thing to get involved with,” he said. “We have big equipment going down the road and it’s dangerous.” He said he imagines that if autonomous tractors are used in Skagit County, the equipment would still have a cab to allow a worker to drive it safely down a road.

ROBOTS

Advanced Farm Technologies, a startup

“TRAFFIC IS PROBABLY THE WORST THING TO GET INVOLVED WITH. WE HAVE BIG EQUIPMENT GOING DOWN THE ROAD AND IT’S DANGEROUS.” — John Youngquist, salesman for Farmers Equipment Co. in Burlington

based in Davis, California, has developed an automated strawberry picker, said co-founder and CFO Kyle Cobb. Cobb said a tractor drives over multiple beds of berries as robotic arms gently pick fruit. A vision system determines if the fruit is ripe. The company is working with large California growers to test the technology, he said. “Our equipment can operate day and night, and offers flexibility with harvest schedule,” he said. “Every grower is feeling cost pressure (with labor). We’re making the work much

easier for the workers involved.” He said workers are still needed to pack fruit in containers, and operate and fix the robots. Advanced Farm Technologies’ robot is not for sale yet, but is instead offered as a service to farmers, Cobb said. While the company is now exclusively focused on strawberries, it hopes to expand to other crops, such as blueberries and raspberries, he said. The blueberry crop in Skagit County in 2018 was worth an estimated $21 million, according to Washington State University Skagit Coun-

ty Extension agriculture statistics. Sakuma Bros. CEO Danny Weeden said the company relies on hand harvest for its strawberry and blackberry crops, and only uses machines to harvest blueberries for the processed market. Machines aren’t available yet to harvest blueberries for the fresh market. “There are companies working on mechanical harvesters for strawberries, but nothing that has a practical (return on investment) for our farm at this point,” Weeden said in an email. “Nonetheless, like all farms in the

U.S., we are faced with less and less labor for hand-harvesting crops, and growing and harvesting costs continue to increase exponentially each year. The practical reality is we will need viable technological solutions to help address these challenges.” Alan Mesman, an organic dairy farmer in Mount Vernon, said the robotic milking equipment he bought six years ago has helped fix the cost of milking cows, even as wages continue to rise. Cows are milked on a reliable schedule and the same way each time, he said. The robotic milking machine has helped the farm produce 11% more milk. He said other Skagit County dairies were

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planning to buy robotic milking machines, but scrapped plans after milk prices went down. WSU Skagit County Extension Director Don McMoran said Skagit County farmers who sell their products on a global market should pay attention to new and emerging technology. Big farms should be able to take on investing in technology, and smaller producers may lag behind, he said. “Our farmers here are going to need to make sure they are following those trends, otherwise they will be left in the dust,” he said. “Markets are highly competitive, and a good deal of food here is distributed over the world. We need to make sure we are competitive in that marketplace.”

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‘High-tech for a small farm’

‘Fertigation’ helping Sauk Farm Story by JACQUELINE ALLISON Photos by OLIVER HAMLIN Skagit Valley Herald

AT SAUK FARM, an organic fruit farm nestled at the base of Sauk Mountain near Rockport, technology is helping each plant get exactly what it needs while helping the farm cut back on the amount of water and fertilizer used. While many farms sprinkle dry fertilizer at the base of plants, Sauk Farm injects the fertilizer into its drip irrigation system. The equipment allows the farm to “spoon-feed” each apple tree with the right amount of water and nutrients, said operations manager Griffin Berger. Berger estimates the system has reduced water loss from 65% (sprinkler) to 3% (drip irrigation), saving 100,000 gallons a year. In fertilizer costs, the farm saves $450 a year per acre in its apple orchards, he said. The farm has about 100 acres, with 10 acres in production, Berger said. The farm grows honeycrisp apples, grapes, plums and peaches. The 25-year-old Berger has worked on the farm full time for three years after graduating from Washington State University, where he studied fruit and vegetable management, and field crop management. Berger said he learned about “fertigation” — the

combining of irrigation and fertilizing — while working on a farm in Italy. Sauk Farm purchased the system a yearand-a-half ago. “This is high-tech for a small farm,” he said. He estimates it will take the farm about two years for the technology to pay for itself. “It’s expensive, and there’s a learning curve,” he said. “You have to experiment and fail.” From a control center, Berger mixes fertilizers with water in a bucket. Equipment sucks the concoction into water lines to irrigate the farm. Sauk Farm uses fertilizer from natural sources certified under the state Department of Agriculture organic program. Berger said the farm’s main fertilizers are a saltwater concentrate and a fish emulsion made from scraps from the fishing industry. One of the main benefits of fertigation is that it reduces the loss of nitrogen, one of three main nutrients plants need

from the soil, Berger said. “If you’re fertigating and spoon-feeding a plant as you go, you’re not overloading the system at once,” he said. Berger said since the farm switched to the fertigation system, nutrients have increased in its honeycrisp apples. Berger said dumping fertilizer on plants can alter the pH of the soil, and affect beneficial microbes in the soil. It can also lead to more nutrient runoff, which makes its way into salmon-producing streams nearby, and in dramatic cases, leads to oxygendepleted dead zones such as in the Gulf of Mexico, he said. Jon Jarvis, agronomist at Skagit Farmers Supply, said fertigation systems are used by many Skagit County farmers, especially blueberry growers, for precision agriculture. Berger said he has brought in other practic-

es, such as placing mulch (broken down organic material) at the base of a tree that acts as a sponge to retain water. He said he intends to continue his family’s farm. “I have to,” he said. “I absolutely love it.”

ABOVE: Rows of honeycrisp apples grow in a field at Sauk Farm on Aug. 22. The field is irrigated with a system that provides water and fertilizer in small quantities and cuts down on waste. BELOW: Griffin Berger, operations manager at Sauk Farm, stands Aug. 22 in front of the farm’s fertilizer injector system.

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Automation helps Skagit Farmers Supply reduce its labor needs Story by JACQUELINE ALLISON Photo by CHARLES BILES Skagit Valley Herald

WHEN SKAGIT FARMERS SUPPLY built a new agronomy plant west of Burlington in 2017, it invested in new systems, including a robot, to pack fertilizer bags. The automated plant is designed to be run by two people, compared to five or six in the old plant, said plant foreman Ryan Hill. Among the automated features: a label maker that sticks labels on bags, a robot that stacks fertilizer bags on pallets and a machine that wraps the

pallets in plastic. Hill said he is grateful for the robot, which has cut out strenuous manual labor. “We are enjoying not having to stack bags anymore,” he said. He said the robot replaces at minimum two people. Now, one person

is needed to program and operate the system and a second is needed to hang bags on the line, Hill said. “One guy can stand here by himself,” he said. “And it’s a lot faster.” Hill said a 27-ton order of fertilizer now takes about three hours to complete — half the time needed to finish the same job before. Coby Beath, who is in charge of wholesale distribution for Skagit Famers Supply, said the cost of the automated bagging system was about $550,000. He estimates it will pay for itself in about eight years. “We got it to cut back on labor,” he said. “Labor

is one of the highest costs a company has.” He said Skagit Farmers Supply’s bagging system handles 6,000 to 7,000 tons of fertilizer a year. Hill said the company ships about 90% of its fertilizer to customers in Hawaii for crops such as bananas, coffee and citrus. He said there was a learning curve to the new automated system. “We kind of had to learn everything on our own,” Hill said. Still, he prefers the challenge to learning new technology to stacking 50-pound bags. When the new plant was built, it was designed to be

Ryan Hill, the foreman at the Skagit Farmers Supply agronomy plant west of Burlington, works the control panel Sept. 4 for the robot that stacks fertilizer bags. efficient in other ways, too. The facility can more quickly unload fertilizer from railcars and trucks, and can mix a 3-ton fertilizer bag in about 30 seconds with the old time being 10 minutes, Hill said. The Burlington plant can hold 7,800 or more tons of fertilizer, compared to 2,800 tons at Skagit

Farmer Supply’s Conway agronomy plant. “From the time product enters this building to the time it leaves, there are many different ways that (the new system) can it has cut time, cost, labor, and overall wear and tear on equipment in half if not more,” Hill said in an email.

The Farmland legacy Program is a county funded initiative that compensates landowners for development rights and places perpetual conservation easements on agricultural lands. Landowners retain fee simple title to their land and continue to farm while the easement places restrictions on future use to protect its agricultural character and productivity. The Program monitors nearly 12,000 acres of lands in easements. Why do landowner’s apply to enroll in the Farmland Legacy Program? • To aid in farm succession planning efforts • To preserve land for agricultural production • To reinvest funds into equipment • To reduce farm debt or supplement income • To reinvest funds into additional land purchases

What are the Program’s benefits to the community? • Preserves open space and rural character • Supports local food production • Limits development in the floodplain • Contributes to the agricultural economy • Conserves soil for future generations

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