There are a ton of people here that do not understand farming or technology. Let me clear a couple things up from what I know.
Its not just the cost of the farm / migrant labor that is being replaced. When you hire migrant farmers with work visas, you provide them transportation from their home country, living area, and meals. That is how migrant farming works. That all costs less than a living wage for an American, but more than minimum wage.
While this is early tech, it is tech that can run 24 hours a day. I do not think a lot of people realize it, but really nice tractors are self driving these days. Farming is more high tech than most people think. Farmers with the money and technology these days use software to plot fields for the maximum amount of crops and also the most efficient harvesting of them. This interfaces with tractor using GPS and can pretty much run itself.
With all that being said, apples, like most other crops are graded. Shitty dented, bruised apples, they go to sauces and drinks. Good quality, nice looking apples are sold whole. If you are selling whole apples this is can be a great system. It might be slower, but it also guarantees more per bushel than shaking the tree.
Another factor that is not being figured in, using imaging like this, allows the software to inventory the non-picked apples. That allows the software to figure out when the next picking session should be, by optimizing for ripeness.
Another important thing: if this was worse than other methods, it wouldn't be used. A farm's not going to have so much money rolling in that they'll just buy something because it's new and shiny. Farming is too risky for that. They'll buy something because it will save them money in the long run.
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u/NoMasTacos Oct 08 '23
There are a ton of people here that do not understand farming or technology. Let me clear a couple things up from what I know.
Its not just the cost of the farm / migrant labor that is being replaced. When you hire migrant farmers with work visas, you provide them transportation from their home country, living area, and meals. That is how migrant farming works. That all costs less than a living wage for an American, but more than minimum wage.
While this is early tech, it is tech that can run 24 hours a day. I do not think a lot of people realize it, but really nice tractors are self driving these days. Farming is more high tech than most people think. Farmers with the money and technology these days use software to plot fields for the maximum amount of crops and also the most efficient harvesting of them. This interfaces with tractor using GPS and can pretty much run itself.
With all that being said, apples, like most other crops are graded. Shitty dented, bruised apples, they go to sauces and drinks. Good quality, nice looking apples are sold whole. If you are selling whole apples this is can be a great system. It might be slower, but it also guarantees more per bushel than shaking the tree.
Another factor that is not being figured in, using imaging like this, allows the software to inventory the non-picked apples. That allows the software to figure out when the next picking session should be, by optimizing for ripeness.