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Farmers will soon
be able to open gates, track livestock, steer tractors and
control other farm jobs by computer, says a University of
Georgia researcher.
As more rural areas gain high-speed Internet access, a farmer
could do all this and not even be on the farm, said Stuart
Pocknee, a precision agriculture program coordinator with
the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
“A farmer could be out of the state at a meeting or
even on vacation and pull up his farm’s Web page and
farm,” said Pocknee, who works in the National Environmentally
Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory (NESPAL) in Tifton.
Internet farming seems a novel idea now. But it's really not
that far-fetched, Pocknee said.
Fast communication technology is already being used for many
applications. Factory machinery can be accessed and controlled
by a technology worker outside the factory. A person can call
home to start or stop appliances or air-conditioning system.
A simple home security system can call for help when it senses
someone breaking in.
Technology may never replace some farming work, Pocknee said.
But the tractor made farming easier and more efficient than
the mule-driven rigs of the early 1900s. Modern communication
technology could do the same in this century.
Wireless Internet communications have the greatest potential
for on-farm use, he said. Wireless simply means there’s
no physical connection between a sender and the receiver.
They’re connected by radio waves.
UGA’s precision agriculture team has pilot wireless
communication projects established on farms now. One allows
a farmer to remotely monitor his vegetable packing shed operation.
Another will allow a farmer to do the same with his irrigation
system.
Wireless technology products of the past have not transferred
well to farm use, Pocknee said. But newer products have greater
potential. They’re more versatile, inexpensive and easier
to use.
Many variables have to be overcome on a farm, such as trees,
hills and extended distances. But it can be done, he said,
if there is an interest within the wireless industry and agriculture.
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Technological
advances and increased availability of Internet access have made the
remote control of many farm tasks more likely, according to UGA research.
