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On Sat, 26 Apr 2014, Tom wrote:
In the spirit of Jethro Tull it occurred to me that its time to bring back the horse plough: Tull revolutionised farming by introducing the seed drill and matching hoe - the seed drill laid out the seeds in nice parallel rows and later 99% of the weeds could be killed by the skilful driving of a hoe between the rows of growing crops. Labour costs and cheap weedkillers and bad driving have driven out the practice. Surely modern technology can produce an automatic device to do the hoeing. All it needs is some way of accurately recognising the gap between a row of crops. I'd imagine the Pi with a camera is probably up to this - and controlling (with a pre loaded field map) a small hoe to wander up and down the fields using solar and wind power?Anyone know of any Pi optical groups?
Tractors with GPS units are accurate to a cm or 2. They're used in the big pararies other side of the pond.
However, what about Plan B: Grow cros that naturally outperform weeds. e.g. strawberries.And Marris Widgeon wheat. As an artisan baker I'm always on the look-out for heritage varieties and Marris Widgeon grows quicky and higher than all the usual weeds, so it outcompetes and grown naturally without pesticides.
Sadly the yield is not enough for modern farmers so it's probably about to become extinct, but bread made with it tastes much nicer than the usual bland supermarket rubbish. I buy mine directly from the mill at Otterton. (Althogh the grain is actually grown over the border in Dorset, at least its milled in Devonshire!)
It's also on the endangered list too - really odd as its the only wheat that can be used to thatch houses with in the UK. It's a Devon based company who're the main seed stock producers too.
Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq