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Tech a labor-saving solution for organic growers

Robots’ potential to be discussed at Organic Grower Summit.

Tim Hearden, Western Farm Press

October 18, 2024

4 Min Read
LaserWeeder demonstration
Carbon Robotics’ LaserWeeder is demonstrated at a field day in Ohio.Jennifer Kiel

A growing hostility among consumers and regulators toward the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture is making the prospect of growing organically more attractive to farms. But the added labor costs can be an impediment.

That’s where automation can come to the rescue.

A recent study led by Western Growers found that the use of robotics to remove weeds in leafy greens in California’s Salinas Valley cut labor costs by as much as 40%, noted Walt Duflock, the organization’s senior vice president of innovation.

“A robot can save you $800,000 a year” in a field that would otherwise cost $2 million to weed by hand, Duflock told Farm Press. “The reason is … with organics you need even more weeding labor.”

In contrast, the use of chemical herbicides can cut a conventional grower’s labor costs by as much as one-third, Duflock said. However, the market for organic produce is more lucrative, giving growers incentive to convert at least a portion of their land to organic production.

“Organic markets are good for automation … because (organic farming) drives up the cost of labor,” he said.

Duflock will moderate a panel discussion titled “Will ag tech make organic farms more profitable?” to kick off the 2024 Organic Grower Summit Dec. 4-5 in Monterey, Calif. Presented by Farm Progress and Western Growers, OGS serves as a hub for organic producers and suppliers to discuss the latest trends, techniques and innovations.

Related:Pest, weed control offers challenges in organic systems

Duflock will appear in the opening panel with Bartley Walker, president of Pacific Ag Rentals, and Danny Bernstein, whose venture capital firm, HawkTower, is setting up a tech hub farm to vet new technology. The panel will probe the question, “If we’re going to automate, what does that look like?” Duflock said.

“I think labor has become twice as expensive in the last five years in specialty crops,” Bernstein told Farm Press. “This (effort) has become much more intensive, to be able to have robotics making labor more efficient. We’re not taking jobs because we have a labor shortage in the West.

“It’s not going to happen overnight, but the potential is enormous,” he said.

Registration for the two-day event at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa is open. For more information, visit www.organicgrowersummit.com.

Weeder case study

In its case study, Western Growers examined two California farms’ use of the LaserWeeder, a chemical-free, no-till weed control machine designed to eliminate more than 200,000 weeds per hour and offer up to 99% efficiency in weed death, according to its inventor, Carbon Robotics. The two farms – Braga Fresh and Triangle Farms – were able to save significantly on their hand-weeding costs, the study found.

Related:Organic Grower Summit launches Dec. 4-5 in Monterey

“Hand-weeding is a very tedious and hard job, and trying to find labor to help us get that done is getting harder every year,” Braga Fresh farming director Kyle Harmon said in the study, which was published earlier this year. “Having large organic acres, we needed to find a solution to help us be more efficient.”

Based in Soledad, Calif., Braga Fresh is a third-generation farm that produces over 30,000 acres of organic and conventional produce throughout the U.S. Southwest and Mexico. Its president and chief executive officer, Rod Braga, was named Grower of the Year at the 2023 Organic Grower Summit.

Before using the robotic weeders, the farm eliminated weeds in its organic baby leaf crops by hand with three crews of 25 employees, whose task would take them about 90 minutes per acre at a cost of $900 per acre, according to the Western Growers study.

Braga Fresh ran two LaserWeeders to cover 4,700 acres of high-density organic spinach, cilantro, arugula and other greens. At a purchase price of $1.2 million per machine and a 5-year depreciation schedule, the total cost of running the machine 18 hours a day was calculated at $267.72 per acre, the study said.

Related:2024 Organic Grower Summit to feature AI, machinery and sustainability

The LaserWeeder doesn’t kill every weed, so the company still has to do some follow-up hand-weeding. But some of the employees could be reallocated to other critical tasks like harvest, for which the farm was facing a labor shortage, Western Growers explained.

The study was the first in a planned series of reports from Western Growers’ Center for Innovation and Technology on financial impacts of different ag-tech implementations.

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