Topcon’s new transplanting system will help increase fruit and vegetable crop production by up to 15 per cent, the company says
Technology and positioning company Topcon Agriculture has unveiled its latest product in the USA – Transplanting Control.
Designed particularly for fruit and vegetable farmers, this turnkey system provides global navigation satellite system (GNSS) based guidance, autosteering and control.
Topcon Agriculture’s vice-president of product development Michael Stone says this automated system will increase efficiency on farms.
“Manual measurement is still common practice in areas where specialty and permanent crops are grown,” he says.
“Our precision GNSS-based guidance and control allows for more elaborate planting patterns and has been proven through countless industries and applications.
“This now-affordable transplanting technology can help growers increase crop production by up to 15 per cent, if not more.”
The solution eliminates the manual labour required to physically outline fields, Topcon says, while it also provides streamlined setup through an easy-to-use task planning interface.
Farmers can also expect reductions in fuel and other inputs through the reliability of GNSS, resulting in fewer mistakes and corrections.
“Crops placed in an optimised space maximise available resources like soil nutrients, water and sunlight; this also allows more accessible angles for maintenance, like cleaning and weeding, which will further improve output,” Stone says.
“More uniform transplanting executed through GNSS generates a healthier crop for increased production and quality.
“This technology can even improve efficiencies with tasks like soil sampling and post hole digging.”