A growing number of agricultural equipment manufacturers are developing and producing equipment more suitable for organic farming, including weeders and equipment designed to stimulate plant growth. For example, using weeds is a long-term method of removing unwanted plants between rows. However, more sophisticated machines also help to remove weeds in plant rows. In today's era, organic farming is becoming more and more important worldwide use due to the growing demand for health, hygiene and safe food for long term sustainability and other environmental issues associated with the indiscriminate use of agricultural chemicals. Although the use of agrochemicals in crop production is inevitable to meet the food needs of a rapidly growing world population. Thus, there are many opportunities for various selected crops and niche areas where organic farming can be improved to meet customer needs. Organic farming requires special equipment and a system of methods to maintain high profitability and yields at competitive market prices. Old problems such as weed and pest control need to be revisited and re-addressed. A growing number of agricultural machinery manufacturers are designing and manufacturing organic farming equipment that allows farmers to reduce weeds and encourage crop growth. While weeders that can remove unwanted weeds between plant rows have been around for a long time, more recent developments include systems that can identify and remove weeds from the plant row itself.
Organic Farming Equipment for Weed Control
- Tinted weeding weed control: A tined weeder comb harrow being pulled by a tractor. Weed canning is one of the easiest methods to remove unwanted species from lawns and cultivated land, depending on the crop being grown. Tined weeders are one of the simplest tools for eradicating unwanted species in pastures and cultivated areas. Organic farmers often use multi-tools to reduce the carbon footprint associated with heavy machinery. Tools such as rakes have spring-loaded blades mounted on a flex frame and can be used to remove weeds and break up compacted soil. Breaking up closed soil allows more air to enter the soil and also improves water infiltration and evaporation. In addition, they play an important role in preventing the growth of slugs by breaking their eggs. Chain weeders can also prepare the seed bed. Tractor weeding chains and attachments can provide all of this and more, making them a popular equipment choice for organic farmers. Multi-purpose tools such as stripping knives consist of spring-loaded rods mounted on a furrow spraying frame. Although primarily used to remove weeds, this organic farming tool also loosens compacted soil, allowing more air to flow upward, allowing water to seep dry and improve evaporation when wet. In addition, it destroys slug eggs to prevent the development of the population. The tool can also be used to prepare the beds before planting crops. When working in hayfields, weeders and weeders play an important role in clearing dead grass from pastures and cutting down the roots of large weeds such as sedges. A relatively high travel speed with a tractor attached is necessary to achieve the desired effect with both types of implements, but it can do a good job of aerating and killing weeds and grass. - Robocrop for weed control: More advanced organic weeding methods have been developed by companies such as England's Garford Farm Machinery. It is claimed that his Robocrop can work not only on vegetable crops, but also on thin-row and multi-row cereals (carrot type) in beds. This state-of-the-art organic farming equipment uses a series of video cameras that produce images that are scanned at 30 frames per second. They can identify weeds that are out of place - in size and shape - based on the abundance of crops present. The direction of the machine's plows is adjusted precisely and automatically by means of a hydraulic sideshift and anti-reverse action. The accuracy of the camera is typically 15mm, and with the addition of appropriate clay discs, accuracy above 10mm is possible. According to the company, forward speeds of up to 12 km/h are possible, and higher speeds are successfully used. A special pressure cylinder keeps soil sensitive components working and improves penetration in difficult conditions, while the mower blades prevent weeds from “sliding” along the row and also provide a gap between the leaves to prevent them from being uprooted. - Robocrop InRow Weeder for weed control: A further development of Robocrop is the InRow Weeder, which uses similar video image analysis techniques to locate individual plants and remove weeds both from row spacing and between rows, using a cam arm that moves between plants in time. identifies existing weeds. Designed for use with transplanted crops such as lettuce, kale and celery, Robocrop InRow can also be used on many crops that have been planted with equal plant spacing and rows where the plant's leaves are clearly separated from the next plant. Travel speeds of up to three plant positions per second are possible with this system, and the machine is available in sizes capable of covering up to 18 rows and six meters. Stocks for this type of machine include the traditional duck foot A stock, flat A stocks, L-shaped blades and custom-made shafts. The developers of the non-standard system of raised beds provide for a plow in wheel tracks and a number of non-standard beds between rows of beds. Many models have pressure cylinders that increase the weight of each assembly and prevent slippage when operating at high speeds. The plows can be front or rear mounted and can be controlled by the tractor driver, a second operator in the seat behind the plow, or via a video speed control system.
Organic Farming Equipment for Spreading Manure
The main principle of organic farming is to use as many nutrients and fibrous material as possible in manure to increase sustainability and prevent waste. Modern seed discharge spreaders and back-drop spreaders such as Kuhn, Richard Western and Samson Agro continue to improve the accuracy, durability and performance of their machines. These machines break up the fibers contained in the manure and ensure that it is evenly distributed so that the overall condition of the soil is improved with organic matter. Fertilizer manufacturer Richard Western, for example, has developed a new type of machine with features such as closely spaced center floor chains to improve material flow to the spreading rotors, while the housings are shrunk to extend towards the rotor, allowing the use of two larger ones. The vertical rotors are closed. This fiber-rich fertilizer is finely ground to ensure it is evenly distributed over the field surface, ensuring soil organic content is improved throughout the soil system and no leaf clumps or manure are left behind. Application accuracy is further enhanced with a floor speed controller that can be upgraded to a low-speed GPS system. The spreader is also equipped with a loading and weighing system, and automatic recording allows you to set the required passage width and application rate and spreading records can be downloaded via USB output. The choice of manure application method depends on the physical characteristics of the manure (liquid or solid), type of operation, manure handling and storage, spreader type and cost. Typically, cow and chicken manure are treated as solid manure, while dairy and pig manure are stored and treated as liquid manure. The application system used will have implications for nutrient management and environmental risks, especially for nutrient application and nutrient storage. Below are the two most important equipment used in manure spreading:
- Solid Manure Application Equipment: Spreaders equipment comes in a variety of forms, including box and side ejection spreaders. Most tractor driven spreaders are PTO driven, but some are driven by road wheels.
Some of them are hydraulically driven with a large change in speed, especially with vane drive, to change the application rate. Reverse delivery technologies can include a spinning drum spreader, single or double horizontal beaters, and vertical beaters. Manure spreaders can be trailed or truck mounted.
- Side unloading boxes
- Box dispensers with vertical faucet
- Flyer box with spinners
- Box dispensers with horizontal taps
- Liquid or Slurry Manure Application Equipment
Liquid or slurry application equipment comes in a variety of forms, including spreader spreaders, trailing hose spreaders, deep disc injectors and sweeping chisel injectors.
- Broadcasters
- Hanging Hose Spreaders
- deep disk injection
- Chisel (Knife) Injection with Sweeps
Composting means placing animal droppings or manure on top of the soil. Applying manure to maintain or improve the chemical and biological conditions of the soil can help reduce wind erosion. Manure is a good source of nutrients for crops, including nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). For manure, we can calculate an estimate of the nutrients available to plants that will be available in a given year.
Organic Farming Equipment for Dairy Farmers
Organic dairy farmers are often interested in getting the most out of their cow's milk. Sludge, created from a mixture of cow dung and water, is a natural fertilizer that can be used to stimulate grass growth as well as the growth of other crops. Fortunately, methods exist to help separate solids from liquids, allowing farmers to get the most out of this great source of organic fertilizer. Inexpensive compacted bed regeneration plants can be used with portable sludge separators, reducing the need for large sludge pits filled with a mixture of inert materials. Benefits include reduced sludge storage capacity requirements and better material utilization options. Companies such as Bauer have developed more compact and inexpensive bed regeneration units consisting of portable sludge separation units consisting of inlet and outlet pumps, separator and control box mounted on a galvanized frame. In addition, large-scale operations will require livestock feed trucks, tractor equipment and feed mills. Additional equipment includes generators, electric fences, tanks, mobile fences and a forage harvester. When it comes to equipment used by dairy farmers, it's not just about milking. Procurement, storage and transportation of dairy feed, as well as dairy farming processes require additional agricultural equipment to provide energy. Often all dairies and environmental controls require large generators to supply electricity. Organic farming systems focus on closed cycles and minimal use of external resources to reduce negative externalities. However, modern organic farming systems cannot be underestimated in terms of energy needs. In many cases, especially in mechanized production and processing systems, organic agriculture is also heavily dependent on fossil fuels. In fact, farming without synthetic fertilizers and agrochemicals requires additional agricultural work. In addition, organic farming systems, due to problems of plant protection and nutrient minerals, have serious problems with the introduction of direct seeding and conservation farming. All of these factors contribute to the high direct utilization of attractive oils in many organic systems. Even the indirect use of energy through synthetic fertilizers and agrochemical production in traditional agriculture can increase the energy balance of organic systems. The fact that organic farming uses a large amount of fossil fuels needs to be addressed urgently.
- Organic Farming Equipment: Grass Meters
Organic grass growers looking to increase grass growth and use organic fertilizer and manure for stimulation are among those who can benefit from grass-reading meters. They measure grass cover - the amount of grass available in a given area - using an increasingly ultrasonic waves. The latter type can be fitted to an ATV to provide access to large areas at 20 kilometers per hour (12.5 mph). The read head scans the cone-shaped area in front of the vehicle and the reading gives a height estimate in mm which is used in the formula to estimate yields between 1400 and 3800 kg/ha. The measured data can be manually recorded or, in more advanced versions, automatically stored in multiple fields. This can be transferred to a PC via the wireless network provided by the device. Advanced models have GPS positioning, map display, automatic field change and wireless data transmission.