This weekend I saw something entirely new to me on a golf course when I was trail riding past. Remote controlled golf bags on wheels zipping along on their own.
It got me interested in how this tech could work on a farm. Of course I immediately thought about poop picking. Could you have a remote controlled poop wagon so you could walk along beside it and poop scoop the paddock? Could you have one going down the barn aisle you could then send and dump at the manure bin?
Back a few years we had a similar discussion on a tractor forum. The goal was the same, to be able to pick pastures with a self-propelled vehicle that would follow you around. Consensus was that it could be done, but probably not cost effectively with a tractor or UTV.
Thinking about it later, perhaps a modified golf bag cart might be a better option. Just load a stack of empty muck buckets on it, and as each bucket is filled just leave it behind. Go back later with the tractor or UTV and load up all the filled muck buckets sitting in the pasture.
Unfortunately, it still would leave me having to lift each of the filled muck buckets. As I get older and older and muscle mass goes, I have come to depend on my UTV and its powered dump bed. No lifting heavy muck buckets since I bought it. Just fork the individual manure piles into the bed. I pick pastures every day so the manure is still fresh and wet, so it makes for a lot of weight to be moved.
Robot arena groomer is my lottery dream. Set to work in the dead of night. Back at its station charging during the day.
Like this, but a grooming tool instead of just a sweeping tool. https://www.lely.com/ca/en/solutions/feeding/juno/
And while we’re at it, may as well modify the Juno to sweep the barn aisles too!
This stuff is happening now. It will likely still be quite a while before the tech comes to small scale at a reasonable price, but larger scale autonomous is happening in farm equipment and remote control for a good range of equipment is also happening. Let’s see if I can find a link to one of the remote companies …
https://rcfarmarm.ca/ They do a bunch of stuff including rcfarmstr8 which is remote steering. It’s geared towards grain bagging so I’m not sure it’s much more than maintaining a straight line, but it’s cool that this stuff is happening now!
And for funsies, here’s a link to a great big autonomous creature: https://youtu.be/pZQdfHLmWtg These are out there in farmland. Raven has a hard time borrowing them back for farm shows because no-one wants to be without them for a few days.
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