Satellite Tech Allows For Driverless Tractors

For many farmers in the UK it was this year's weather that helped give them their best harvest in living memory.

But in the future it will be technology that helps them get the most from every acre.

With the global population predicted to be nine billion by 2050, experts believe we will need to produce 70% more food.

Edd Banks is one of the growing number of farmers in the UK now practising precision farming.

Planting next year's wheat crop he knows exactly how much seed is going on each bit of land.

Everything is controlled via GPS and satellite and he uses a paperless system where his employees are sent work plans on their smartphones, which in turn report back the start and finish times.

Using the latest technology on his combine he creates yield maps for each field and his software in the office also records the different soil types and nutrients across his whole farm.

From this he creates a seed map per field - so his driller automatically varies the rate it plants, aiming for a uniform crop.

He said: "If you were driving that tractor by eye, you would probably overlap by anywhere up to 20cm.

"We're now overlapping by 2.5cm, and that's reliably all day long."

He uses Real Time Kinematics which triangulates the tractor signal with a satellite and a permanent base station on the ground.

There is no drift when the earth rotates which means whether he's planting, harvesting or spraying his tractors wheels will be on the same track for years to come.

It means farmers can save money on fuel, chemicals and seeds and they are less tired.

He said: "We're no longer concentrating on driving straight, looking at the machine, driving straight.

"You can operate that machine better, for longer periods of time, and more accurately."

Advocates of the system all claim there's also a benefit to the environment.

Professor Simon Blackmore, head of engineering at agricultural university Harper Adams, told Sky News: "The ultimate goal of what we're trying to do is 'what is the minimum amount of energy that we can put into the natural environment to turn it into productive agriculture?'

"We can work with nature a lot better than we are doing at the moment."

Manufacturers are already working on one man controlling two tractors, even tractors with no cab at all which are monitored from a central station.

And there are smaller autonomous robots being developed that can selectively pick ripe fruit.

Despite the technology and spending more time in the office than his dad - Edd Banks says he still feels like a farmer.