Robot-grown fodder beets are on the rise in organic farming.

From: Martin Carlsen, Crop Advisor, Organic Advisory Denmark

Robots have been used for several years for sowing and tending sugar beets in organic crop production across the country. Both sugar beets and fodder beets have been cultivated with somewhat varying results. The capacity has not always been satisfactory, and the final outcome has sometimes been below expectations.

When germination is good, and the systems function optimally, the results are indeed good. The small improvements that are constantly being made seem to be providing reasonable fields with fodder beets this year, with many well-established beets and a decent weed control.

In Denmark, the areas of robot-based beet cultivation have increased significantly, especially regarding organic sugar beets, but also in fodder beets. An example is Farmdroid robots, which are used at Tjele Estate, among others.

Here, five solar-powered robots have been invested in for sowing and weeding fodder beets, each with a capacity of up to 20 hectares. The robots sow via GPS and keep the fields free of weeds both between and within the rows until the beets can compete against the weeds themselves. In total, up to 50 Farmdroid robots are operating in Denmark, both in organic sugar beet production in eastern Denmark and in fodder beets spread across the country.

Beyond solar-powered solutions, other technologies are on the way. Among other things, tractor-towed robots are being tested, which use camera technology to recognize beet plants and perform precise weeding – a task that otherwise requires a lot of manual labor.

Here, the robot does not handle sowing but is solely responsible for precise cleaning. It is mounted on a tractor that maintains the track itself and can practically operate without a driver.

Organic Advisory Denmark participates as a professional advisor in the 'CropCut' project under GUDP. Here, a tractor-towed machine can work faster than the solar-powered robots, partly due to its width and tractor drive, which results in a multiple increase in capacity.

Another advantage of this machine is that it can sow a large amount of seed, after which the machine can thin out the beets if germination has been good. However, experiences show that there are still challenges: Poor seed material and disease in the beets have caused problems, where weeds sometimes take over in some areas.

Furthermore, there is still a need for fine-tuning of the programming so that the weeding tine reacts quickly and precisely enough while maintaining a high working speed. If successful, the capacity could far exceed the approximately 20 hectares that solar-powered robots currently achieve. A 12-row tractor-towed machine, such as Robovator, could run at least four to five km per hour, which would give a capacity of several hundred hectares per robot.

Since beets are also a highly desired crop in organic dairy production, there could be a bright future ahead for both the robots and fodder beets. Recently, robots have also been developed that can target weed plants with a laser beam based on image recognition, which should provide more targeted and gentle weed control in the crop.

In short, there is still significant development ongoing – also for other row crops besides beets. The conclusion is clear: Robots are here to stay, and they will become more precise, flexible, efficient, and with greater capacity in the future.