Those who romanticise field work normally haven’t done much. It can be brutally hard. Over the last month, we have been joined by 24 seasonal workers to help us through summer. Making the work attractive, so they will return next year, takes management, imagination, and planning. Machines need less encouragement – but after the initial wonder has worn off, they may impoverish as well as enrich us.
After many early winters spent kneeling in the mud pulling carrots by hand, the ingenious engineering and smooth-flowing efficiency of our first mechanical carrot harvester was mesmerising. The muddy, dusty, ever-changing environment has slowed the advance of technology in farm fields, but even here, GPS guidance, cameras, and AI plant recognition software are reducing the need for labour.
Steerage hoes, which sever weeds between crop rows, haven’t changed much since the 19th century versions that were pulled by horses. Camera and computer guidance has made them faster and less demanding of the operator, but they have still been largely unable to control ‘in row’ weeds that grow between crop plants. This week, helped by a government grant, we have taken the plunge and bought an £81k tractor-drawn Lemkin weeder. This uses cameras and a computer to steer the machine down the rows with millimetre precision, and then sends sickle-shaped blades darting into the gaps between the plants to kill 95% of the weeds.
Long-hoeing weeds by hand is my favourite field task. At 65, I reckon I am still the best on the farm. Witnessing the machine work up and down the rows with tireless efficiency, I feel sad at my own obsolescence. One tractor can now do the work of 20 people, without fatigue. It even works at night. With GPS guidance, the tractor driver’s days may also be numbered. If these developments continue, more people will leave the land, and the economies of scale will increase, making life for small growers even harder. However, food will be cheaper. Weeds are a major threat to organic crops, and controlling them manually is difficult and expensive.
The Amish believe that only inventions which benefit society (a hard judgement for anyone to make) should be adopted. I’m not sure what they would think of the Lemkin, but, in a world shaped by market forces, resistance seems futile.
Our News from the Farm posts come from Riverford. They are the digital versions of the printed letters which go out to customers, every week via Riverford’s veg boxes. Guy Singh-Watson’s weekly newsletters connect people to the farm with refreshingly honest accounts of the trials and tribulations of producing organic food, and the occasional rant about farming, ethical and business issues he feels strongly about.
Guy great narrative. Using technology wisely and effectively has to be the way forward. In many aspects machinery has removed back breaking labour both in the past and going into the future. Embracing wise changes has to be the way ahead. Well done Riverford!