The future of farming: Driverless tractors, drones and robots. How is the agriculture industry changing as digital technology develops?
Unmanned tractors controlled via GPS; drones that kill vermin in the fields from above; and highly efficient bull sperm used to produce genetically optimized calves. This is not science fiction. It’s the future of farming, today. “Smart farming” is the agricultural industry’s new buzzword. A survey of almost 600 German farmers has revealed that more than one in two now uses digital solutions to optimize their harvests. Fierce regional and global competition, declining subsidies, higher standards of food quality, environmental protection, and increasing demand are forcing farmers to be highly efficient. This documentary looks at three examples of “smart farming” in Germany. Breeding consultant Johanna Schendel creates optimized dairy cows by selecting the right bull semen. Asparagus farmer Heiner Bartels uses a smartphone to calculate the optimum time to harvest. And drone pilot Bernd Meyer is out to fight pests in maize fields from the air. All three are trying to use modern technology to modify nature to fit the needs of our society. But where are the limits?
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DW's documentary quality is outstripping other channels… scary development even in the farming industry. what will the next decade bring? one of these days actual farming will be like playing a farming simulator game toady.
COULD… germans ever think Optimistically…
Probably Not…! they are traditionally Pessimists… ?
Drink raped cow milk
The first thing they talk about is an insect that migrated…because of GUESS WHAT?…climate change
Ted Turner said over 30 years ago that global warming would destroy our food supply and that….guess what?….."We will be eating each other in 10yrs"….
They said back in the 1960's…..that the earth was freezing….and guess what?……..We need to put SOOT ON THE ICE to melt it ….because there is TOO MUCH ARCTIC ICE.
They say that now the Antarctica's..ice is…breaking off at an alarming rate, causing the sea levels to rise…guess what Antarctica is so cold…The ice and snow does NOT MELT
and it has not melted for 100,000's maybe millions of years…so what happens?……As the Ice shelf grows..the WEIGHT causes it to SLIDE OFF…so more ice the bigger
the ice bergs …..but as the ice melts and goes into the atmosphere..it then snows back on Antarctica
Paul Erlich wrote a book called the "Population Bomb"..in the 60's(I read it)…that said that we would starve to death if we had more people we would starve to death by 1980
….Now we have twice the number of humans(6+bil.)….and farm on 1/3 the land as we did in 1960……
Technology is the answer….why?…insects will migrate as long as people migrate……
Just let the animals breed naturally.
Would be great to not slaughter animals in future!
gotta love this channel. Docs on docs on docs 🙂
Not knew tractors are robots too
Great job Team DW.
For how long will it survive….. In the end you yourself have put the question open…. But for how much longer???
Confucius say: Makes little cows with nice udders.
There is no climate change, that is if we have to believe DW other documentary on digital nomads "Working online and traveling the world – digital nomads" published on Feb 9, 2019, parasites flying around the world seems to be no problem, and according to the estimate given in that DW documentary, by 2035 there will be 1 billion digital nomads, is this not a climate change concern?
The reason why Germany is such a success economically is shown here. Technology, efficiency, hard-work.
I'd give the super something to those who force all this plastic food on us!
Save a lot of money and make inroads to sustainability and convert to Biodynamic farming… Dr Rudolf Steiner. Your wildest dreams pale…
Weather and pests are the key factor. The reality is that we need ENCLOSED systems, aereoponics in large scale vertical farming units in the end that is the only way to make a profit.
"Could digital technology outperform nature?"
With advancements in technology and farming techniques since the industrial revolution, we've already achieved higher yields than what nature on her own could have provided so it's not unreasonable to assume we could achieve even higher yields with the digital revolution.
Another awesome documentary by DW, Thanks "DW Documentary" for covering so many issues viz politics, economics, agriculture, climate change, renewable energy, modern agriculture, land rights of native people etc……. Love from India 🙂
It isn't "outperforming nature" it is taking a closer look at it, way more information and use that to treat the plants better.