Several items of machinery make up CHAP’s precision agriculture unit, all of which have GPS capability. These can be deployed independently or in unison depending on the project, and when coupled to STC’s RTK base station allow all farm operations to be completed with very high and repeatable levels of accuracy.

Overall, these items allow us to conduct high-specification field trials covering a range of novel crop practises, as well as high-precision spraying trials to support development of new plant protection products and fertilisers.

This precision machinery is available for hire to ensure repeatable GPS guided trials as part of the ongoing plant health and protection R&D work at STC.

Our services include:

• A strip-till cultivator being used on projects that focus on minimum tillage and polycultural production and its multiple benefits to crop health. This machinery allows cropping directly into stubbles and ‘green understories’, with associated benefits to plant health and protection.
• Two integrated seeders which, when coupled to the strip-till, allow for one-pass cultivation, drilling and fertiliser/pesticide operations, including co-drilling of multiple crops together.
• Precision spraying equipment for high-specificity application which allows variable rate treatment of crops with plant protection products, as well as fertilisers, to optimise plant health with minimal product use. This is of significant benefit to any trial involving field-based product screening (e.g. pesticides, fungicides), allowing highly accurate and fully repeatable placement and deployment of test products onto experimental plots, and linking to the Biopesticide Facility at STC.