A look forward to Agritechnica 2019

It’s hard to believe that two years have already passed since the last Agritechnica in Hannover, Germany. Jason Stroeve and I are back in Germany for our third Agritechnica —an amazing experience of being exposed to the latest in global agriculture innovation. The best part is that we will bring it all back to you back in Canada and the U.S. by walking some serious steps over the course over five days. Our two-man effort will hopefully produce sixty-plus videos over the five days.

You can find all new and past Agritechnica coverage at: RealAgriculture.com/category/tradeshows-events/agritechnica/

Here are somethings that we will be looking out for this year:

• Further growth in robotics – In 2015, there were a few robots, but by 2017 the amount of companies showcasing autonomy and robotics had exploded. In 2019 it will be fascinating to see the volume of products, but also how the concepts and business plans have improved and become more relevant.
• Increase in applications to remove weeds in-crop with reduced traditional field-wide spraying. With the growth of products like Weedit, and other spot sprayer technologies around the world, growers’ options in the future for removing weeds with higher concentration herbicides or without herbicides at all is growing.
• Convergence of digital technology and agronomic experiential decision making. There is a lot happening in the precision agricultural space but simple user experience, actual problem solving tools and ROI focused innovations will lead the day during economic downturns like this. We will be watching closely for new precision ag tech that focsuses on the farmer and building on his experiential knowledge rather than just fancy flashy cool things.
• Innovations from surprising places – Whether it’s tech or machinery, innovation can come from companies not traditionally in the agricultural space or from fringe smaller providers or suppliers.  This just increases competition and expands options for farmers.  We saw it four years ago when Bosch showcased their sensor technology and those products are getting closer to commercialization.
• The exercise – As I mentioned earlier, we will be pounding out the steps to make sure that we bring back all the highlights to you. We should accomplish 15,000 to 20,000 steps with a few pints and schnitzel interspersed between.

You will be able to hear daily updates from the show on RealAg Radio, picture and video on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

A big thanks to Brevant Seeds for their sponsorship of our coverage of Agritechnica!