Mar 7, 2023

Topcon Agriculture launches transplanting technology

Topcon Agriculture has introduced a navigation system designed to reduce labor, boost efficiency and increase production.

Transplanting Control provides global navigation satellite system (GNSS) based guidance, autosteering and control, benefitting producers of permanent and perennial trees, fruits and vegetable crops.

“Manual measurement is still common practice in areas where specialty and permanent crops are grown,” Michael Stone, vice president of product development at Topcon Agriculture, said in a news release. “Our precision GNSS-based guidance and control allows for more elaborate planting patterns, and has been proven through countless industries and applications. This now-affordable transplanting technology can help growers increase crop production by up to 15%, if not more.”

The solution eliminates manual labor required to physically outline fields and provides streamlined setup through an easy-to-use task planning interface. Farmers can also expect reductions in fuel and other inputs through the reliability of GNSS, resulting in fewer mistakes and corrections.

“Crops placed in an optimized space maximize available resources like soil nutrients, water, sunlight; this also allows more accessible angles for maintenance, like cleaning and weeding, which will further improve output,” Stone said in the release. “More uniform transplanting executed through GNSS generates a healthier crop for increased production and quality. This technology can even improve efficiencies with tasks like soil sampling and post hole digging.”

A video demonstrating Transplanting Control is at vimeo.com/topcon/transplanting.

Photo: The interface for Topcon Agriculture’s Transplanting Control relays precise information to the user. Photo: Topcon Agriculture