Western Fair investing government funding into robots on the farm [Video]

Hoeing your row has never been so high tech for farmers.

The Grove agri-business hub at Western Fair has announced that $2.4 million in federal and provincial government funding will be used to fund the development of robots and other technologies in agriculture.

“Maybe farming is going to be done from your comfortable chair in dining room from your laptop, operate the farm that way,” commented Art Veldhuizen. The retired John Deere manufacturing worker was marveling at robots working the field at the Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock on Tuesd.

Several pieces of automated, robotic farm equipment were on display at the event. “We have robots that are anywhere from a planting robot to a weeding robot, to a harvesting robot out on display at this event,” said Chuck Baresich, president of Haggerty AgRobotics, one of the groups involved in the project. He said that some robots are manufactured overseas, …