科学技术改变农业 提高效率

The 'Internet of Things' is invading every corner of our lives-including the way we grow our food. CCTV's Hendrik Sybrandy takes a closer look at how high tech is transforming farms in the U.S. state of Colorado.

At this year's Colorado Farm Show, attendees young and old inspected products large and small. The menu of items on display at this event has changed a lot over the years.

"This is what a drone does for agriculture."

Jason Barton of Agribotix showed how his company analyses images from drones to help growers fix problems in their fields, increasing their yields and profits.

"They get the results back in a matter of hours, not days, so they can take very immediate action based on that information," Jason said.

R.T. Barcik's Fresh Cow Manager was designed for dairy animals who've just given birth.

"We program it to vibrate the animal's tail head in between milking periods," Barcik said.

It gets them to eat more and produce more milk.

"There hasn't been a technology like ours that changes the animal behavior," Barcik said.

"This technology is just fantastic. It's coming very fast,"  James Geist with Agricultural Consulting Services of Colorado said.

Agriculture consultant James Geist says the future has arrived on many farms.

Technology has spread into every area of agriculture. This tractor can be outfitted with an automated steering system that allows farmers to work longer hours with much more accuracy.

Precision seed planting is another example of how technology can add value at harvest time.

"The guys that can utilize it and implement it and integrate it into their system will be the guys that'll survive 10 years, 20 years down the road," Geist said.

You may not think of agriculture as cutting-edge

"Growers aren't usually victims of fads or trends. They really want to know that this is a tried and true technology before adopting," Barton said.

"The issue that we run into is that people have never seen it before so it takes them a second to understand this will work," Barcik said.

New technology also costs money, so farmers must decide whether a big investment will pay off down the line.

"That's what AG's all about. You have to have that long-range vision,"  Geist said.

"It's not an instant gratification business."

For now, two-year-old Agribotix is spreading the word about its products and working on new, more sophisticated sensors.

"We're just scratching the surface of what's possible," Barton said.

Fresh Cow Manager, which will retail for 305 U.S. dollars, or one dollar for each day of a cow's milking period, will be available for free trials this April. Barcik says more health-related devices are up his company's sleeve.

"I don't want to open the curtain too much, but we've got a lot more planned after this thing coming out,"  Barcik said.

A Fitbit for cows perhaps

"That's what most people talk about yes,"  Barcik said.

The imagination could be the only limit for what eventually ends up here.