SPECIAL REPORT: Automation in the Central Coast Ag industry

Technology is taking over the workplace with automation putting jobs at risk, but automation is also helping some industries thrive including one that is a multi-billion dollar a year business in Monterey County.

Central Coast Ag giants are at the forefront of Ag technology embracing automation in the fields and processing plants.

Taylor Farms has been focused on investing in automation for several years already and continues to do so.

“I think we are always going to need people in our business and really good people. I think the difficulty today is that a lot of these people don’t want to do these repetitive labor intensive jobs and so we’re forced to innovate with technology and automation,” said Tanya Mason, Vice President of Marketing for Taylor Farms.

Tanya Mason, VP of Marketing for Taylor Farms, said the company trains workers at training centers in Salinas and Yuma, Arizona. They are able to learn new skills there, not necessarily being replaced by robots, but learning to work with them.

“The bags come along this conveyer belt and the robotic arms pick up the bag and automatically put them into cases. We’ve eliminated two people on every line with the Gotbot, but again this is very manually tedious intensive labor that people don’t want to do these jobs, so it’s not replacing labor, but just finding solutions to the labor challenge.”

A challenge many Ag companies are faced with as they deal with an aging workforce and concerns over immigration reform.

However, as companies turn to technology to overcome the labor shortage, this can also mean farm workers can earn a bit more.

“If we’re modernizing technology, moving to mechanical harvesters then workers have to learn how to run the equipment and they get more skills so to speak to work the equipment and more skills improves the work standard and the living standard,” said Norm Groot, Executive Director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.

With machines like the Taylor Farms Automated Romaine Harvester, workers also don’t have to bend over to harvest the crops by hand.

“So now we’re providing this atmosphere where they’re up off the ground under a canopy tent. They’re protected from the elements of the sun and rain and wind and they’re doing more of a q&a type role, they’re sorting they’re selecting and now they’re packing into totes as opposed to being on the ground going through the mud and dirt to get the product out of the ground,” said Tanya Mason.

The challenge now is continuing to develop machines that can do the work as well as a human.

“We have for many decades had a lot of our crops that are automated in harvesting. So what we’re looking at now is automating some of the local crops which include strawberries, lettuce, vegetable crops, that in the past have not been mechanically harvested and there is a big challenge there. If you think about a strawberry on a plant where it is hanging down on the leaves itself, where a machine has to go through and has to look at the size of the berry, the color of the berry whether or not it is available for harvest and make that decision in a split second, so you’re taking that hand eye coordination that a worker has and translating it into a number of different lasers and mechanical efforts just to harvest that strawberry,” said Norm Groot.

Later this year, Watsonville based California Giant Berry Farms will be testing out a robotic fruit picker designed by Harvest Croo Robotics.

It is part of a project led by Gary Wishnatski from Florida produce grower and shipper Wish Farms.

“Overall you’re seeing a lot of excitement among farm operators at this point about what can be accomplished with new technologies. I think the concerns is what it’s going to cost and will it change the dynamic of farm operations,” said Groot.

“Automation, technology and robotics are critical to the success of the California Ag business. I think with the unprecedented labor shortages and growing need to produce fresh produce for the entire country and North America it is something we have to face and we have to implement quickly,” said Mason.

A future where Silicon Valley style innovation disrupts the future of farming.