Ripping
Ripping after corn or beans harvest, often referred to as fall ripping, is a practice used to address soil compaction, particularly in areas with high machinery traffic or heavy, compacted soils. On farms using combine harvesters, grain carts and trucks on the field during harvest, it is now common to replace ploughing with ripping the fields shortly after the harvest
The primary goal is to break up compacted hardpan layers below the surface, which can inhibit root growth and limit a crop’s access to water and nutrients.
While ploughing is a more disruptive, traditional method, ripping is different and considered a conservation tillage practice that better preserves soil structure and organic matter without inverting the soil profile. Ripping leaves crop residue on surface.
This ripping process is typically performed using a tillage implement hooked up behind a tractor with shanks and discs that slice through the soil at depths ranging from 4 to 16 inches.
However, fall ripping comes with challenges. It can for example bring stones to the surface, increasing maintenance costs and potentially damaging equipment.
Some growers have reported issues with planters running too deep in tilled strips, leading to slower and less uniform emergence. As a result, many farmers either limit ripping to only the most problematic areas, such as headlands, or adjust the depths in specific areas.
Modern, data driven farming
The use of GPS guidance allows for precise targeting of wheel tracks from planting or harvest, minimizing unnecessary soil disturbance. Further automation of modern ripper implements makes it possible to change the depth at which the discs dig into the soil dynamically, based on data on the state of the field.
Nowadays data collection and interpretation is increasingly driving the large corn, wheat and soybeans farms. Satellite images to determine the state of the crop and fields is layered on top of specific soil condition, seed type, and weather data. Automation, driven by this data, is increasingly used to lower costs. Combined with ongoing seed development of hybrids this should lead to higher efficiency and yield.
Autonomous tractors
Recently I was able to participate in a demonstration of a fully autonomous tractor and ripper combination. Sharp eyes may notice in the picture that there is nobody in the cab of the tractor.
It takes a fair amount of data, preparation and configuration, but this equipment is showing it is able to perform the ripping of the recently harvested fields without needing an operator in the tractor.
The task of ripping has a relatively low level of complexity, compared to other mechanized tasks, which is why it is chosen as a suitable first task for a fully autonomous tractor system. Together with driving the grain cart, pulling the ripper is often the task for the children of the farmer or hired unskilled hands.
It feels strange to turn the key off, leave the cab and then use a mobile phone like device to send it on its way and monitor its progress. Will it hit something? Drive off the field? Can it spot and avoid rocks and other obstacles in the field? What will the insurance say?
This time it works pretty much flawlessly. The modern demo tractor achieves a respectable 5mph average speed. So, 120 acres are done in about 6 hours while the humans continue harvest on another nearby field.
It is still early days, but the demonstration shows this automation could reduce the need for (temporary) manual labor, which peaks during planting and harvest.
What remains is the not so simple task finding out if the required investments can be financed and justified. What new skills will the farmer need? Calculating the benefits of shifting costs from traditional farm labor to paying for data and equipment (and possibly for computer like programming) is not trivial.