Farms.com Home   News

Researchers Pursue Automated Staking for Ag Labor Savings

By Dee Shore

With the North Carolina fresh-market tomato season in full swing, N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative‘s Makerspace team was sweating it out at North Carolina State University’s horticulture field station recently, assembling an imaging system that could be key to lowering the amount of labor it takes to bring fresh, locally grown tomatoes to market.

NC State Extension specialist Emmanuel Torres Quezada, of the Department of Horticultural Science, is working with Makerspace Director Andrea Monteza to automate the labor-intensive process of staking tomatoes and other crops.

Source : ncsu.edu

Trending Video

2026 T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science - Dan Weary

Video: 2026 T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science - Dan Weary

T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science: "Using science to assess and improve the welfare of dairy cattle"

Dan Weary is a Professor at the University of British Columbia. Dan did his BSc and MSc at McGill and Doctorate at Oxford before co-founding UBC’s Animal Welfare Program where he now co-directs this active research group. His research focuses on understanding the perspectives of animals and applying these insights to develop methods of assessing animal welfare and improving the lives of animals. His work has helped drive changes in practices (including the adoption of higher milk rations for calves and pain management for disbudding) and housing methods (including the adoption of social housing for pre-weaned calves). He also studies cow comfort and lameness, social interactions among cows, and interactions between cows, human handlers and technologies like automated millking systems that are increasingly used on farms. His presentation will outline key questions in cattle welfare, highlight recent UBC research addressing them, and showcase innovative methods for improving the lives of cattle and their caretakers.