Shrewd apples

GRANDVIEW – Innov8.ag partnered with Washington State University Extension, the Washington Fruit Growers company and the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission to host a Smart Orchard Field Day at Grandview Ranch Wednesday morning. The field day showcased technologies that can automate and assist orchard data collection and growth.

The founder of Innov8.ag, Steve Mantle, said that the Smart Orchard project, a collaboration between the organizations involved in hosting the field day, is in its third year of research.

“Basically, the theme here today is about data and how data can be collected, analyzed and then applied to be actionable for a grower,” said Mantle.

The Smart Orchard project is located on a Honeycrisp apple orchard block of the Grandview Ranch that is about twenty years old and difficult to manage, said Mantle.

“That’s pretty old and gnarly and, frankly, this is Washington Fruits’s redheaded stepchild,” said Mantle.

The Grandview Ranch is owned and operated by Gilbert Plath, the head of Washington Fruit Growers, according to an informational packet distributed at the field day. Plath said that Washington Fruit Growers allowed the Smart Orchard project to research on the Honeycrisp block in order to see if the project could improve the crop there and help develop better technology for other orchards.

The field day featured a series of presentations on various aspects of the Smart Orchard project’s technologies.

The first presentation was conducted by Bernadita Sallato, a tree fruit extension specialist with the WSU Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, WSU Intern Elijah Lin and Jill Tonne, a crop consultant with Nutrien Ag Solutions. This presentation dealt with nutrients and nutrient sample collection in the orchard.

Mantle also said that the field day was also focused on involving younger individuals in agricultural research and careers, including a number of WSU students – such as Lin, a computer science major – involved in hosting the field day or participating in the Smart Orchard project.

“There's a key theme in here around the next generation,” said Mantle. “We've got a number of different students that have been engaged around here that are not typically studying agriculture…So how can we inspire those folks that there actually are really cool data opportunities and careers in agriculture and precision ag?”

The next presentation was on chemical spray technologies and how they affect orchard blossom characteristics. The speakers were WSU Professor Lav Khot, WSU Regional Extension Specialist Gwen Hoheisel and Mantle.

The final presentation of the field day was on irrigation technologies, specifically sensors and data collection devices and their role in a smart orchard. It was hosted by Mike van Bavel, president of Dynamax Inc., a monitoring instrumentation manufacturer, and Val King, the director of business and development in North America for Swan Systems, a water and nutrient management service.

After the scheduled presentations the event shifted to an open-ended showcase of different technologies from informational booths hosted by various agricultural organizations and businesses, including those that presented earlier in the day.

“I think the other piece here too,” said Mantle, “is you're seeing the turnout…really kind of rallying us all together so that we can more be on the same page and collaborate together and ultimately end up with better offerings for growers as well. So yeah, it's going well.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.