AGINFLUENCER MARIE HOFFMANN TESTS A FARMDROID
Marie Hoffmann is a German AgInfluencer and farmer. She is currently testing a FarmDroid on her farm in Lippetal, Germany. The purpose of testing the robot is to figure out if it can make farming more effective.
See her post with FarmDroid here
Testing a field robot
Farmer and influencer Marie Hoffmann is testing a FarmDroid robot on her farm in Lippetal, Germany. It is the first time she is using the robot. She uses it to grow canola. By testing the robot, she wants to figure out if it can make the cultivation of canola more effective.
Normally Marie would seed canola with a seed drill, however, this is not very precise. The robot allows her to seed extremely precise. With the robot she can seed the canola with exactly 10 cm distance between each seed. The precise seeding means that the plant roots have better space in the ground and, thus, they get better access to both water and soil nutrients. Moreover, the precise seeding means that the space in the soil is optimally used, and the plants do not have to compete when growing. A better water exploitation means a lot for the plants growth. Particularly in the summer period when they have only little water available. In this way, they can take better advantage of the water and the nutrients in the soil.
Marie is a conventional farmer. It is one of the first times that a FarmDroid robot is working in conventional canola. The goal with testing the robot in conventional canola is to reduce the manual workload and save both seeds and pesticides. She is excited to test the robot and see how it works. The entire experiment is documented by Marie on her social media channels.
Initial thoughts on the FarmDroid
Marie is testing the robot with critical eyes. She is always critical when testing new technology. It is important for her to give her honest opinion.
One of the things that Marie notices when using the robot is the importance of the field preparation. Since the robot is lightweight and has quite narrow tires, it needs well-prepared seed beds to work optimally in the soil.
There are many advantages of the robot. Marie really likes that the robot is fully autonomous and, therefore, it can work by itself. It is great that she does not have to supervise it. While the robot works in the field she can look after other tasks. She can keep an eye on robot’s work on the FarmDroid app, which she has installed on her phone.
Who is Marie Hoffmann?
Marie Hoffmann is a 26-year-old farmer and influencer. Besides her work as a farmer and her prominent role as AgInfluencer, she is working on her master’s degree in agribusiness. She is particularly interested in uniting modern agriculture with wildlife-, environmental- and climate protection.
In Lippetal, Germany, she works on a farm with 120 hectares – 100 hectares is used for arable farming and 20 hectares is forest. On the farm, Marie is mainly responsible for the arable farming.
She is interested in on deploying modern technology on the farm. She has a clear mission. She wants to look into the future and adapt the farm practices to the challenges of our time. For this reason, she is dedicated to experimenting in the field and testing new technology.
AgInfluencer – what does that entail?
According to Cambridge Dictionary, an influencer is “someone who affects or changes the way that other people behave”. In other words, it is a person that has a lot of influence over his or her followers. An AgInfluencer has influence over the agricultural industry.
With her 508.000 Instagram followers Marie is a major AgInfluencer. She has a prominent voice in the agricultural industry. For her it is not important to influence the public formation of opinion. On the other hand, she wants to educate her followers as extensively as possible on the subjects she touches upon, so that everyone can form their own opinion.
