Farming Technology of Tomorrow?

by Paul Schmit of Luxembourg

Doing the same work, and yet so different.

Both work at nearly the same speed.
Both move almost silently and emission-free.
Both react very sensitively to a variety of signals.
Both have a face and communicate with their surroundings.

One needs companions for a species-appropriate life, the other is a loner.
One is guided by human commands, the other by satellite navigation systems.
One needs breaks to rest, eat and drink, the other just to recharge his batteries.
One has accompanied humanity for thousands of years, the other is just appearing.

By reading these few lines and looking at the first pictures, it should quickly become clear what this is about. On the one hand, a draft horse, whose work is often portrayed as archaic, and on the other hand, robotic technology, which is supposed to shape modern agriculture.

The second choice feels futuristic, more like part of science-fiction. However, a field demonstration on a vegetable and fruit growing farm in Luxembourg at the end of June 2025 provided not only proof that this technology already exists but also an insight into how agricultural technology manufacturers and politicians envision the future of agriculture.

Within a two-year research project, financially supported by Luxembourg’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Viticulture, new approaches in vegetable farming are being explored. Indeed, vegetable farming is still very labor-intensive today, and finding workers for manual labor is becoming increasingly difficult in Luxembourg. Furthermore, for non-organic farmers, fewer and fewer herbicides are being approved for vegetable cultivation. Currently, only two herbicides are permitted in Luxembourg. In salad cultivation, where one constantly must deal with different plant stages, the correct dosage is problematic.

Of course, there is still a lot of need for further development and finetuning, but these autonomous field robots are already much more than just some kind of gimmick from tech geeks. Hundreds of them are already in use European wide, and the number is increasing. Manufacturers from France and Denmark, mostly young start-up companies with a lot of innovative spirit, currently seem to be leading the race for market share.

The hoeing robot demonstrated at the field day operates fully independently, day and night. All movements, including the three-point hitch for a standard tractor hoe, are carried out via electric servo motors. With so-called RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) positioning, its electric four-wheel drive and steering permit to navigate easily and to the centimeter into the next vegetable rows. Cameras at the front and in the middle sections are used for plant detection and to detect obstacles such as large stones or animals. If the latter occurs, the field robot stops automatically and must be reactivated. A warning is then sent to the operator via a smartphone app.

However, in a salad plot with different planting stages, there is still a certain need for monitoring even in the autonomous operation mode. Furthermore, since the cameras work with a green-brown contrast to distinguish between the rows of vegetables and the soil where the hoeing is to take place, the latter must not be too overgrown with weeds. But here too, artificial intelligence is already on the rise, and robots are increasingly being equipped with learning software that not only enables reliable recognition of rows of vegetables but can also distinguish between individual weeds.

Currently, this new approach for field work is extremely costly, with an investment of up to € 250.000,- ($ 294.000,-) for a fully equipped field robot. A working area of 20 to 30 hectares is required to fully utilize it and make profitable.

Reason enough to question what European horse-drawn technology currently has to offer. As a counterpart for small-scale agriculture, where land use and food production are viewed from a different perspective. To this end, we must go back to August 2018, when the European non-profit association Schaff mat Päerd evaluated newly developed single-horse hoeing technology from the Italian manufacturer Equi Idea. These field trials were part of a project work within a Bachelor’s degree study in organic farming at the University of Kassel-Witzenhausen in Germany.

The first shaky steps

The field trials were run on the author’s farm and Equi Idea provided besides the Multi-V, a multi-purpose tool-carrier already launched on the European market in 2011 (see SFJ Winter Vol. 41, No. 4), an adjustable hoe named Sarchio-SM, as well as a newly developed prototype of a multipurpose tool carrier for multi-row hoeing named Multi-R.

The first two implements are modeled on hoes from the past, with a single front wheel, five adjustable tines, and handles to guide the implement. Repetitive tests showed that steering these hoes is easy, even for an untrained person. However, it was difficult to maintain a constant and shallow working depth, regardless of which shares were mounted. In addition to reversible pointed shares, different goose foot shares were also tested.

Early hoeing is important in vegetable growing, ideally at the cotyledon stage of the weeds. Here, as little soil as possible should be moved, to not disturb the soil life, to limit humus degradation and to keep the tractive effort within an acceptable range for the draft animal. Furthermore, in early crop stage, there is also the danger that the young vegetable plants will be buried or pushed out of the soil.

Somewhat contrary to the expectations, the new prototype tool carrier Multi-R was very easy to pull. Although designed for hoeing two rows of vegetables and therefore equipped with a total of seven spring tines, the draft force measurements showed significantly better values than for the other two, much smaller, hoes for single-row use. This can be explained by the precise depth control of the working tools, thanks to the parallelogram suspension with depth gauge wheels.

However, the idea of building this new implement based on the Multi-V proved to be disadvantageous. Indeed, the frame, wheels and handles of both implements were the same. Here, the basic idea was to reduce the manufacturing costs and thus the later selling price by using many identical parts. In addition to the three-wheeled version tested, it was also planned to create a four-wheeled version that would enable the cultivation of vegetable beds with narrow row spacing.

The overall assembly of the implement was the weak point. To ensure the variability and enable the conversion from the single-row tool carrier Multi-V, allowing for example to plow and hill or dig out potatoes, into the two-row tool carrier Multi-R, mainly for seeding and weed control, all interchangeable components were only clamped into hexagonal profiles.

Since the fits must not be chosen too tightly to avoid problems later in practical use, where the penetration of soil or the formation of rust in the fastening and adjustment mechanisms cannot be ruled out, this led to excessive play in the overall construction. Furthermore, the three wheels proved to be too small to carry the greater weight of the extended tool carrier on soft ground.

Multi-row, multi-functional and multi-adjustable

But encouraged by the good work results and the advantageous traction values, it was decided to undertake a completely new design, abandoning the idea of interchangeability between the single- and multi-row tool carriers. This offered the opportunity to optimize all components. It was concluded that the more combinations you plan for a modern multi-purpose tool carrier, the more compromises you make, and the worse the overall result becomes compared to a single purpose implement from the bygone time.

Already in April 2019, the second, completely redesigned, edition of the Multi-R was manufactured and could be tested during a workshop held in June 2019 at Cascina Braman, a vegetable growing farm in Fiano, a municipality of the metropolitan city of Turin in the North-West of Italy. Thanks to promising work results, this farm was also the first customer of Equi Idea to purchase a Multi-R.

These workshops together with experienced practitioners, but also newcomers, are always very helpful within the development phase of new equipment. Also, later improvements of already market-ready equipment or adaptations to the different soils, crops, working methods and draft animals can be discussed on site.

In contrast to the multi-row tool carriers from the US, the Multi-R does not have a driver’s seat. Traditionally, crop care implements in Europe are not of the ride-on type. Single-horse equipment is not only preferred for economic reasons, but also because of often smaller cultivated plots and for the lowest possible soil compaction. The second, more customized, Multi-R was delivered to another Italian vegetable growing farm, the Zagara soc. Agricola in Colugna, located in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, one of the five autonomous regions in the North-East of the Italian Republic.

Currently, a great variety of tines and hoeing knives, but also cage, finger or torsions weeders can be mounted on the Multi-R. With a maximum overall width of 1500 mm, a total length of 2000 mm and a weight of only 160 kg, it can be adapted to various row spacings. Here, computer simulations are very helpful. The parallelogram suspensions of the tools can be moved laterally on a toolbar. In addition, the individual tools can also be moved. The toolbar is connected firmly to the frame and when the tools are lifted, using a single lever, this acts only on the tools via chains. This allows the tools to adjust to the ground independently during work, as the chain suspension has a certain play. The aggressiveness of the tools can be adjusted by pivoting the toolbar. For this purpose, a spindle adjustment is located at the rear of the implement. From the toolbar, a height-adjustable drawbar goes forward, where the singletree can be attached onto a hook.

In addition to the lever for raising the tools, the Multi-R has two additional levers within easy reach of the person walking behind the implement. When the left lever is released the front wheel can be steered together with the two rear wheels by the handles. This allows to correct the horse’s walking direction and to work as close as possible to the vegetable rows. By releasing the two levers, the front wheel is decoupled from the two rear wheels and can rotate freely. This allows for tight turns at the headland, with the front wheel following the horse’s lead.

Learning by doing

The last adaptation, for the time being, took place as part of a LIA internship. LIA stands for “Lärande i arbete” (English: learning at work) and is part of the Swedish Education of Forestry and Working Horse Entrepreneur, called “Kuskutbildningen.” Each year, a total of 12 applicants are selected at Wången, one of Sweden’s three national equestrian centers, for a two-year education of applied sciences at 50% study rate for working with draft horses. The aim of this education program is to train later self-employed entrepreneurs for a variety of fields, such as forestry, agriculture, municipal services, or tourism. A total of 13 weeks of internships is included, where the students get an insight into different works.

One of the tasks of three Swedish interns, who were doing a LIAinternship at the non-profit association Schaff mat Päerd in Luxembourg in November 2024, was to design a new singletree for the Multi-R. The problem to be solved within a weeks’ time was that, at customer’s request, the Multi-R was subsequently also equipped with shafts as an option. Shafts were asked to ensure safe road transport of the Multi-R when the vegetable fields are located further away. However, this proved to be incompatible with the singletree hitch.

The shafts are coupled, by an easy-to-operate pin coupling, to the vertical steering axis of the front wheel. The problem which arose here was that the singletree did not follow properly the steering movement of the shafts and the front wheel. The singletree hook, which was rigidly connected to the toolbar via the drawbar, had only a limited lateral play around the steering axis of the front wheel.

The three students went through all the steps of the development process, from sketching initial ideas on paper, to three-dimensional computer-aided drawing and assembling of the components, as well as plasma cutting, welding, and powder-coating. Their well-thought out, but still very simple, solution allows that the singletree can now rotate freely around the steering axis of the front wheel and has sufficient lateral play for steering corrections.

A glimpse into the future

Who will win the race now, the robots or the animal-drawn technology?

Currently, the Multi-R is sold for less than 2% of the price of the previous discussed autonomous field robot. Together with a trained workhorse and the appropriate harness, the investment is still less than 5%. However, the current sales figures of the Multi-R are also just 2% of those of his high-tech workmate.

But doesn’t this question remind us a little of “The race between the Hare and the Hedgehog” of The Brothers Grimms’ fairy tales?

Despite all the doom and gloom, they still exist in Europe. The small-scale farms which deliberately rely on animal traction in low-input and low-impact agriculture. In 2021, a case study was conducted on the inducements of these farmers in Northern Italy, this as a Master’s thesis in Social-ecological Resilience for Sustainable Development at the Stockholm Resilience Centre in Sweden. This thesis can be found under the following link:

https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1679583/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Paul Schmit
Schaff mat Päerd asbl