Automatic Fertilizer Application System for Commercial Agriculture Main Buyer Country

When you hear aboutautomatic fertilizer application systems, many imagine futuristic fields with drones and robots - but in reality, commercial farms in Russia are more often faced with the problem of adapting ready-made solutions to our soil and climatic conditions. For the fifth year now, we have been working with systems from Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC, and the main lesson is that even the best automation is useless without understanding local agrochemistry.

Why automation isn't just about valves and sensors

We started with a simple thing - we installed a drip irrigation system with automatic application of fertilizers at the Krasnodar farm. The customer wanted to save resources, but a month later they encountered clogging of the emitters. It turned out that the local water contains an increased amount of iron, which was not warned about in the project documentation. We had to additionally install filters with automatic washing - the very development of Linyao, which was not initially thought about.

By the way, aboutcommercial agriculture— here they often save on the monitoring system, limiting themselves to a basic controller. But without constant analysis of the electrical conductivity of the solution, even precise doses of NPK give failures in microelements. We now always recommend integration with portable laboratories - although it is more expensive, it pays for itself over the season by preventing crop losses.

A peculiarity of Russian fields is that seasonal temperature fluctuations affect the viscosity of working solutions. Standard pumps sometimes cannot cope with concentrated fertilizers at +5°C. It was necessary to modernize the heating system for the mains, although this option was not considered at all in the technical documentation.

Equipment at work: where theory diverges from practice

The fertigation system from Lingyao is generally a reliable platform, but there are some installation nuances. For example, installers often forget about the slope of pipelines - then sediment accumulates at low points, and pH sensors begin to lie. You have to train the staff on site, although everything is described perfectly in the instructions.

There is an interesting story with automatic valves - a remote-controlled system was installed on a farm near Voronezh. Two weeks later, malfunctions began - it turned out that cell towers were located 15 km away, the signal was unstable. We switched to radio modules with repeaters, but this required additional approvals from local authorities.

Filters are a separate topic. Disc ones are good for sand, but they cope worse with organic suspensions than mesh ones. In some regions it is necessary to combine both types, although the project usually provides only one option. This is the case when a standard solution requires mandatory adaptation.

Designing for Russian realities

When you take ondesign of hydraulic structuresin the Stavropol Territory, it is necessary to take into account not only the topography, but also seasonal floods. Once we almost lost a pumping station - the design solution did not take into account the spring rise of groundwater. Now we always lay an additional drainage circuit.

The situation with smart parks is more complicated - many customers want “like in Europe”, but are not ready for constant maintenance of sensors. We have to simplify some solutions, leaving room for subsequent upgrades. For example, we install basic weather stations with the ability to connect additional soil moisture sensors.

Economics of automation: what not all farmers think

The main mistake is calculating payback only based on fertilizer savings. In fact, the main effect is the leveling of product quality. On the same farm near Kazan, after implementing the system, they were able to enter the premium segment of the market - strawberries began to meet European standards in terms of size and sugar content.

But there are also pitfalls - for example, the cost of service. An annual system maintenance contract can be up to 20% of the initial investment. Many farms do not include these costs in their business plan, and then problems arise with updating software or replacing consumables.

Another point is dependence on imported components. Now we are trying to use equipment with the ability to replace domestically produced parts. Lingyao also has a good modular architecture - a failed sensor can be replaced without completely replacing the control unit.

Integration with existing processes

The most difficult thing is not the installation, but the 'fitting' of automation into current workflows. For example, the system can perfectly calculate the dosage, but if machine operators continue to work according to the old standards, a conflict arises. It is necessary to conduct training in parallel with technical implementation, using clear examples.

There was an interesting case in the Rostov region - where the automatic fertilizer application system initially reduced productivity. It turned out that the units were moving slower than the calculated speed - the automation did not have time to apply the full dose. I had to adjust the settings taking into account the real speed of the equipment, and not the passport data.

Connecting to accounting systems is a different story. Not all Russian ERP systems have ready-made integrations with fertigation controllers. Often it is necessary to develop intermediate solutions for data transmission, which increases the implementation time by 2-3 weeks.

Technical support and adaptation

Working with Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC, we appreciated their approach to customizing the firmware to meet our requirements. For example, we added to the controller interface the ability to manually enter correction factors for different types of soil - initially there was no such function.

But there are also difficulties - the reaction time of technical support in case of urgent breakdowns. Due to time differences, responses to critical questions may be delayed by up to 6 hours. We had to create a local warehouse for spare parts in the regions, although this increases logistics costs.

Prospects and limitations

Now I see a trend towards combining systems - for example, automatic fertilization plus drones for NDVI monitoring. But for now this is an expensive solution for medium-sized farms, although in the future it should become a standard in 3-5 years.

The main limitation is staffing. We need specialists who understand both agronomy and automation. While there are only a few of them, we have to assemble teams of agronomists and engineers, which creates communication difficulties.

The latest developments include integration with weather forecast systems. It’s not working perfectly yet, but in test mode in the Voronezh region they were able to reduce fertilizer consumption by 7% by adjusting the application schedule before the rains.

Overall,automatic fertilizer application systemis no longer a luxury, but a necessity for competitive commercial agriculture. But success depends not so much on equipment, but on competent adaptation to local conditions and the willingness to invest in staff training. The key is to avoid cookie-cutter solutions and continually conduct field testing, because no grower knows your fields better than you.