Automated Soil Sampling

The detail is in the dirt.  As any practicing farmer knows, you must understand the land you're working on to get the greatest yield.  

The way most do that is buy hiring cheap labor to go into the field and retrieve soil samples by shovel.  Problem with that is, you often don't get good soil samples.  The workers are often more interested in quantity not quality.

Allen Baucom, a North Carolina farmer, said in a recent interview with Agriculture.com, "That probably wasn't smart, because the sample is too important to trust just anyone."

That's why he custom-engineered the Falcon - an automated soil-sampling system.

"The premise was to develop a system for taking quality soil samples and doing it efficiently and effectively.  The Falcon takes soil sampling from prehistoric to the future.  Gone are the days of time consuming, labor intensive, inconsistent, and tedious sample collection." says Baucom.  "Falcon technology delivers better samples and better analysis to make smarter input decisions."

Weighing 2,200 pounds, at the heart is a five foot diameter stainless steel drum.  Once lowered, a probe takes a sample every fifteen feet at a depth determined by the length of the probe, which can range from from four to twelve inches.

When the sample is collected, the drum is raised and a twelve volt motor takes over, which continues to rotate it, mixing the soil.  "This gives a good homogeneous sample of the area being probed," said Baucom.

A funnel then lowers into the drum, and the sample flows into an individual container.  As the funnel returns to its original position, the tray rotates itself to ready for the next sample.

"All of this is done without stopping," he notes.  "It's completely on the fly."

The tray holds twelve samples before it has to be replaced.  "On average, the system gathers twelve samples every forty minutes.  When the tray is full, you go to the back of the machine and grave another tray to take further samples," he explains.

The component on the back holds twelve trays.  "In total the system can hold one hundred and fifty six samples, which includes the tray collecting," he said.

A limited number of systems will be available at the end of September.  Base price is expected to be less than $50,000.