- [Announcer] Live from your public media studios, WVIA presents "Keystone Edition Business," a public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.

This is, "Keystone Edition Business."

And now moderator, Steve Stumbris.

(thoughtful music) - Hi, I'm Steve Stumbris.

A quiet revolution is spreading across the farmland of Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.

Farmers are blending tradition with technology by using drones, robotics, and sensors to predict yields, reduce labor, and get better, fresher food on your tables.

WVIA news reporter Sarah Scinto digs deeper into the future of farming.

(graphic whooshing) - [Sarah] In Northeast Pennsylvania, agriculture is meeting modern challenges by embracing innovation.

Farmers are increasingly using precision agriculture technologies such as drones and robotics to monitor soil health, optimize irrigation, and reduce chemical use.

These tools help farmers make decisions based on data, enhancing efficiency and sustainability.

Governor Josh Shapiro's administration is investing in agriculture innovation.

In February, the state launched a $10 million Agricultural Innovation Grant program, the first of its kind in the nation.

The program supports farmers who want to adopt cutting-edge solutions, including clean energy projects and conservation practices to boost productivity.

The integration of technology and farming also contributes to environmental sustainability, ensuring that Northeast Pennsylvania's agricultural industry remains resilient and competitive in the face of evolving challenges.

To learn more, visit wvia.org.

For "Keystone Edition Business," I'm Sarah Scinto, WVIA News.

(bright music) - I'd like to introduce our panelists here to share their expertise.

Gino Ardo is the vice president of OHF Orchards near Bloomsburg in Columbia County.

Dr. Long He is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the Fruit Research and Extension Center of Penn State University.

And Jonathan Price is the senior agronomist at Sterman Masser Potato Farms near Hegins in Schuylkill County.

Jonathan, Dr.

He, Gino, thank you so much for being with us tonight.

I look forward to learning about how technology and other innovations are transforming farming in Pennsylvania.

And to start off, Dr.

He, I'd like to learn a little bit more about the role that you have with the Fruit Research and Extension Center, and actually, broadly, Penn State as part of its mission to engage in and be a leader in agriculture throughout the Commonwealth.

Tell us about your role at the Center and the research that you have a chance to be involved in.

- Thank you, Steve, for having me.

So agriculture industry is a very important industry in Pennsylvania.

We have very diverse agriculture systems, crops, animals, right?

And also the range of the farm skills are different from small to big to large size.

So Penn State is a land grant university, so we have research teaching and extension missions.

And extension mission actually is a very important part of our land grant university mission.

Our Food Research Extension Center is very good example of this mission.

So we actually very directly work with growers, farmers.

So my role at Food Research Extension Center is a I have research lab, but also I have extension, so I do apply to research to extension directly to the farmers.

So that's what I'm working on and trying to bring more information technology to our farmers.

- What are some of the most recent projects that you've had the opportunity to be involved in?

What are some of the applications that you hope come out of those projects?

- So for recently, I have been working at Penn State for almost eight years, so the project I've been working on including some precision irrigation system, precision sprayers, robotic system for different kind of applications, for example, for crop loader management, for apple harvesting.

And those are very promising technologies and can be help growers to improve their farm efficiency, to help them to make sustainability of their future farming.

Looking to the future, I believe, right, current emerging technologies such as AI, robotics, and drone technology looking very promising to be applied into the agriculture systems, especially for, because I work mostly for specialty crops like tree fruit, vegetables, and others, so I'm looking to that direction very closely, and then I'm kind of hoping that the new technology really help out the farmers to make more sustainable farming in the future.

- Fascinating work.

Gino, I want to turn to you next about the application of some of that work.

And I understand you've had a chance to connect with Dr.

He, have some familiarity with his work, and even hopeful applications at OHF Orchards.

Tell us about what kind of change you have experienced in your career recently, new tools, new technologies.

What has been the most impactful new changes in your work?

- Yeah, absolutely.

There's a lot of new technology out now that really helps us as farmers be more efficient, more cost effective, and bring the customers better product.

I talked to Dr.

He recently about a sprayer system that we are in the process of hooking up and getting running now.

It's a smart apply spray system, so it actually has a LiDAR laser on it that (clears throat), excuse me, that will scan the canopy of the tree and only spray where there's branching and fruit.

- So how does that compare to traditional methods?

Describe what would happen before and once you have a system like this.

What does it save?

How does it improve how you work?

- Traditionally our sprayer was two on-off switches in the cab.

When you were spraying in a row, you would turn this side on, open all your nozzles, and cover your trees.

Now with this new system, you could save spray material, time, and cover more per tank with the LiDAR system.

- And more accurately than- - And more accurately.

- Manually operated?

- You're reducing over spray, saving on material.

- A estimate of how much that you could potentially save in amount of spray that would otherwise be just lost?

- Yeah, right now, we've had the system hooked up for about two weeks.

Right now, I'm guessing about 25% savings on spray material.

Once the system's dialed in, and we have everything figured out, I'm thinking upwards of 40%.

- And this is just in the first couple weeks.

This is brand new for you.

- Yeah, it's exciting.

It's an interesting project, and we're excited about it.

- More on that, for sure, and more on what's happening at OHF.

Jonathan, I wanna turn to you and ask you to... Well, first introduce us to Sterman Masser, tell us about the work that you do, and especially tell viewers what the role of an agronomist is.

What kind of impact do you have across the potato growing and production?

- Yeah, sure, so Sterman Masser is a family-owned potato farming operation.

We also have our own packing shed, trucking company.

We like growing the best possible potatoes for our customers up and down the East Coast.

And my job as senior agronomist is really a varied role.

My number one job is growing the best potatoes that we possibly can, whether that is scouting the fields every day looking for pests and diseases to get on top of that right away, helping out other farm management, making the best agronomic decisions we can.

And then my personal favorite part of the job is our Research Division, where I look into different varieties of potatoes and different spacings and nutritional programs.

Most people don't realize that, you know, you don't just have red, yellow, russet potatoes.

There's literally thousands of different yellows, reds, purples, really anything under the sun in terms of potatoes, and part of my research is finding the best possible potato for Pennsylvania growing region.

- That's really interesting.

Applied to the soil, the weather conditions, the place where you are and where you're growing, tell me more about that and the innovations that you've been involved in for the industry and what's next?

What kind of new innovations in types of varietals and other innovations ahead for you?

- Yeah, so I know a lot of people usually think about Idaho as the potato state.

I personally think of Pennsylvania because we have very unique soils here that actually give a unique flavor profile to the potato that you can actually taste the difference.

So part of my research is, again, finding that variety to fit that niche and, you know, new technology in Pennsylvania is really trying to find how to grow that, those potatoes more sustainably, environmentally friendly, and on top of that, we're just closer to markets as it is, so we don't have to truck things across the United States.

And part of that sustainability is looking at, you know, getting more out of a per acre basis, whether planting the crops in a more straight rows with GPS technology that you don't have all these curved rows.

You know, we've utilized some of that spray technology to try to shore up the end rows to where we're not over spraying, we're only getting the product on the plants and really just trying to make the most out of every acre possible.

- Talk more about the technology.

So GPS control of planting, where else in the production from growing to packaging, what are some other places where technology is having an impact for you?

- Yeah, so with GPS technology, we're operating on a sub inch capacity in the field.

So, when you go out in the early spring and mark off your field boundaries and create all the field maps, I mean, that stuff is crazy accurate.

So when you go in and you plant, you know, say you have five acres, it's not just five acres anymore.

You know, you have 5.08 acres and that just makes the rest of the season so much easier in terms of tracking the crop from planting literally to harvest, upping the packing shed and then out onto the store shelf.

- Dr.

He, are there applications similar to that that you've been involved in?

And what do you see as continual improvement in the data, the management side, and if are there ways that AI and technologies that AI is fueling that will continue to improve farming in PA?

- Yeah.

Yes, definitely.

So precision, accuracy, those are the most important things for, in terms of precision farming, right?

So in GPS is one example that we are using RTK GPS to get very precise location of the crop or other object in the field, but also with using AI, machine vision system helping us to, for example, detecting apples on the tree and we know exactly where are those apples, and then to help for picking the fruits.

So those are the example of using the AI and precision technology to help integrate into the robotic system for this kind of practices.

I think that's a good example, but also there's many more using the precision technology using GPS, there's a LiDAR sensors and using the camera, different kinds of camera sensors and then of course the AI-based algorithms to like the programming parts as well software, right?

So it's everything integrated together and then to help us to improve the accuracy for the practices, yeah.

- Gino, have you seen some of these things at work?

You've talked about sensors and machine vision in your work?

Expand on that.

- Yep.

There's a lot.

So with the GPS, that new sprayer system has a GPS system on it as well that it will track where you are in the orchard by the row, and if you run outta spray, you could click the button, turn the system off, and it will mark to the tree where you stopped.

So, there's no more guessing anymore.

It's like, ah, it was three quarters of the way down this road when I ran out, so let's just try it there.

- Pick up exactly where, yeah.

- To go to the tree, turn your sprayer back on refill and go.

- How about from picking to sorting after fruit has already been picked off the tree?

What kind of sensors, what kind of automation is coming into play there?

- Yep, we recently bought a new packing line two years ago from Durand-Wayland.

There's a dunk tank goes through dump tank with chlorine solution for great chlorine solution, sanitize the apple, wash station, brushes a dryer system.

And then every apple is put into a row on a simulator on a conveyor belt, they each get a cup.

And then right now each apple is weighed.

So then based on what we wanna do with that size fruit, we could drop it in whatever shoot we want for tray pack.

You go to the grocery store, you see 125 count Honeycrisp, that means 125 apples in one bushel.

So that's based on the size of the apple and how many fit in a bushel.

- How has that changed?

Like how accurately the fruit is sorted, if there's a blemish, if there's a different color, it's not one that's gonna wind up on that grocery store shelf.

What kind of things are being done to help in making that process more efficient?

- Right now, I think you're alluding to the optical eye.

It's a camera system.

We don't have it yet.

We're in the process of getting that going, but right now everything's sorted by hand.

But as far as weight goes, there's a scale in the line that weighs every apple down to the gram.

And I could go on the computer system and type in, I want my fruit from 108 grams to 123 grams to drop and shoot one, and that'll gimme an accurate size to the gram.

So, it's very impressive that way.

And also that allows for three and five pound bags.

It'll gimme three pounds, or I could set a threshold for what I want, say 3.1 pounds and then it'll go off.

- Are there more innovations ahead of this nature?

What else do you wanna share?

- The tracking line, I mean, Gino just mentioned about the using, detecting the deficiency, for example, for the surface.

And then you can have kind of, right now it's more like size based, but also you can adding the quality as well.

So those are definitely used AI technology to take a model of images and then different kinds of images to identify the fruit quality as well.

So those are help to even more tuning, fine tuning the quality of fruits, and then you can classify to different groups.

So that's part of the packing system.

- Jonathan, we've heard a little bit about your work early in the stage from selecting what types of potatoes and where, and how they are grown further on in the process 'cause Sterman Masser has the whole range from production packaging.

What kind of changes are happening that are making your work more innovative, more efficient, at closer to the consumer?

- Yeah, so I heard two types of technology that are in orchards but also in potatoes.

So number one would be drones.

We're looking into utilizing drones to get a better literal bird's eye view over the crop to look at pests and diseases, plants per acre and even into spraying a little bit, but closer to the consumer using optical grading for tubers as well.

Part of my research, we have a optical grader now that instead of hand grading things, which would take hours and hours, we could run a sample through a camera that literally takes a picture of every potato and puts it into a specific size category that I can adjust that will, and it cuts down on labor, is more efficient and the accuracy is totally phenomenal.

And that type of technology is also being employed in the packaging plant that the consumer then sees.

- From the earliest stages of your career, what have been the changes in the types of skills that are needed in the agriculture industry?

So we're talking about software, we're talking about precision robotics and other advanced technologies.

What do you need to do to select those appropriately use, apply them, and then keep them running?

- Yeah, I think that there's a myriad of skills that are needed.

First you need to have your background in farming and agronomics, but then more so technology side of, you know, going to school for software programming or some kind of coding course.

But oftentimes I feel in the mix up of all this, that the soft skills are sometimes forgotten about that I think it's important that you're well educated, but you also need to be a well-rounded person to fit in with farming because you need to have top-notch communication skills and you know, just being a reliable person that when you see something that, you know, you could pass it up through the chain of command.

- Dr.

He, you live your life, you know, in academia, but also spanning into the agricultural industry.

Can you build on that?

What other skills and what is education for the future of farmers like?

- Sure.

I mean, the skills for, I mean, we have for different positions, maybe we'd have different kind of skill requirement, right?

So for education, for if we are directly go to the somebody who is interested in the farming in the future, like, let's see, we have a lot of technology in the future, and then the manager or the people who are actually directly working on the farming should have some knowledge on how this kind of technology are kind of this a little bit of kind of fundamentals things, but not, I mean, we don't need to go very deep, but at least understand, understand how this technology can work for different kind of applications.

And then of course, like Jonathan just mentioned about the background and agriculture is always important.

So for us, we as ag engineers, our students normally encouraged to take a lot of kind of ag science courses to understand better for ag systems.

And that's help us to understand what is the basic needs or what is things are we can do to help as engineers.

So, that's something I think it's important for us to understand like how we train our future engineers, our managers work on the farm.

- Gino, your experience in the changing demands of the industry, changing demands of even an orchard, what was early in your career like?

What kind of change have you seen in type of work?

- I think the most important thing is a willingness to learn.

Stuff changes all the time.

There's always new innovations and there's always better ways to do it.

If you have a willingness to learn and you're eager, it comes fairly easy.

There's lots of people like Dr.

He and the ag extension guys that are a great resource if you listen.

- What are some changes coming for the agricultural industry in Pennsylvania?

And this, I'll open up anyone across our panel, I'm sure you have your own perspective.

Gino, what's changing in orchards?

What's ahead for OHF?

- I think we're really excited to get an optical eye sorting line.

Not only does it allow for color sorting and size and defects, but some of these lines have internal defects as well.

They could scan an apple that normally would look perfectly fine and if there's water core or some type of internal defect, they could pick up on that as well.

- Yep, actually we heard at the opening of the show about support from Pennsylvania in the form of agricultural innovation grants.

You've pursued that, you're hoping to build on that even more.

How important is it to have that support at a statewide level for the industry?

- It's a great opportunity to go after and apply for some of these grants.

It gives us as farmers the opportunity to implement some projects that maybe we not would not have been able to afford otherwise and really improve our processes and be more efficient and more productive.

- Dr.

He, Pennsylvania invests in the research of Penn State.

How about telling us more about what you see in the promise of grants directly for farmers through this program?

Agricultural Innovation grants.

- Yeah, so I kind of familiar with this grant program.

When we see the announcement comes out, I kind of immediately think about, I need to talk to the growers.

So I actually talk to some of the growers and ask their interest any, like, I have some options there.

So there's like very kind of promising technology action on the market.

And then do you have interest on that?

And then I actually talk to them and see this can do this and that, and then trying to do more discussion on potential benefit to the farmers.

And then actually a few of them actually pursued that route and some of them get funded.

So I think that's a very, very positive impact.

We want to looking more of those opportunities for our farmers because it is challenging for farmers to adopt new technology as very kind of at the first of group people who are adapting because there's a lot of uncertainty there.

So they're in the investment not only money but also the time and other things, resources, is on a risk, right?

And then this grant, this program is actually ease a lot of those obstacles like the farmers can think that take more easier way, like the, at least the financial part can help them to take this step forward.

So that's I think that's the positive impact.

I really like that program.

And then I think this will bring very positive fit kind of impact to our farming, farmer community, yeah.

- Jonathan, are programs like that, how important are they for your work and for the work of the industry to move forward?

- Yeah, I mean they're really crucial.

We were lucky to get a grant to bring eight row potato planning to Pennsylvania.

And you might think, well, eight row is it that big of a deal?

Well, with a changing climate these days, you have a very short window to get your crop in the ground and get everything else done for the crop.

And right now we're running four row equipment and we could make things happen.

But when you get into monsoon season like it is right now in May, and you get rained out for two weeks, all of a sudden that window is really shortened.

So utilizing this grant to bring eight row potato planting to Pennsylvania, we could get more acres planted when the weather and the conditions are right.

And touching on what you said about taking some of that risk, you know, being the first to really look at this type of equipment comes with a lot of challenges.

This is gonna be a liquid fertilizer system instead of a dry and that is something that we've been playing around with on a small scale, but moving commercially with it, it's definitely gonna have some challenges.

And utilizing a grant program definitely helps on the back end of that.

- Well, kudos to you for being part of that innovation.

The first eight row planter in Pennsylvania that truly a milestone to have reached.

Best wishes for success in that.

Dr.

He I loved hearing about the advances that are ahead and Gino keep up the great work at OHF and what's ahead.

For our viewers, thanks for joining us.

Visit wvi.org/keystoneeditionbusiness to stream episodes or subscribe to the podcast.

And remember, you can also rewatch this episode on demand anytime on the WVIA app.

For, "Keystone Edition," I'm Steve Stumbris.

Thanks for watching.

(thoughtful music)