by in News
October 20, 2017
CEMA Summit Farming 4.0

Tom Murphy recently attended the CEMA Summit – Farming 4.0, in Brussels. Murphy was there to ensure a voice for Irish agricultural contractors and he did just that by taking part in the debate and posing a number of questions. CEMA is the European representative body for farm machinery manufacturers and this event focused on moving towards connected and sustainable agriculture in Europe and what digital technologies and advanced farm machinery can deliver.   There is no doubt that going forward agricultural contractors will play a huge role in uptake of smart farming technologies and it is important they keep well informed.  The use of digital tools is opening up new business models and opportunities and is poised to revolutionize the world of farming as we know it. The Summit explored how Europe’s farm machinery industry can best drive forward innovation and how the EU can help to boost the farm machinery industry’s technology lead in this area.  How EU regulation can help support innovation and the principles that need to be respected in terms of ownership, access and control of data was also debated.
Digital technology and modern farm equipment can provide the farmer with unprecedented levels of information and knowledge about their crops, livestock and operations. Over the coming years digital and precision farming hold the promise of boosting environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness. The Economic Forum discussed environmental benefits of smart farming and identified the barriers holding back the uptake of digital and precision farming along with identifying tangible benefits to the user.  The integration of digital technologies into farm machines comes with the promise of many new opportunities in the areas of automation, data sharing and safety enhanced features. The Technical Forum looked at such key questions as to whether machines really can “talk” to each other and be fully automated and whether we are witnessing the dawn of agricultural robots.
To ensure you are fully up to speed with advancements in Digital and Precision Farming, book a place at the
PAC Ireland Conference on 2nd February 2018, with the theme
Smart Farming – Contractors and Farmers working together.  Follow this LINK to book.