fbpx
Print this page
Friday, 08 June 2018 14:55

It looks like meat...

Written by 
Massey master’s student Hayden Wilson with Massey’s artificially intelligent farm assistant. Massey master’s student Hayden Wilson with Massey’s artificially intelligent farm assistant.

Massey University is living the ‘future of farming’ theme at National Fieldays this year with robots, future foods artificially intelligent farm assistants, and a focus on health and wellbeing.

This is the university’s first year as a partner of the Fieldays event overall, and its second year partnering in the health and wellbeing programme. 
Massey’s stand in the main pavilion will display an artificially intelligent farm assistant. 

The screen-based prototype will allow people visiting the stand to ask farm-related questions of an avatar. Voice recognition technology and pre-loaded farm data will enable the avatar to quickly analyse the question and put forward answers and solutions.

The stand will also have plant-based proteins, including soy patties that look and taste like meat, and bread made from nut and cricket flour.

Massey’s College of Health will have a stand in the Health Hub, where they will be asking crowds to play a spin-the-wheel style health promotion game designed to engage people in conversations about health and wellbeing.

It will cover different health topics including nutrition, exercise and social life, to expand people’s knowledge so they can better look after themselves and others.

Two Massey dietetic students will run a ‘sugary drink’ activity, where people can try different drinks, like flavoured waters, to find out more about sugar in drinks and the alternatives. 

Massey knowhow will also feature on other sites.

The C-Dax stand (site F25) will show the C-Dax pasture meter robot developed with graduates from Massey University and representing the future of smart farming.

The robot uses pasture meter technology to measure pasture, autonomously allowing for its optimum use while saving labour costs. Massey mechatronics graduates Mitchell Hampton and Tim Sutcliffe, now working with C-Dax on the next stage of field trials, will front the display.  

The robot has been entered in the Fieldays Innovation Awards.
On the Massey Agritech Research Centre stand the professor of robotics, Johan Potgieter, will talk about the future of farming. 

This talk and networking event will be hosted by Massey’s Alumni Foundation on Thursday June 14 from 5.30pm at The Verandah.

Bedford truck

Massey’s first exhibit was brought up on a Bedford truck by a young Ralph Sims, now a Massey professor at the forefront of climate change issues. 

In that truck, Professor Sims had farm machinery teaching equipment and a tent. 

In 1975, Sims also started the tractor pull competition as a way to educate drivers about good driving to save fuel.

More like this

The power of the puggo stick

A Massey University lecturer has devised a simple No. 8 wire device to help shed some light on how to improve the persistence of plantain in dairy farm pastures.

Science supports NZ's reputation

Farmers, scientists, rural professionals and policy makers from around the country last week converged on Massey University in Palmerston North for the 36th annual workshop of the Farmed Landscape Research Centre.

Beware - FE is here!

A disease that costs the primary industry more than $200 million a year is potentially coming to a place near you soon.

Featured

Sheep drench resistance costly

Analysis by Dunedin-based Techion New Zealand shows the cost of undetected drench resistance in sheep has exploded to an estimated $98 million a year.

Dairy sheep and goat turmoil

Dairy sheep and goat farmers are being told to reduce milk supply as processors face a slump in global demand for their products.

Hurry up and slow down!

OPINION: We have good friends from way back who had lived in one of our major cities for many years.

National

Knowing bugs means fewer drugs

A mastitis management company claims to deliver the fastest and most accurate mastitis testing available at scale for New Zealand…

Machinery & Products

AGTEK and ARGO part ways

After 12 years of representing the Landini and McCormick brands in New Zealand, Bay of Plenty-based AGTEK and the brands’…

100 years of Farmall Tractors

Returning after an enforced break, the Wheat and Wheels Rally will take place on the Lauriston -Barhill Road, North-East of…

JD unveils its latest beast

John Deere has unveiled its most powerful tractor ever, with the launch of the all new 9RX Series Tractor line-up…

Biggest Quadtrac coming to NZ!

In the biggest announcement that Case IH Australia/New Zealand has made around its tractor range, its biggest tractor is about…