FoA 281: Open Source Ag Technology with Brian Tischler of AgOpenGPS

Future of Agriculture

AgOpenGPS: https://github.com/farmerbriantee/AgOpenGPS

Autonomous Tractor Skiing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-T-rrny1Vk

Brian's Twitter: https://twitter.com/efarmerdot

Brian Tischler is a farmer in Alberta, Canada. He farms with his neighbor who he shares equipment with to cover a combined 2,500 acres of wheat, barley, oats, canola, flax, and peas. He started his career in the medical technology industry, which you’re about to hear more about, but then he bought his family’s farm when his dad was ready to retire in the mid 90s.

Brian is going to share how he started learning how to build software to solve a basic problem, and how that lead to a community of thousands of people around the world who are a part of what is now an open source project called AgOpenGPS.

We’ve done a few episodes on open source before, and its really inspiring to see farmers, who have always found ways to hack together solutions to their own problems, do the same with digital technologies as well. Today’s episode will focus on GPS-based technologies including mapping, section control, auto steer and making a tractor autonomous. These technologies exist in the marketplace, but you’re going to hear how our guest and his open source community are finding ways to make them for themselves much cheaper and more tailored to their individual needs.