Doug Inglis has had a 60-year career in farm drainage installation. He now continues his lifelong journey of innovation exploration through his new project of garlic production, with the assistance of an autonomous robot.
In 2021, he came across an 80-acre farm for sale, partially cleared and not yet tiled, with about 4 acres ready for crop production. The field was already planted with 20,000 garlic plants in one section. He had the piece weeded and harvested with the help of the local Amish population. Approximately 4 acres are ready for production, with more to be cleared and tiled.
Doug had already invested in an autonomous (independently self-driving) lawnmower by Husqvarna at his property in town so felt comfortable with the technology when he encountered Haggerty Creek and their OZ Naio robot at a London Ontario trade show. Haggerty Creek is based in Southwestern Ontario near Bothwell, 8 hours from Doug’s home in Temiskaming Shores. He became interested in the potential of autonomous on-farm robots, for self-propelled field work. Doug believes, along with many, that these units will be an instrumental piece in the future of farming. He is trying to invest in this robot and the technology, not to make money, but for certain to avoid losing it. He is trying to compare the cost of a unit like the Naio OZ to using labour from a hoeing team. At a cost of around $50,000-60,000 for this little unit, it will be an interesting trial to track over time.
The Naio Oz is the smallest unit offered by Haggerty Creek, with larger offerings such as the fully solar-powered Farm Droid or the OMNI Power, which are capable of seeding, spreading and spraying amendments at a large scale. The full offering can be found on Haggerty Creek’s website: https://www.haggertyagrobotics.com/. This garlic plot is a picture of only the beginning stages of what is possible with autonomous tractors.
Grant Elgie from Haggerty Creek brought the unit up to set up the AB lines and plant the garlic, with a team of workers hired by Doug in fall 2022. The planter unit, which would be adaptable to different sizes of garlic cloves, is still on order, but the producer wanted to set up the field and get the garlic in this fall. The robot dug the furrow and set up the field line for the important job of weeding in the spring and summer of 2023.
The RTK set up and GPS connectivity proved to be an issue, which is very common in the north, but with some technical troubleshooting, the job was able to be completed, but not before some rain. The robot was able to handle the light precipitation.
Oz Naio Specs: The farming assistant for time-consuming and arduous tasks:
Capable of Hoeing, Weeding, Making Furrows, Seeding, Assist Transporting
The machine does have limitations. It does not perform well on slopes of greater than 7%, so can only be used on a relatively flat field. One major issue is that it requires a charging dock, which is simple if the field has hydro service, however Doug’s land does not. Doug plans to build a docking station with a container at the field, set up hydro and likely an RTK repeater unit with Haggerty Creek to make the project sustainable at this location.
Overall, it is thrilling to see a fully self-driving robot tractor capable of working an 8-hour day in Northern Ontario, thanks to some innovative and forward-looking producers and dealers.
Watch the Naio Oz in action during the garlic planting here: https://youtu.be/3R_DzGPJIe0