Expert List Precision Farming / Smart Farming / Farming 4.0 / Agriculture 4.0 / Digital Agriculture

What advantages does Precision Farming offer?

Lower ecological impact, reduction of costs, higher and more stable yields, higher profits - Precision Farming is often viewed as the cultivation system of the future. What exactly are the advantages and how do they arise? Who profits from the system? Prof. Dr. Hans W. Griepentrog is happy to explain these aspects to you.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Hans W. Griepentrog, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Department of Process Engineering in Plant Production, +49 711 459 23111, E-mail

Smart Farming - is the farmer becoming redundant?

Smart Farming: Agriculture is being digitalized; the machines are increasingly intelligent. For result-oriented and resource-preserving agricultural production, Smart Farming is a great advantage. But how will this change the role of the farmer? Will he receive an aid for making decisions, or will it be making decisions for him? What effects will improved information technology and automatization have? How does Smart Farming influence farm management? Prof. Dr. Hans W. Griepentrog will answer your questions on this topic.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Hans W. Griepentrog, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Department of Process Engineering in Plant Production, +49 711 459 23111, E-mail

Technical aspects of Precision Farming

Agricultural technology is changing rapidly. Sensors monitor plants’ needs for fertilization and treatments, and intelligent farming machinery is linked. What requirements are there in terms of software when using Precision Farming? How is data exchanged? What possibilities result from the enormous amounts of data that are collected? Prof. Dr. Stefan Böttinger informs you about the technical side of Precision Farming.

Contact: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Böttinger, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Department of Fundamentals of Agricultural Engineering, +49 711 459 23200, E-mail

Field robots in the service of Precision Farming

In the future, field robots can make work in the fields easier. How developed are they currently? What work can robots do? What are the advantages - and what are the disadvantages? Discuss the topic of field robotics with Prof. Dr. Hans W. Griepentrog.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Hans W. Griepentrog, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Department of Process Engineering in Plant Production, +49 711 459 23111, E-mail

Smart farming: digital and sustainable

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing agricultural technology: It enables autonomous robots and intelligent machines to detect weeds and control them with the utmost precision - and only if this is necessary from an agronomic point of view. Or plant diseases can be detected at early stages of infection using AI-based analysis of spectral images (machine vision). AI also enables crop yield prediction based on satellite imagery combined with weather and crop development data, as well as historical yields. Jun.-Prof. Dr. Anthony Stein explains the possible applications, the technology behind it, and the opportunities that are associated with it with a view to sustainability.

Contact: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Anthony Stein, Department of Artificial Intelligence in Agricultural Engineering, +49 711 459 22532, email

Artificial intelligence for better forecasts of milk quantities

Is oversupply or undersupply to be expected? Since the abolition of the milk quota, it is important for farmers and other market participants to estimate future milk volumes. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Hess uses a big-data approach with herd and weather data. From this, he derives the quality of the green fodder in spring, and from this in turn the milk yield in the following winter.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Sebastian Heß, Department of Agricultural Markets, email

Uses of Precision Farming in cultivation

What possibilities are there for using Precision Farming in plant cultivation? Which sensors are available and which parameters can be measured, what are the prospects? For example, what do you have to watch out for when fertilizing? And how can flying (UAV, drones) or self-driving sensor platforms be used to assist in making decisions? Based on process-oriented plant growth models, the Department of Decision Support works on systems that give management recommendations under consideration of historical lot data, yield maps, weather data, sensor data, etc. Prof. Dr. Simone Graeff-Hönninger show you the options.

Contact:
Prof Dr. Simone Graeff-Hönninger, Institute of Crop Sciences, Department of General Crop Farming, +49 711 459 22376, E-mail

Combating weeds with Precision Farming

What opportunities does Precision Farming provide for combating weeds? How exactly do the site-specific management systems work? What advantages do they have, and what are the problems? What is the status of research and praxis in this area? For information on these topics, weed scientist Prof. Dr. Roland Gerhards is available.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Roland Gerhards, Institute of Phytomedicine, Department of Weed Science, +49 711 459 22399, E-mail

Digitalization makes production transparent

Up to now, digitalization has mainly served to control production processes. However, it also offers new opportunities to come into direct contact with consumers so that they can experience production: Anyone who pours their milk into their coffee for breakfast, for example, can digitally watch how the cows on the farm are being milked right now. This, according to Prof. Dr. Sebastian Hess, provides an experience at eye level and can create trust.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Sebastian Heß, Department of Agricultural Markets, email

Precision Livestock Farming: potentials in livestock farming

Sensors, monitoring, and networking - what are the approaches of Precision Livestock Farming? What is the current status in the stalls? Can Precision Livestock Farming contribute to improving the living conditions of the animals? Is it possible to recognize illnesses at an early stage? Prof. Dr. Eva Gallmann explains the possibilities of these technical systems.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Eva Gallmann University Experimental Animal Facility, +49 711 459-22508, email