Electronics in UK agriculture and horticulture

This review traces the developing contribution of electronic instrumentation and control systems to UK agricultural and horticultural production. It covers applications in the livestock, arable and horticultural sectors in turn, taking the important grass crop as part of the arabic sector. These main sections are subdivided by type of livestock, crop or farming operation, as appropriate. The section on livestock deals separately with feeding, weighing, quality assessment and environmental control in poultry, pig, sheep and cattle production. Much of the material on cattle is concerned with developments in dairy parlour automation, including automatic identification of cows. The section on arable crops and grass covers instrumentation and control of tractors and implements generally before dealing separately with planting, spray and fertiliser application, harvesting, crop drying and crop grading and storage. In the section on horticulture, fruit and vegetables are considered separately from protected cropping in greenhouses and mushroom units. Forecasts are made of likely commercial developments in each of the three sectors. A concluding section provides an overall assessment of the present status of electronic monitoring and control equipment in agriculture and horticulture, together with the objectives of research and development in this sphere.