8376 results about "Agricultural crops" patented technology

An agricultural robot system and method of harvesting, pruning, culling, weeding, measuring and managing of agricultural crops. Uses autonomous and semi-autonomous robot(s) comprising machine-vision using cameras that identify and locate the fruit on each tree, points on a vine to prune, etc., or may be utilized in measuring agricultural parameters or aid in managing agricultural resources. The cameras may be coupled with an arm or other implement to allow views from inside the plant when performing the desired agricultural function. A robot moves through a field first to “map” the plant locations, number and size of fruit and approximate positions of fruit or map the cordons and canes of grape vines. Once the map is complete, a robot or server can create an action plan that a robot may implement. An action plan may comprise operations and data specifying the agricultural function to perform.

The invention relates to crop plants comprising novel seed lipid compositions. Provided are both wild type and mutant nucleic acid molecules encoding Brassica fatty acyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) thioesterase B proteins (FATB) and the proteins as such. Also provided are Brassica plants, tissue and seeds comprising at least three mutant fatB alleles in their genome, whereby the seed oil fatty acid composition or profile is significantly altered.

Embodiments of the invention comprise a system and method that enable robotic harvesting of agricultural crops. One approach for automating the harvesting of fresh fruits and vegetables is to use a robot comprising a machine-vision system containing rugged solid-state digital cameras to identify and locate the fruit on each tree, coupled with a picking system to perform the picking. In one embodiment of the invention a robot moves through a field first to “map” the field to determine plant locations, the number and size of fruit on the plants and the approximate positions of the fruit on each plant. A robot employed in this embodiment may comprise a GPS sensor to simplify the mapping process. At least one camera on at least one arm of a robot may be mounted in appropriately shaped protective enclosure so that a camera can be physically moved into the canopy of the plant if necessary to map fruit locations from inside the canopy. Once the map of the fruit is complete for a field, the robot can plan and implement an efficient picking plan for itself or another robot. In one embodiment of the invention, a scout robot or harvest robot determines a picking plan in advance of picking a tree. This may be done if the map is finished hours, days or weeks before a robot is scheduled to harvest, or if the picking plan algorithm selected requires significant computational time and cannot be implemented in “real time” by the harvesting robot as it is picking the field. If the picking algorithm selected is less computationally intense, the harvester may calculate the plan as it is harvesting. The system harvests according to the selected picking plan. The picking plan may be generated in the scout robot, harvest robot or on a server. Each of the elements in the system may be configured to communicate with each other using wireless communications technologies.

A system includes a comparator to determine and compare the relative historical performance of various crop insurance plans. The comparator utilizes historical information including actuarial data, historical price data, and historical yield data. The historical performance comparison is made under various selected scenarios reflecting different selections made by the user in connection with various crop insurance plan variables, such as price election, coverage level, and protection level. An options analyzer allows the user to define hypothetical insurance plan scenarios that are employed to determine a performance projection. The assumptions can relate to standard insurance plan selections or user-specified values. A best-case scenario can be computed that allows continuous variation of any selected combination of insurance plan variables until the performance criteria is satisfied.

A control arrangement is provided for controlling the transfer of agricultural crop from a harvesting machine to a transport vehicle, the transport vehicle comprising a loading container. The control arrangement based on signals from a sensor arrangement detects the fill level and/or the outer contours of the loading container and controls the position of the output end of a discharge device with respect to the harvesting machine and/or the ejection direction of the discharge device, and/or the position of the transport vehicle with the loading container with respect to the harvesting machine, automatically in such a manner that the loading container is successively filled with the crop. It is further proposed that the sensor arrangement is designed to detect the position of a second loading container and that the control arrangement can be operated so that after detection of an overall sufficiently filled first loading container, the discharge device will be automatically aligned to the second loading container based on the signals from the sensor arrangement.

A method and system for evaluating crop performance obtains weather data and soil data for a defined geographic area. Further, management data is obtained, where the management data is associated with a particular agricultural crop affiliated with the defined geographic area. At least one of the obtained weather data, the obtained soil data, and the obtained management data is evaluated in comparison to reference weather data, reference soil data, and reference management data. The estimated performance level of a performance characteristic is determined for the particular crop associated with at least a portion of the defined geographic area based upon the evaluation.

The invention relates to a controlled release particle fertilizer used for controlling crop insect diseases. The fertilizer has a double layer core shell structure and is in a granular shape and comprised of a core, an interface layer cladding the core and a controlled release layer as a casing cladding the interface layer. The core contains fertilizers required by a crop, and the interface layer cladding the core contains pesticide; or according to production requirement, the core contains particles with pesticide, and the interface layer cladding the core contains fertilizers; and an outermost layer is a controlled release layer controlling dissolving of pesticide and fertilizers. According to the invention, pesticide and fertilizer can coexist stably and release slowly, so as to reduce drug application and fertilizing times during a crop fertility stage and save field labor.

The invention discloses a hydraulic deep and rotary cultivation powdery ridge machine which comprises a traveling gear, a cab, an engine, a powdery ridge machine and a framework. The cab and the engine are arranged on the framework, the traveling gear is mounted on the lower portion of the framework and is driven by the engine, a cutting disc which is driven by a hydraulic motor is arranged on the front lower portion of the framework, and the powdery ridge machine is connected to the rear of the framework by hinge seats and hydraulic cylinder supports. The hydraulic deep and rotary cultivation powdery ridge machine has the advantages that the hydraulic deep and rotary cultivation powdery ridge machine can travel stably, is simple and practical, is high in soil smashing efficiency and favorable for growth of roots of crops, deep soil loosening, surface soil loosening and soil lump smashing functions are integrated, deep soil drilling effects can be realized, and the oxygen contents of deep positions of soil and the yield of the crops can be increased.

The invention provides an organic/inorganic drought resisting compound fertilizer and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method comprises the following special steps of: at first, carrying out harmless treatment on raw materials of an organic fertilizer, such as livestock excrement, crop straws, kitchen garbage, fallen leaves, turf and peat, humic acid and the like, so as to obtain the organic fertilizer; then adding a macromolecule moisture retention material and an inorganic fertilizer at a certain ratio and uniformly stirring; and finally obtaining the organic/inorganic drought resisting compound fertilizer by extruding granulation. The organic/inorganic drought resisting compound fertilizer disclosed by the invention has functions of drought resistance and moisture retention, nutrient slow release and soil fertilization, so that the effects of increasing production and income of the crops are achieved. Furthermore, the organic/inorganic drought resisting compound fertilizer can effectively solve the environment pollution caused by the livestock excrement, straw burning and domestic garbage.

The invention provides an organic fertilizer with livestock and poultry manure and a preparation method thereof. The organic fertilizer comprises cow manure, edible mushroom dregs, pig manure, chicken manure, maize straw powder and an Em (effective microorganisms) stock solution. The specific formula of the organic fertilizer comprises 19.7 percent of edible mushroom dregs, 10 percent of pig manure, 10 percent of chicken manure, 20 percent of maize straw powder, 0.3 percent of Em stock solution, and the balance of cow manure. The preparation method of the organic fertilizer is characterized in that a production technology of the organic fertilizer with the livestock and poultry manure mainly adopts a shallow pool type fermentation technology, namely the cow manure, the pig manure, the chicken manure, the edible mushroom dregs, the maize straw powder and the Em stock solution are poured into a mixer in proportion and are evenly mixed and stirred, the evenly mixed and stirred materials are sent into a shallow layer pool type fermentation pool, and the organic fertilizer fermentation environment temperature is controlled to be above 15 DEG C. Firstly, various raw materials including the livestock and poultry manure, the edible mushroom dregs, the straw powder and a fermentation bactericide are mixed, and then the mixed materials are put into a mixing and stirring machine to be evenly stirred, are sent into the material fermentation pool to be fermented for 8 days and are discharged from the pool to enter a secondary aerobic fermentation procedure. The organic fertilizer has the advantages of low cost and high yield and can improve the quality of crops.

The invention belongs to the technical field of cultivation of agricultural crops and provides a pollution-free high-yield rice cultivating method. The pollution-free high-yield rice cultivating method includes selecting a production base accordant with pollution-free rice production standards and selecting novel high-quality high-yield anti-disease variety; selecting drought seedlings and strong seedlings of the right age, fertilizing a soil bed and cultivating the seedlings dryly; slinging the seedlings without tillage and for multiple tillers; fertilizing pollution-free rice according to the principle of taking base fertilizer as the principal and topdressing as complement, and simultaneously, interplanting glutinous rice; comprehensively preventing and controlling disease and pests, and timely harvesting in sunny days when the ripeness degree of the rice is up to 85-90%; and storing and processing the harvested rice and processing by-products of the harvested rice. The rice produced by the pollution-free high-yield rice cultivating method is high in quality and yield, safe and pollution-free, low in planting cost and simple in management method and has higher popularization and application value.

The invention discloses a method for preparing charcoal activated carbon flammable gas biological oil by utilizing crop straws. In the method, a co-production process technique integrated with comprehensive processing of multiple varieties is adopted. The method comprises the following steps: smashing the collected crop straws by a smash machine so as to form straw powder with the particle size of 8-30 meshes; pressing and forming the straw powder material for pyrolysis; and in the process of pyrolysis, preparing straw charcoal and activated carbon on one production line through carbonization and activation processes, and simultaneously, recovering flammable gas and extracting biological oil. By using the method, fixed investment is greatly reduced, economic and social benefits are effectively increased, the problems of stack and incineration of the straws are solved, waste straw resources are further developed and utilized, and the blank in the same industry in China is filled.

A method for improving and utilizing the serious saline-alkaline land at seaside includes such areas as digging ponds to build high-level field, arranging water supplying and draining ditches in the field, planting agricultural crops in the high-level field, and culturing aquatic animals in ponds.

A system for controlling crop transfer from a self-propelled agricultural harvesting machine into the loading container of a hauling vehicle includes a transfer device assigned to the harvesting machine from which the crop emerges in the form of a crop discharge flow and a detection device which detects the position of the loading container relative to the harvesting machine and transmits it to a control unit. The control unit actuates at least one actuator assigned to the transfer device in such a way that the crop discharge flow lands within the loading container in order to fill it with crop. The control unit generates a control signal (S) for the hauling vehicle that specifies a position of the hauling vehicle relative to the harvesting machine that is suitable for transfer into the loading container.

The invention relates to a core premix for organic beef cattle, which comprises the following components in percentage by weight: 10-40% of compound galenical preparation, 10-40% of compound enzyme preparation, 10-30% of compound micro-ecological preparation, 20-40% of natural mineral substances, 15-30% of natural vitamins and 5-30% of other preparations. The product can be mixed with organic crop straws, corn, cakes, wheat bran, grass powder, iodized salt, bone powder, calcium powder and the like in certain proportions to be used as a diet for the beef cattle; and by feeding the beef cattle with the diet all year round, not only the immunity of the organic beef cattle can be improved in the feeding process, but also the quality and taste of the beef are improved. Because the product uses the galenical preparation of a plurality of natural traditional Chinese medicines such as cordate houttuynia, honeysuckle flower, radix astragali, forsythia, tuckahoe, fleece-flower root, atractylodes rhizome, white atractylodes rhizome, hawthorn, liquorice and the like as additives to replace the western medicines and antibiotics, uses the compound enzyme preparation to improve the feed utilization ratio and uses the compound micro-ecological preparation to improve the intestinal tract environment of the beef cattle, thus ensuring the food safety of the organic beef.

A spectroscopic method, preferably Raman scattering, is used to rapidly determine the general health or stress status of living plants and plant products, including agricultural crops, forests, and harvested fruits and vegetables. In the preferred embodiments, carotenoid levels are used to provide an indication of oxidative deterioration. Based upon the results of the analysis, further action may or may not be taken, for example, in terms of choosing, picking, harvesting or sorting the agricultural product in accordance with the carotenoid level. Concentration levels of an analyte substance can be determined relative to an external standard, to each other, or relative to another substance in the item being analyzed. Carotenoids such as lycopene, beta-carotene, lutein, violaxanthin, neoxanthin, antheraxanthin, and zeaxanthin are determined according to the invention, through other plant components may be analyzed such as other terpenes, polyenes, chlorophyll, proteins, starches, sugars, overall nitrogen levels, flavonoids, and vitamins. The hardware associated with the invention may be field portable or mounted on a piece of equipment such as a harvester or sorter.

The invention relates to a method for identifying crop diseases and pests based on an Android mobile phone platform. The method comprises the steps that disease and pest pictures are taken through a camera and stored in an SD card of an Android mobile phone; the disease and pest pictures are preprocessed; features of the preprocessed disease and pest pictures are extracted; feature training is carried out on a feature set, and sample set data are trained through an SVM method to obtain a disease and pest diagnosis model; SVM classification is carried out through the disease and pest diagnosis model, a classification and diagnosis result of the diseases and pests is obtained, and prevention and treatment methods are fed back to a mobile phone user. The invention further discloses a system for identifying crop diseases and pests based on the Android mobile phone platform. Through picture preprocessing and feature extraction carried out on the disease and pest pictures, the disease and pest pictures are classified through the SVM learning method to set up the disease and pest diagnosis model, the purpose of identifying the disease and pest pictures is achieved, and the user only needs to take pictures for the diseases and pests in an aligned mode through the mobile phone, and identification efficiency is high.

Novel pest control compounds, compositions comprising such compounds, and methods for using such compounds and compositions against a variety of pests, including pests of agricultural crops.

The invention provides universal chloroplast integration and expression vectors which are competent to stably transform and integrate genes of interest into chloroplast genome of multiple species of plants. Transformed plants and their progeny are provided. Monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants are transformed which have never been transformed heretofore. Plants transformed with a synthetic gene express valuable biodegradable protein-based polymers (PBPs). Transformed plants produce high value molecules. Resistance is provided to agricultural crops against the major classes of chemical herbicides. Herbicide resistance is used as a lethal selectable marker for chloroplast transformation. The transformed plants are capable of expressing in addition to the targeted trait, a desirable, secondary non-targeted trait. Insect resistance is provided to transformed plants, both against insects that are susceptible to Bt toxins and against insects that have developed resistance to Bt toxins.

The present invention provides biological fertilizer compositions that comprise yeast cells and garbage. The yeast cells of the invention have an enhanced ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, decompose phosphorus minerals and compounds, decompose potassium minerals and compounds, decompose complex carbon compounds, overproduce growth factors, overproduce ATP, decompose undesirable chemicals, suppress growth of pathogenic microorganisms, or reduce undesirable odor. The biological fertilizer composition of the invention can replace mineral fertilizers in supplying nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to crop plants. Methods of manufacturing biological fertilizer compositions, and methods of uses are also encompassed.

The invention discloses a functional bioorganic fertilizer and a semi-organic fertilizer and a preparation method thereof. The method comprises the following steps of: adding microzyme into livestock manure to perform anaerobic and aerobic fermentation; deodorizing, drying and crushing (after biogas slurry of residues after fermentation in a methane tank is separated, the biogas dregs are dried and crushed); adding a certain amount of humic acid, amino acid, borax, ammonium molybdate and zinc sulfate, or also adding nitrogen, phosphor and kalium inorganic nutrients; automatically blending materials by using a computer according to a proportion; after uniformly stirring, granulating by using a granulator, and drying, cooling and screening the grains; and coating a synergist and nitrogen-fixing, phosphorous-dissolving and potassium-releasing composite bacteria on qualified grains to prepare the functional bioorganic and semi-organic fertilizers. The product has the functions of preserving moisture and fertility, resisting drought, coldness, plant diseases and insect pests and the like, improves the soil structure, promoting the proliferation of beneficial microorganisms in soil, jointly participating substance circulation of a soil ecosystem and the like, has quick response and long effect, is mainly used as a base fertilizer for crops to save time and manpower, can realize waste recycling, protects ecological environment, integrates land utilization, land nourishment and land protection, and ensures constant soil productivity.

The present invention relates generally the field of genetics, in particular methods, compositions and systems for controlling the inducible expression of transgenes, while eliminating background expression of transgene expression. The present invention relates to methods of use of the compositions and systems as disclosed herein for controlling the inducible expression of transgenes while eliminating background expression of transgene expression, such as use in, for example, the in generation of transgenic animals, use in therapeutic application and use in assays. In some embodiments, the present invention relates to a system of controlled expression of RNAi molecules which target binding sites in the untranslated regions of transgene, thereby the expression of the transgene is modulated and leakiness is reduced. The compositions and methods of the present invention can be used to for therapy, prophylaxis, research and diagnostics in diseases and disorders which afflict mammalian species, generation of transgenic animals, in the study of biological processes as well as for enhance performance of agricultural crops.

The invention discloses an amino-acid chelated organic fertilizer and a production method thereof. The amino-acid chelated organic fertilizer is prepared from the following raw materials: 38-56wt% (weight percent) of organic matters, 10-15wt% of composite amino acid, 10-15wt% of chelating agent, 2-4 wt% of trace elements and 20-30wt% of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Each gram of product contains more than 20 millions of live beneficial microbes. The amino-acid chelated organic fertilizer has the functions of improving the physical and chemical performances and the water and nutrient retaining performances of soil and promoting the formation of soil aggregates, is an preferential organic agriculture fertilizer, is suitable for vegetables, fruits, rice, corn, bananas, peppers and other crops, can ensure the high yield, good quality and good taste of agricultural products and can ensure that the nutrients of the agricultural products are increased significantly.

The invention discloses a process of preparing a pig manure bio-organic fertilizer by a microbial fermentation method. The process comprises the following step: by taking the pig manure as a raw material and supplementing straws, earthworm cast, seaweeds, and the like, performing a two-step fermentation process of a biological fermenting agent to prepare the pig manure bio-organic fertilizer. The process is high in resource utilization degree, easy for large-scale industrial production, beneficial to realizing resource utilization of live pig breeding wastes and capable of a pig breeding environmental pollution problem at present. The pig manure bio-organic fertilizer has the effects of the bio-organic fertilizer and the seaweed fertilizer, is rich in functional active ingredients of seaweeds and a large number of probiotics, capable of effectively regulating equilibrium of microorganisms in soil, decomposing organic or inorganic components such as organic substances and mineral substances in the soil, eliminating soil hardening, desertification, salinization and the like caused by abuse of a chemical fertilizer throughout the year, increasing the yield of crops, and has the special effects of improving the quality of the crops and improving the stress resistance of the crops. Besides, the pig manure bio-organic fertilizer is long in acting period, and is an ideal fertilizer for developing green ecological agriculture.

A method controlling an agricultural sprayer includes identifying an herbicide to be sprayed using the agricultural sprayer, determining a geoposition associated with the agricultural sprayer within a field, determining if crop planted at the geoposition is tolerant to the herbicide using as-planted data, and if the crop is not tolerant of the herbicide, preventing herbicide spraying operations while the agricultural sprayer is at the geoposition. An agricultural sprayer adapted for performing the method is also provided.