Smart Farm

From creating fragile crop harvest-aiding mobile robots (FRAIL-bots) for strawberry harvesting to developing an automated robotic orchard platform designed to optimize fruit pickers’ performance, Stavros Vougioukas is addressing agricultural challenges and making an impact on California agriculture.

Big data is all around us –– even in the wine we drink. UC Davis’ Smart Farm Big Idea is tackling how to take some of this vast trove of information and synthesize it for the benefit of agriculture.

Field Trials Find Varieties Sustainable, High-Yielding and Disease-Resistant

The practice can create healthier soils, save water and yield more almonds

Most operations at UC Davis have been suspended in response to California’s stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the infectious disease. Ullmann and a small, essential crew of staff and student employees work carefully to tend fields that feed local groups and provide a place where students can experience sustainable agriculture.

The Department of Plant Sciences welcomes Cameron Pittelkow to UC Davis as an assistant professor.

As the frequency and intensity of wildfires increases with climate change, California agricultural workers are at greater risk of smoke exposure as they often have no option but to work outdoors.

The volume of data produced globally is massive, tracking everything from how much television we watch, to worldwide weather patterns, to the nutrient content of the soil we use to grow food.

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Professor David Slaughter is the champion of the Smart Farm Big Idea. He believes the next era of agriculture begins with the expertise here at UC Davis. We spoke with him about what Smart Farm is and how it has the potential to change the way we grow food worldwide.

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) professor David Slaughter, a man at the forefront of digital technologies in specialty crop farming, can feel the early tremors of farming’s major disruptive force approaching.