Hoober INC.

The third field trip of the fall semester for Understanding Delaware Agriculture was to Hoober Inc. in Middletown Delaware. Hoobers is a Case IH Agricultural Equipment Dealer that is invested in new technology. On the tour, we were taken through the shop and saw the complexity of tractors and how difficult they are to work on. We then toured the equipment yard and saw the comparison between 1980’s combine and tractor technology and brand new technology. We were then demonstrated on and allowed to drive a tractor equipped with GPS and auto-steer. The technician explained how to map a path for the tractor and then match it to the GPS and let the system take over. Along with the GPS guided tractor, a drone with GPS was also demonstrated. The drone is being marketed to farmers for scouting fields using high powered cameras. Drones can also be used to observe irrigation patterns and where crops are being starved of nutrients. There has been testing on using drones to scout for animals in heat that are kept in large herds. These drones are also being marketed to construction companies to map out sites, and take videos of resorts for the tourism industry.

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