The Turkey Valley FFA Chapter is going high tech in its greenhouse. Last year, the 48-student chapter raised $3,000 to buy a "Farmbot" open-source CNC farming robot; a tool many FFA chapters only dream about.
"I just started putting it together at the end of last year and got it pretty much built, and the wood part I built in the shop at the beginning of this year," said Turkey Valley senior Tanner Tlusty. "Since then, I've been fixing some issues with it."
Tlusty, 17, said the Farmbot can receive instructions/programming from a smartphone application anywhere in the world. For example, just a few weeks ago, he was on vacation in Florida and could control the robot from there.
"Because it's web-based, you can run it from anywhere in the world, and that adds a lot of flexibility, because you don't have to be here to get stuff done," the student explained. "Using the app, I program where I want plants, and I schedule sequences to take place at different times and different days, and I don't need to be here. It will pick up seed, and it will plant it where I led it to, and it will water that plant every day. There's also a weeder part of it that I haven't figured out yet."
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