Ag News
UGA Grand Farm to serve as precision ag research hub
Posted on May 15, 2025 at 12:13 PM
The future of farming was on display May 2 at a groundbreaking ceremony for the University of Georgia (UGA) Grand Farm in Perry. The 250-acre innovation farm, located east of the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter on Elko Road, is owned and managed by the UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences (CAES).
CAES is working with Grand Farm in North Dakota to arrange research partnerships with companies and inventors developing precision ag technology equipment and software designed to address labor issues and help farmers grow crops more efficiently.
During the ceremony, more than 200 attendees heard from UGA President Jere Morehead, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper, Georgia Sen. Larry Walker, UGA CAES Dean & Director Nick Place, and Grand Farm Ecosystems Director Andrew Jason from North Dakota.
“Today is an exciting moment for the University of Georgia and a milestone for the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences. It’s through the efforts of a collective group of state leaders who really care about precision agriculture that we’ve reached this point. Thank you for believing in this institution and supporting precision agriculture,” Morehead said. “The UGA Grand Farm serves as a wonderful opportunity to build on what we’ve already been doing in precision agriculture at UGA in recent years. The UGA Grand Farm will serve as the hub for precision agriculture. It will host research aimed at decreasing inputs for farmers and getting young people excited about careers in precision agriculture.”
Fort Valley State University officials, UGA and CAES officials, Perry and Houston County leaders, Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter representatives, and others had a chance to shovel dirt during the ceremony.
UGA President Jere Morehead and UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences Dean Nick Place, seventh & eighth from left, were joined by George Vellidis, director of the UGA Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture, third from right, UGA Grand Farm Interim Director Calvin Perry, far right, and on far left, Grand Farm Regional Assistant Director Kaytlyn Cobb and Grand Farm Ecosystems Director Andrew Jason./ Photo by Jennifer Whittaker
Roots of the farm
Sen. Larry Walker III of Perry recalled that a group of state leaders attending the 2021 Sunbelt Ag Expo visited with CAES Dean Nick Place while looking at precision ag equipment and learning about UGA precision ag research projects.
“It came up in conversation that we needed a larger scale property to be able to test new equipment, and I knew we had this 250-acre farm here in Perry across the street from the Agricenter,” said Walker, who was chairman of the Georgia Senate Agriculture Committee in 2021.
Walker talked to University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue, who attended the launch ceremony for the original Grand Farm in North Dakota, while serving as U.S. secretary of agriculture. The two then discussed UGA’s need for a farm dedicated to precision ag research with Gov. Brian Kemp, who gave his support, Walker said. Georgia House and Senate leaders worked with Perry and Houston County leaders along with UGA officials to make the UGA Grand Farm a reality.
“Agriculture wouldn’t be our state’s No. 1 industry without innovation. Farmers have always been innovators and learned to do more with less,” Walker said. “My grandfather started a tractor company in the 1940s when the latest innovation was trading in mules for tractors. Agriculture has continued to innovate and improve through the years with improved peanut and cotton varieties. The farm economy is really tough right now, and we have an aging farm population. I’m excited about this farm because it will help develop new technology that can help farmers.”
Georgia Sen. Larry Walker III of Perry spoke at the UGA Grand Farm groundbreaking ceremony. / Photo by Jennifer Whittaker
According to UGA CAES, its Grand Farm will be a hub for research, education and sustainable agriculture practices, harnessing the power of precision agriculture, robotics and data analytics to increase farm productivity, conserve resources and ensure food security for future generations.
“In agriculture we’re asked to do more with less every day – less feed, less seed, less fertilizer, water and land,” Harper said. “That’s not possible without research and new precision ag technology.”
Robotic technology hits the field
“Grand Farm in Fargo, North Dakota, expanded from a single tent in 2019 to a 600-acre innovation campus today,” said Andrew Jason, Grand Farm ecosystems director. “The goal is to turn this farm [in Perry] into a hub for precision ag research to draw in groups and companies from all over the world. If the research that is done here stays here it will have failed its purpose. It needs to get into the hands of farmers to make sure it is solving real problems on real sites.”
UGA CAES says the UGA Grand Farm will develop and demonstrate new ag technology and automation focused on Georgia’s specialty crops and Southeast agriculture. The first field projects will begin this year.
“Today we’re taking a bold step to ensure that Georgia agriculture continues to remain the No. 1 industry in our state,” Place said. “We intend for this farm to be where research meets real world applications.”
After the ceremony, researchers demonstrated precision ag and autonomous ag technology they are testing and discussed their research. These include drones, self-driving tractors, solar-powered robotic weeders and advanced field sprayers.
Three pieces of precision ag technology demonstrated at the UGA Grand Farm today were: forefront, the Aigen – a solar-powered autonomous robotic weeder; middle right, the Solinftec Solix – an autonomous solar-powered robot that can run on solar energy in the day and by battery at night to spot-apply herbicides & also scout fields to collect real-time data on plant health & stand counts. irrigation pivot in the background is using iCrop precision irrigation & data analytics technology to optimize water & nutrient use efficiency. / Photo by Jennifer Whittaker
Dr. Luan Oliveria, a UGA CAES assistant professor and precision ag specialist, discussed the Solinftec Solix – a fully autonomous robot that uses artificial intelligence models to instruct the 20-30 nozzle sprayer system to spot-apply herbicides where needed amongst a crop.
The robot’s six, 3-D cameras can also scout fields and collect real-time data on plant health, height and stand counts. The robot is solar powered by day and runs on a battery at night. The Solinftec Solix runs on four wheels, and Oliveria says it can cover about 4.5 acres per hour.
“This robotic sprayer could be used to spray pre-emergent herbicides to kill weeds in winter and spot spray post-emergent herbicides. All types of chemicals can be applied through the sprayer,” Oliveria said. “This year we’re training the robot on a bell pepper crop to recognize what bell peppers are and the stages of the crop.”
Oliveria said UGA Extension researcher Wesley Porter is using the robot to study its potential for applying cotton growth regulator that keep cotton plants the same height.
UGA doctoral student Regimar Dos Santos demonstrated the Ecorobotix ARA Field Sprayer. This equipment from Switzerland is an advanced precision sprayer designed for the ultra-targeted application of crop protection products and fertilizers. It is equipped with six cameras that are programed to identify weeds and 156 nozzles. Dos Santos said the sprayer can be programmed to only open nozzles that are right over weeds. Its system allows minimal chemical or fertilizer use to reduce inputs.
The Ecorobotix ARA Field Sprayer can cover about 8 acres an hour, Dos Santos said. Its cameras can operate during the day or at night. Farmers will connect the system to wi-fi and operate the system via their mobile phones or a tablet.
Kenny Lee, CEO & founder of AIGEN, demonstrated his solar-powered autonomous robotic weeder that he has tested in sugar beets in North Dakota and is testing in Pima cotton in California. He hopes to bring the technology to Georgia to test in upland cotton.
The AIGEN robotic weeder has three cameras in the front that identify the weeds a farmer wants pulled. An additional two cameras navigate the weeder. Three hoe implements on the back of the weeder can move side to side or vertically to remove weeds.
“This can help farmers remove herbicide resistant weeds or in cases where removing weeds is very manual labor intensive,” Lee said.
UGA Grand Farm partners & contacts
Founding UGA Grand Farm partners are national and global. Partners include AquaSpy, Earnest Ag, Georgia Center of Innovation, Sabanto, Sentinel, Setatech, CroBio, EF Polymer, iCrop, Sentera, AgGeorgia Farm Credit and Wild Genomics.
Grand Farm has employed Kaytlyn Cobb to serve as its UGA Grand Farm regional assistant director. Cobb is overseeing operations, projects and partnership development at the UGA farm. Developing communication between emerging industry partners and UGA Extension agents statewide is another part of Cobb’s responsibilities.
The UGA Institute of Integrative Precision Agriculture (IIPA), which consists of 70 plus member faculty and 80 plus graduate students from seven University of Georgia schools and colleges, will utilize the new farm for its research.
“This farm will provide IIPA the opportunity to work with companies that are commercializing technology that will improve farm efficiency, and it means there is an opportunity for the work we do to reach the commercial market faster. This will allow our graduate students to work with companies that may employ them in the future,” said IIPA Director & CAES Professor George Vellidis. “This is going to be a great stage for us to demonstrate these new technologies to our farmers on a farm-size scale in big fields so the farmers who might be interested in investing in this technology can see how it really works.”
The IIPA was established in 2022 to foster interdisciplinary research, education, extension, and outreach on next-generation technologies in agriculture, food, and forestry – both within the university and with external partners.
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