AgMechtronix

AgMechtronix is a US manufacturer of automated agricultural equipment based in Silver City, New Mexico. The company carries out engineering, manufacturing and in-field service in-house and states that it builds all of its products itself, keeps replacement parts in stock and develops new prototypes each year. Its markets include large-scale farms, smaller specialty operations, pack sheds and processing plants, and its machines have been deployed across North America.

The best known product is the Automated Thinner (Row Crop Thinner, RCT), which uses machine vision to locate crop plants in rows of lettuce and similar crops and applies a thinning agent to remove unwanted plants, replacing hand thinning crews. The RCT works at about 3 mph (5 km/h), can run day and night, is built to match the planter's row or seed-line configuration and can be fitted with a folding toolbar for transport. Spray tanks mount on the tractor, and one tractor driver operates the machine through a cab-mounted touch screen with English, Spanish and French interfaces. Growers can use any legally available thinning agent, such as fertilizer, acids or herbicides. The spray system uses off-the-shelf components, the machine supports remote troubleshooting over the internet, and software updates are provided without an annual subscription. The RCT has been in field use since at least 2016.

Other products include the Precision Application Machine (PAM), which uses sensors to spray either crop plants or the soil between them; a Bale Scale that weighs hay, straw or grass bales while the baler keeps moving; a conveyor Check Weigher for bagged produce; a Tractor Planter Monitor that alerts drivers if the hydraulic planter drive is not engaged; a Remote Actuation Monitor for cloud-based monitoring and control of field devices; and a Pipe Retriever. The company also lists engineering and design, manufacturing and fabrication, in-field service and remote machine servicing among its capabilities.