I have a confession to make. 

You know when you’re driving and you see these incredibly straight lines in the fields, and you probably exclaim: “Wow, those farmers sure have steady hands,” well, it’s probably not the farmers. 

Chances are those lines were created using GPS technology, with the tractor self-steering and the operator only touching the wheel to turn around at the end of each line.

The buzzword for this is “Precision Farming”. GPS has transformed agricultural practices over the past decade, enabling us to map out every inch of soil, every seed sown. 

Not only do we have our physical farms, we now have our digital farms, too. Our digital farm can show our soil quality across the farm, for example pinpointing the varying pH levels, as well as the amount of nutrients and organic matter which are available to our crops.

Our combine harvesters now monitor the precise yields of our crop during the harvesting process, creating colour-coded maps for each field. Layers and layers of data are being accumulated so that we have a clearer picture of what is going on within our soils, helping us to remedy any deficiencies and hopefully increase crop yields and farm profitability.

The problem with precision-farming technologies is that they are expensive and it takes time to accrue the capital necessary to invest. 

And once you do invest, there are additional things to do: staff require training in operation of the machinery and management of the data.

All of this can be off-putting for some people; but I honestly think precision-farming is the future. 

This year Harper Adams University managed to farm a field exclusively with robots. 

Who knows where we’ll be in another 10 years? Three years ago on our farm we decided to invest in a self-steering tractor. 

It has had three distinct advantages for us so far: we have saved on fuel as the tractor travels the minimum distance; it’s better for the environment as the tractor sprays just the right amount of pesticides or fertiliser needed; and we have more accurate data regarding our fields.

Right at the top of my Christmas wish-list in the coming decade: a GPS combine harvester.