Precision farming platform Semios has raised $100 million in funding to accelerate its R&D and deployment of solutions to help growers worldwide reduce chemical inputs, better manage water, organize farming data and improve crop outcomes.

U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, spoke on the Senate floor on Sept. 20 about her bipartisan Precision Agriculture Loan (PAL) Act. In the speech, Sen. Fischer highlighted the importance of increasing the adoption of precision agriculture technologies for agriculture producers, rural communities, consumers and the environment.

Advanced Farm Technologies, Inc., developers of robotic technology for farmers, has completed a series B investment round raising $25 million to support the company’s growth in strawberry harvesting and the adaptation of its technology to apple harvesting. The Series B funding round was led by Catapult Ventures and included all the Series A investors: Kubota Corporation, Yamaha Motor Corporation and Impact Ventures.

Corteva Agriscience is using a Spot robot from Boston Dynamics to ‘walk’ between rows of corn, sunflowers and more. The robot automates sensing and inspection, and it has potential applications in field testing of both new seed and crop protection solutions with its ability to collect copious amounts of data, support the application of new crop protection discovery molecules and inspect operations.

The first Raven Industries OMNiPOWER autonomous farming machine to be sold in the U.S. went to Frenchman Valley Coop, based in Imperial, Neb. The coop's vice president of agronomy took possession of the Raven OMNiPOWER automated machine Sept. 16 at Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island, Neb.