Precision Pays

The recent Cotton Incorporated Crop Management Seminar in Tunica, Mississippi featured workshops to help growers learn more about precision management.

Director of Agricultural Research Ed Barnes says they actually had two different precision workshops. “One for people who really had not done any work with precision agriculture. We had a workshop on the basics of how to scout your field, use a GPS and download data back to the computer.”

“Then we had a second workshop for people who are more experienced and wanted to take it to a new level, transitioning to zone management where you manage by soil type a little more,” said Barnes. The workshops concluded with a look at the “Green Seeker” variable rate application and mapping system that can help cotton growers make real time variable rate applications of plant growth regulators and defoliants.

Some 200 growers were able to attend the workshops and Cotton Inc plans to have another at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in January.

It’s less than two weeks to the Cotton Incorporated, 2008 Crop Management Seminar & Workshops. There’s a nice agenda of precision workshops included in the program in case you’re interested. It’s all going to take place at Harrah’s Casino & Resort in Tunica, MS, November 11 - 13.

Here’s the precision workshops agenda (pdf):

7:00 AM – 8:30 AM REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM LUNCH

I told you I’d get to see the new John Deere 7760 Self Propelled Cotton Picker in action. This bad boy will be ready for sales next year but growers can call their local dealer to get an on-farm demonstration.

I liked the American flag touch. It was waving in the nice breeze we had all day. There were also field demonstrations with corn, soybeans, hay and peanuts.

If you’d like to see photos from the Sunbelt Ag Expo, I’ve got them in a Sunbelt Ag Expo Photo Album.

At Sunbelt Ag Expo, the John Deere 7760 Cotton Picker is getting a lot of attention. The new machines should be available for next year but they have several out in the field including one here at this show. I’m hoping to get some video of it in action in just a little while in fact.

This morning I spoke with Annette Bitto, Cotton Marketing Product Manager. She has been out in the field with growers demonstrating the new cotton picker. In fact, she says that one grower told her that when she took it back he felt like a kid who had his toy taken away. Of course the machines are fully precision ready from the factory and allow producers to gather all the information they need to more effectively manage their farm.

“Without ever stopping the machine during picking, the operator can then carry the module to the end of the field to be transported later to the gin. This efficient, non-stop harvesting system eliminates unloading into a boll buggy and processing in a module builder. Ultimately, the producer saves time, fuel and manpower when harvesting and processing the cotton.”

Listen to my interview with Annette here:

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Crop input costs are continually rising, but PrecisionAg.com reports that precision farming technology is helping keep overall costs at bay. A recent article suggests farmers are receiving substantial paybacks for investing in precision agriculture technology.

“Research shows that growers are gaining back their investment in precision ag technology faster than we thought – often in just one to three years,” says K. Elliott Nowels, director of the PrecisionAg Institute. “And they are saving from $15 to $39 per acre by using inputs more efficiently with precision ag tools, depending on crop and region of the country.”

• The top benefits growers listed from their use of precision ag technology were 1.) the ability to apply chemicals and fertilizer where needed, 2.) greater profitability due to lower input costs, and 3.) identification of poor producing areas of their fields.

PrecisionAg.com reports that the data from this research was gathered from in-depth written responses and telephone follow-up interviews with corn, soybean and cotton growers.

Click here to view the entire article.

About half of the nation’s cotton growers are practicing precision agriculture. PrecisionAg.com reports that the use of precision technology among cotton growers grew from just 18 percent in 2001 to 48 percent in 2005.

There are a number of reasons for this increase. First, changes in farming practices requires more precision and repeatability, such as the use of subsurface irrigation and strip-till. Guidance products with high levels of accuracy such as real-time kinematic (RTK) with sub-inch repeatability provide the accuracy needed for repeat passes over the same guidance line. Second, rising input costs encourage the use of products that reduce overlap. AutoTrac (automatic steering) reduces pass-to-pass overlap which on average reduces input cost by 5-10%, and GS2 Rate Controller and Swath Control (automatic boom section control capability) products reduce inputs applied to previously covered acres. On average this is an additional 3% reduction in seed and pesticide costs. Third, the growers are looking for increased efficiency of products applied based on site-specific information. Variable rate applications are being utilized to vary seeding, defoliant, growth regulator, and fertilizer rates.

The report also suggests that a growing shortage of labor has influenced growers to look to precision as an alternate means of improving productivity with less man power. PrecisonAg.com says growers are most interested in John Deere’s ITEC Pro - or Intelligent Total Equipment Control.

At last week’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences I got to interview Patrick Sikora, John Deere Ag Management Solutions Group, about the new technology available for cotton growers. He works in their new development area.

Patrick says that cotton growers have been some of the earliest adopters of precision farming technology but that there may be some not familiar with products like Harvest Doc Cotton.

With the Harvest Doc Cotton system, cotton producers will be able to document and map their cotton yields with the GreenStar™ system and their John Deere 9986 and 9996 cotton pickers. The Harvest Doc Cotton system enables producers to generate detailed cotton yield maps to help them make better and more informed management decisions.

Patrick suggests that growers make sure they visit StellarSupport.com for all the information they need.

You can listen to my interview with Patrick Sikora here:

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(3 min mp3)

You can also watch the interview if you’d like as well:

John Deere is on display in Nashville, TN at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences. We know that the company has a new 7760 Self Propelled Cotton Picker out which was announced at last fall’s product launch. So to learn more about it and how it fits into a precision management plan, I spoke with Jamie Flood, Product Marketing Manager, just as the trade show was kicking off.

He says that the equipment is meant to simplify a producer’s operation and that he’s heard very positive and good interest from growers who are looking at it. From a precision standpoint he says that the base unit comes Harvest Doc ready. Flood says that cotton producers have been some of the earliest adopters of precision technology.

You can listen to my interview with Jamie Flood here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(3 min mp3)

You can also watch the interview if you’d like as well: