Precision Pays

GPS World magazine offers a free seminar on January 27 to learn more about GPS in Agriculture. Rob Lorimer, Managing Director of Position One Consulting and GPS World Professional OEM Editor, will discuss current and future applications of GPS in agriculture along with an update on market trends and economic benefits of widespread GPS in agriculture and more.

What you’ll learn:

• The main uses of GPS in Agriculture including CA Code, single and dual frequency applications.
• The countries and regions around the world most actively using GPS in their agricultural production.
• The cropping sectors which are the most advanced in GPS adoption and why.
• The major suppliers of GPS products and services into Agriculture.
• The potential impact of current economic conditions on GPS adoption in Agriculture.
• Emerging applications for GPS in cropping agriculture, animal husbandry and wild-stock management.
• Potential macro economic benefits of widespread GPS in agriculture.

Want to learn more about excellent profit opportunities from precision technology for your farm? Growers from Nebraska and surrounding states should head for Grand Island, NE on January 28-29 for the annual Nebraska Agricultural Technologies Association Conference & Trade Show at the Grand Island Midtown Holiday Inn Conference Center.

The meeting begins with a hands-on session allowing growers to work a computer program to determine best ‘what-if’ scenarios regarding the 2008 Farm Bill. Other session topics will discuss a wide range of issues from land management software, new communication tools, precision agriculture trends, and remote sensing aerial imagery to machine vision weed control, mapping tools, in-season Nitrogen management and side-by-side trial management and decision making.

A trade show will give growers the opportunity to ‘kick the tires’ on a wide variety of precision products as well as talk to company experts on hand.

NeATA is Nebraska’s newest grassroots agricultural-based non-profit associations. The association was founded by innovative Nebraska farmers and agribusiness representatives that share a common desire to stay abreast of emerging agricultural technologies. The NeATA organization will facilitate on-farm research opportunities, educational programs, and a perpetual investigation of practical applications for new agricultural technologies.

Cotton growers who were not able to attend the recent Crop Management Seminar in Mississippi have another chance to hear more about precision during the upcoming Beltwide Cotton Conferences.

The National Cotton Council works closely with Cotton Incorporated on planning technical and producer sessions for the Beltwide, which this year will include workshops on zone fertility management, precision software for consultants and precision record keeping.

Cotton Inc economist Dr. Jeanne Reeves says precision record keeping can help producers manage input costs more effectively. “We’re going to show how all aspects of that - from the crop production side, to the accounting side, to keeping up with labor, filing tax returns - is all part of the software growers can use to manage their business,” Reeves said.

The Beltwide Cotton Conferences are scheduled for January 5-8 in San Antonio.

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.

I was just searching for precision agriculture training and found the TransAtlantic Precision Agriculture Consortium. It doesn’t look like they’re currently offering classes but they do have an educational training module still online.

The presentations on this page cover 15 topics important to precision agriculture. After carefully reviewing these topics, you should have a good appreciation for the techniques, technologies, and principles important to precision agriculture as well as their applications to production agriculture.

The information below is derived from teaching material created by Dr. George Vellidis for APTC 3030 – Principles of Precision Agriculture, a course he teaches at the University of Georgia, and from teaching material developed by Dr. Hermann Auernhammer for precision agriculture courses he teaches at the Technische Universität München.

This is the third and final precision farming myth busted by Raj Khosla of Colorado State University. You could call this one the money myth - and the whole basis of Precision Pays.

MYTH 3: Precision farming will not pay for itself

First of all, Khosla points out that “precision farming is not just the addition of new technologies, but is rather an information revolution, made possible by new technologies that result in a higher, more precise farm management system. To this end, precision farming can be applied at with any level of technology and at any field scale.”

Producers that have used precision farming for several years have paid for the initial equipment investment through increased farm profitability and productivity. How long it takes to pay for itself will depend entirely upon how much capital was initially invested and the type and scale of the farming operation.

A recent study from Colorado State University indicated that precision farming practices can result in as much as $71 more return per acre when compared to traditional farming practices. In their study, the researchers used a method of varying N fertilizer that is based on black-and-white aerial photographs combined with the farmer’s past management experience. Other than the time required to obtain a black-and-white aerial photograph (aerial photos are free-of-charge from the Farm Service Agency or the NRCS District Conservationist) and for the farmer to identify the areas on the photograph that were high and low yielding, very little time and money was required to create a prescription nutrient map. Hence, precision farming can and does pay for itself. Like any technological tool, one needs to assess which particular tool or technique would bring about the most benefit. Again, this depends on the type and scale of the operation. A “one-size-fits-all” approach does not fit in with precision farming.

Read all of Khosla’s article “Myths of Precision Farming” here.

Here is the second myth busted by precision farming specialist Raj Khosla with Colorado State University in CSU’s May-July Agronomy Newsletter.

MYTH 2: Precision farming is too difficult to implement

Khosla says it’s not the physical implementation of precision farming that’s difficult, it’s opening one’s mind to change. “There is a steep learning curve with precision farming. But, once in place, precision farming can actually make your farming operation “easier” than it was before adopting it.” Before deciding it is too difficult, he urges farmers to consider the benefits, such as less time in the tractor, lower fuel costs and increased fertilizer-use efficiency.

Every producer knows that the entire field doesn’t yield the same all the way across. There is always that area of the field that just doesn’t yield, no matter how much N and/or water are put on. Agronomists have addressed this and in doing so, have turned traditional wisdom upside down with their unique approach to fertilizer management by viewing each part of the field as a potential investment. Only those areas of the field that are sound investments (i.e., have high productivity potential) receive a high amount of input. In contrast the poor investments (i.e., areas of the field that have a low productivity potential) receive very little, if any input; why invest in something that won’t give you a return? This strategy is known as “site-specific” and has been used widely in conjunction with management zones. The bottom line of this approach is that the total amount of input to be applied to a field is redistributed such that the areas of greatest potential receive the most and visa-versa.

Soil and crop science associate professor Raj Khosla with Colorado State University recently busted a few myths about precision farming in an article for CSU’s Agronomy Newsletter.

MYTH 1: Precision farming is grid sampling

While it is true that grid sampling was among the first few methods that the precision farming community (i.e., early adaptors) used to develop variability maps of crop production fields, precision farming does not rely on or even require grid sampling. What precision farming could do is precisely and accurately: (i) identify variability and its cause, (ii) quantify variability and its scale, (iii) record variability and its location, and (iv) map variability so that it can be managed. Grid soil sampling is only one such technique of quantifying variability; however, there are many other less expensive techniques available.

Currently there are several precision farming tools and techniques of varying input that do not involve grid sampling. These include, but are not limited to, site-specific management zones, remote sensing, apparent soil electrical conductivity measurements, yield mapping, and smart sampling. In fact, many of these methods were developed specifically to replace grid sampling. These methods run the gambit from low-tech and inexpensive to state-of-the-art sensors that can detect the nutrient status of a crop and vary the rate of fertilizer or other input on-the-go.

More myth-busting to come!

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

Here’s an online university resource site for precision agriculture information. It’s Cornell University. Here’s the link to their current Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.

Precision agriculture technologies offer many exciting opportunities for more profitable and environmentally compatible farming. Since 1997 the Department of Crop and Soil Science at Cornell University has worked to established a multidisciplinary research and extension program to explore applications of this technology for producers in the Northeast

* Crop and Soil Sciences
* Applied Economics and Management
* Animal Science,
* Biological and Environmental Engineering