Precision Pays

Spending time this winter analyzing your precision practices is always beneficial. To this end, check out this DTN AG Online Seminar called “Sizing Your GPS Investment/Which Tools Fit the Farm,” hosted in September by DTN and The Progressive Farmer magazine.

The seminar discusses numerous topics: As more tools associated with GPS technologies come available, farmers are beginning to question which ones make the most sense in their operation. For farmers just getting into the GPS world, the question is how far to get into the technology. Is yield mapping enough? Or should the farmer jump right in to high-accuracy RTK signaling and autosteer equipment systems? This webinar will include a panel of farmers who have walked through those decisions and can add insight in to what they’re doing, how well it works, and whether it adds to their efficiency and profitabilility.

To listen to a wide variety of other excellent Webinars–from taxes and seed to tillage and grain marketing, visit the DTN AG Online Seminars page.

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.

If you’re looking for an economical way to get started using precision ag on your farm, John Deere has some new options.

Adding to the extensive lineup of GreenStar precision ag products, John Deere announces a new line of economical systems to help operators get started with precision ag or enhance the older systems they may already own.

“Let’s start with the new GreenStar Lightbar,” says Kyle Collins, senior marketing representative, John Deere Ag Management Solutions. “Many of our customers need a simple, economical parallel tracking display. Our new lightbar has 27 tracking LEDs to guide the operator as they are driving their equipment through the field. They easily steer the tractor or other self-propelled machine left or right based on which lights are illuminated.”

While I was attending the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention I spoke about the new budget precision options with Laura Robson, John Deere Senior Marketing Manager.

You can listen to my interview with Laura here:

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It looks like more precision equipment is coming to apple and orange growers. You may not want to compare them except when it comes to the equipment you use to grow them though.

Two groups of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute have received a total of $10 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to build automated farming systems. One is for apple growers and one is for orange growers, but both are designed to improve fruit quality and lower production costs.

The projects were funded this fall through the USDA’s new Specialty Crop Research Initiative. The Comprehensive Automation for Specialty Crops (CASC) Program, led by Sanjiv Singh, research professor of robotics, received a four-year, $6 million grant to develop systems for the apple industry. The Integrated Automation for Sustainable Specialty Crop Farming Project, led by Tony Stentz and Herman Herman of the Robotics Institute’s National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC), received a three-year, $4 million grant to develop systems for the citrus industry. Both project grants will be matched dollar for dollar by industry, state governments and other funding sources.
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Utilizing precision farming equipment when you’re harvesting corn will pay off even more once you can start harvesting corn cobs for cellulosic ethanol production. That’s what I learned at POET’s Project LIBERTY field day in Emmetsburg, IA this week. POET is working with ag OEM’s like John Deere to develop harvest equipment to collect cobs for the plants they plan on building in the near future. They plan to begin building a cellulosic ethanol production component of their Emmetsburg plant in late 2009 with production expected to begin in 2011.

Of the current options for harvesting/collecting the cobs, Deere is working on the corn cob mix kit (CCM) option. It’s basically an attachment to the combine according to John Deere’s Barry Nelson, who was attending the POET Project LIBERTY field day.

Barry says that this will allow farmers to produce up to 11 percent more ethanol per acre. That’s a pretty good gain in efficiency. He says they’re also looking at other equipment options including a special cart or new combine.

You can listen to my interview with Barry here:

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Project LIBERTY Field Day Photo Album

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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A new breed of ag show has the support of the major farm equipment companies that are members of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.

At AEM’s AgExecutive Forum in St. Louis last week, Deere & Company Senior Vice President of Ag Equipment Marketing Doug DeVries said he is really looking forward to AEM’s new AG CONNECT 2010 expo, which will be held January 12-15, 2010 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. “We’re really excited about AG CONNECT as the first AEM-sponsored, agricultural equipment show that is brought to our customers by the industry and for the industry,” he said. “We believe it will be a different type of experience for people.” He is most excited about the global focus of the expo and the educational opportunities they plan to offer.

I also asked Doug about the mood of farm equipment companies during this current downturn in the economy. “Clearly this is an extraordinary type of time,” Doug says. “But thinking about the long term issues associated with agriculture, we have a very bright future.”

With the growth in global population and the need for people to improve their diets, “we think that its important that ag equipment manufacturers be able to provide the productivity to meet the needs for food, fuel and fiber as we move forward.”

And precision technology is what is helping to improve that productivity.

Listen to an interview with Doug here:

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The latest technology in agriculture will be a major part of the “new generation of ag show” coming 2010 to Orlando - AG CONNECT expo 2010.

A preview of AG CONNECT 2010 was offered to ag executives meeting Thursday in St. Louis for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers AgExecutive Forum.

According to show manager Sara Truesdale Mooney, they have taken a very deliberate approach in developing AG CONNECT. “We conducted a lot of research with producers and from that research we developed a number of event features that would be unique to AG CONNECT,” she said. “They are hungry for new products, technologies, innovations, more about precision farming and really the how-tos and how other people are applying equipment, products and services throughout the industry.”

Sara says they are really developing a one-stop shop ag show. “We’re going to be putting on a world class agribusiness event that is not just exhibits, not just an equipment show - it’s new products, innovations, technologies, services, inputs - everything you need for your business.”

All of the information about AG CONNECT is available on-line at agconnect.com.

Listen to an interview with Sara here:

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Dr. Jay Lehr of The Heartland Institute has a passion for agriculture - especially precision agriculture.

“The average person thinks that farming today is the same as it was in his grandfather’s day and it’s changed dramatically,” said Dr. Lehr at a meeting of farm machinery company executives last week in St. Louis. “Using global positioning systems, geographic information systems and variable rate technology, automatic steering allows us to reduce our inputs by being more accurate.”

Lehr is Science Director of the Heartland Institute which is a national nonprofit research and education organization with the goal to “discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.” He was one of the featured speakers at the recent Association of Equipment Manufacturers AgExecutive Forum.

He encourages people in agriculture to be pro-active in talking about modern farming. “We can treat a 500 acre farm today like ten 50 acre farms because the topography and soils may be very different and require different inputs and different seed spacing,” he said. “And that is very exciting for people to understand and if they shared that with their children they might be more interested in staying on the farm instead of getting a job in town.”

Listen to an interview with Dr. Lehr here:

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