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.

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.

Valley Irrigation was showing off its brand new line of GPS Ready irrigation control panels at the Sunbelt Ag Expo earlier this month in Moultrie, Georgia.

“We have our computer panels that are industry exclusive GPS ready,” Sara Sims with Valley said during an interview at Sunbelt with Southeast AgNet’s Randall Weiseman. The GPS Ready PRO2 Pivot Control Panel and GPS Ready AutoPilot Linear Control Panel currently are available from Valley dealers. The GPS Ready Select2 Pivot Control Panel will be available later this year.

“If you’re doing split crops or different crops during the growing season, you’ll be able to computerize and track your programming to change your water and chemigation throughout the field,” Sara said. She added that current customers can upgrade existing PRO2 panels for the new GPS ready panels.

Listen to Randall’s interview with Sara here:

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Specialized farming practices paired with specialized farming technology can mean “special” results for farmers if you ask Robert Klein. Robert is an Extension Cropping Systems Specialist with the University of Nebraska in North Platte. He says when it comes to seeding and planting plots for crop performance evaluation, using GPS-RTK Auto Steering technology with skip-row planting methods can boost yields.

Robert explains that moisture benefits from skip-row planting in corn, for example, optimizes crop performance and results in crops that are less stressed and won’t be delayed. But, he adds skip-row planting can create time-consuming challenges for growers. That is with the old method. Farmers could spend up to two hours in the field flagging routes with a system no more modern than using a measuring tape. But, Robert says, using RTK Auto-Steer technology cuts the skip-row planting process down to minutes.

“We’ve seen in one case as I showed the results, yields that went from 40 bushels per acre to over 80 bushel per acre by using the skip row system,” Robert said.

Plus, he adds, farmers will have perfect rows that make harvesting easier.

“Another example is where a farmer had had 60 bushel on dry land corn using the regular 30-inch row planting,” Robter said. “With plant two, skip two he moved that to 100 bushels per acre. And he said that’s really a nice way to do it. In fact, that farmer says, ‘I think I finally figured out how to plant dry land corn in western Nebraska.’”

I interviewed Robert about his research shows that precision techniques work seamlessly with skip-row farming. You can listen to my interview here:

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Pioneer is offering a new, free service that it says can give farmers more: more information and more uses for that information. Pioneer Hi-Bred’s FIT mapping combines GPS data with a free mapping service offering farmers detailed information about their crops, where they’re growing their crops and whether they’re growing them in way that maximizes their resources. Did I mention it’s free?

I caught up with Lisa Baumhover at the 2008 Farm Progress Show and we talked about just what FIT mapping does offer farmers and how easy it is to use. You can listen to my interview with Lisa here:

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Farmers wanting to ease into precision technology have new equipment options from John Deere. The ag machinery company has unveiled three new products within its GreenStar line. John Deere says the GreenStar Lightbar, GreenStar 2 Display 1800 and the StarFire 300 Reciever are meant to help operators get started with precision farming. The new gadgets can also help enhance older systems. John Deere has launched its SeedStar 2 monitoring system.

The GreenStar Lightbar offers 27 tracking LEDs to guide the farmers operating precision steering systems in the field. John Deere says operators should steer their tractors based on what lights illuminated. Green means you’re on track. Red means you’re not. Each red light means operators are off by four inches.

Farmers looking for a little more pizazz, but still want a tool that’s easy to understand should consider the GreenStar 2 Display 1800. The new, 7-inch display features state-of-the-art, full-color screens meant to help farmers manage GreenStar applications. The display can be used for AutoTrac and on-screen mapping.

If growers are looking for a new receiver for their GreenStar systems, John Deere’s new StarFire 300 should offer them an economical option. The satellite WAAS receiver boasts 13-inch accuracy and mounts easily with a magnet.

The SeedStar 2 monitoring system combines what used to be on two monitors down into one full-color display. The system can be used on planters and air seeders to help growers improve accuracy and cover more acres in less time.

I spoke with Kim Fletcher, Marketing Representative with John Deere Ag Management Solutions. You can listen to the interview here:

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AutoTrac guidance is no longer just for tractors. Farmers can now use assisted steering technology on combines. John Deere’s AutoTrac RowSense gives growers the ability to use precision guidance on the combines for harvesting corn. Mechanical feeler data from new row sensors located on the corn heads are integrated with GPS data from John Deere’s StarFire Receiver to give growers tighter steering control. RowSense can manuever around curves, through waterways or through weedy areas.

This spring farmers can harness “technology for efficient planter row control” with John Deere’s new RowCommand. The new technology lets farmers efficiently plant on the go with automated control. John Deere says the RowCommand will help growers reduce their seed input costs while also eliminating yield drag associated with double-planting. RowCommand can help growers reduce overplanting in point rows, John Deere says, while also helping them maximize placement .

I spoke with Ag Management Solutions Marketing Representative Kim Fletcher about the RowSense and RowCommand. You can listen to the interview here:

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John Deere has recently announced that it’s offering a slew of different precision agriculture products. Some are available now and others are scheduled to be released in the spring or fall of 2009. Kim Fletcher, Marketing Representative with John Deere Ag Management Solutions has been hosting several live presentations showcasing many of the new products and some old favorites at the 2008 Farm Progress Show John Deere exhibit. I managed to grab video of one of her presentations. Check out the video below. I’ll also be posting a couple interviews with her about the products in the next few days.

John Deere RowCommand: New Technology for Efficient Planter Row Control
John Deere AutoTrac RowSense
John Deere GreenStar Lightbar, GreenStar 2 Display 1800 and StarFire 300 Reciever
John Deere SeedStar 2 Monitoring System
John Deere iGuide
JDLink

John Deere Precision Ag Products from Laura McNamara on Vimeo.

Simon Blackmore is changing the future of farming with his Unibots project (see post), but he’s also farming for the future with the European project Future Farm. But, Simon says, the project is all about implementing the technologies of today:

“The purpose of Future Farm is to take a lot of the technologies and processes that we’ve been developing in precision agriculture and actually integrate them together into a farm management situation,” said Simon. “So we’re not going to be developing necessarily any new technologies or any new real ideas but learn how to bring them together.”

Robotics, biofuels, energy self-sufficiency and particularly precision agriculture are all key aspects to the European project.

“We’re also looking at the socio-economic aspects. Looking at biofuels, and we also have one part looking at robotics,” Simon said.”

Simon says simplifying the precision farming techniques of today is a big part of thoroughly integrating it in agriculture’s future:

“Well that’ s an issue of adoption and I’ve actually written some papers on adoption where we’ve been looking at why precision farming hasn’t actually gone into the mainstream,” Simon said. “And one of the main reasons is as I’ve said, this level of complexity. As scientists and engineers we can produce a map of many many different things, soil types, nutrient holding capacity and so on. But actually how many of these things are relevant to management decision and the secondly even if they are relevant the tools that make them available aren’t readily available for the farmer. So another aspect to the problem with the adoption of precision is the timeliness. So therefore we have the knowledge but we don’t necessarily have all the tools and those tools are not integrated, so these are the aspects we’re trying to build.”

I interviewed Simon about what the future of farming looks like for the EU. You can listen to my interview here:

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The technology of precision and the science behind it are two very distinct things you ask Dr. Joseph Berry. Joseph is a leading consultant and educator in the application of Geographic Information Systems, or GIS technology. He possesses more than 40 years of experience in GIS. As far as how GIS applies to precision agriculture, well, Joseph’s work and research spans more than 15 years. When it comes to precision agriculture today, Joseph considers one specific question in particular:

“Is the technical cart in front of the scientific horse?”

Joseph says he believes the science of precision agriculture is at significantly different stage of development than the technology and application of precision agriculture. His focus is on the science.

The concept of precision agriculture encompasses several roles for Joseph. He says it is a technique that’s applied when “doing right thing at the right place at the right time”. He adds that it also identifies and responds to field variability. That, he says, is where and when it applies to science. One thing Joseph says precision agriculture doesn’t do is “replace indigenous knowledge.” Rather, “it’s a mechanism to extend it.”

Joseph spoke at this month’s 9th International Conference on Precision Agriculture in Denver, CO. He gave listeners a brief overview of how GIS, specifically, transformed from a technology not necessarily related to precision agriculture into a science that specifically supplements the technologies driving precision agriculture. He says GIS in particular is a big deal:

“The U.S. department of Labor has said geotechnology is one of three mega technologies for the 21st century,” Joseph said. “We identified only three that are radically going to change society. The other two are biotechnology and and nanotechnology. So the field [precision agriculture] you’re tinkering in is thought to be a mega technology.”

Precision agriculture is also a technology that Joseph says is rapidly changing the entire agriculture industry. Joseph says the application he works with, fully integrated multimedia mapping analysis, is no different. For him, advances in GIS and mapping are enabling farmers to switch from what he calls a “whole field” approach to farming to a “site-specific” method.

The “whole field” approach is one that Joseph says assumes and relies on the fact that “average” conditions are the same everywhere within the field. A field is uniform and homogeneous. He points out though, that this is rarely the case. Thus, he concludes that applying such an approach leaves room for a tremendous amount of error when trying to maximize both procedural input and output.

Joseph’s solution is the “site-specific” method, where a field is broken into small consistent pieces, or cells. Specific conditions are then tracked at each unique location. Joseph says this method scientifically demonstrates the nature of significant variation in the field. He adds that, accordingly, as the variation is measured in such detail, the management action can be constructed to continuously respond to such variation.

The science, Joseph says, moves from whole field applications to site-specific measurement. The technology is then developed and adjusted to accommodate the science.

Joseph says the agriculture industry has “a long way to go with the precision farming process.” But, he says that’s exciting. The future of agriculture is just beginning.

You can listen to Joseph’s incredibly detailed explanation here:

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