Precision Pays

With fertilizer costs and 2009 cropping plans being top-of-mind right now, variable-rate (VR) application is an option you should explore to improve efficiency.

But where does one begin their thought process to understand the value of VR? The story of Durango Farms in Lacombe, Alberta is a story worth reading because it walks you through their thinking. This presentation was part of 2008 FarmTech Foundation of Alberta’s annual conference on new technology, environmental issues, agronomy and farm management topics. 

From Durango Farms experience, their advice is to do your homework to see if VR has a fit in your fields. From their experience, here are their 10 tips for looking at VR technology: 

1) Plan ahead. Make buying decisions that will allow implementation of VR at a later date. 

2) Allow enough time to make sure the systems are all working properly. 

3) Draw on experience and knowledge from others. Have a support team that you can draw on. 

4) If you are variable rating more than one product try to avoid blending. Much easier system to handle field to field if you have 

dedicated tanks for individual products. 

5) Larger air seeder tanks allow more flexibility and reduces tank changes during the season 

6) Use systems that give you feedback. As applied maps and yield monitors help to confirm what you did and the results. 

7) Understand practical implications between soil testing and application. Fall banding and winter wheat are examples of working 

within a narrow window. 

8) Fine tune your system over time. You are treating your fields differently than in the past. Understand the response and make 

changes accordingly. 

9) Define your limiting factors and their economic costs and then build the appropriate response. 

10) Look for other opportunities zone management can provide. 

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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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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We’ve featured various articles from the Precision Agriculture Institute here on PrecisionPays.com and that’s because we’ve recognized just how committed the independent media company is to precision agriculture. The time and research the institutes’s journalists pour into the study of precision technology and the stories they publish on PrecisionAg.com is extensive. That’s why it’s safe to say that the institute represents a leading voice of expertise in the field of precision. That’s also why the institute developed PrecisionAg Works, a resource for “ag professionals considering adopting or deepening use of precision ag practices.”

I caught up with Elliot Nowels, the Director of the Precision Agriculture Institute and grilled him on what he knows best. We talked about the growth of precision, it’s value as a sound investment for farmers, trends in the adoption of precision technologies, benefits of precision technologies, cost savings and more.

“We’re trying to get across the idea that precision ag is more efficient, you can be a better steward of resources when you’re doing this, and that there’s more of a profitability associated with precision ag,” Elliot said. “That really it’s a better time to adopt this technology than ever before.”

You can listen to my interview with Elliot here:

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Tracking labor performance and product quality now comes at the touch of a button… or the flash of a scan rather. The all-in-one Labor Performance and Product Quality Management Systems, one of the newest products from John Deere Agri Services, boasts unmatched data collection for hand-harvested crops. The hand-held device measures crew output and productivity, harvest performance, and crop quality, quantity, location, attributes and more through the use of barcodes on worker IDs, RFID tags and GPS field location. All information and data is then instantly uploaded to a specialized website accessed through unique user and password information. John Deere says the bottom line is, the device allows farmers to, well, increase their bottom lines by giving them more control and manageability over production and workers alike.

I spoke with Richard Johnson (pictured left), the National Account Manager of Production and John Deere Agri Services about the Labor Performance and Product Quality Management Systems. You can listen to my interview with Richard here:

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(7 min. mp3)

Agriculture Online’s Crop Tech Tour caught up with John Deere Ag Management Systems Consultant Todd Zimmerman in Auburn, Nebraska. Todd was visiting Arlin Aufenkamp, a farmer who has been using precision farming technology for 10 years. Todd says Arlin started off with mapping technology on his combine, moved to auto steer and has now added auto shut-offs on his sprayers and planters.

You can watch videos of Todd and Arlin explaining the benefits of using these technologies here:

Swath Control Pro is getting more popular with growers every season. Kirk Swihart says that’s because the technology reduces overlap and helps farmers improve their input costs. Kirk is the Technical Assistant Supervisor with John Deere. He reminds growers that all 4000 series sprayers are compatible with the Swath Control Pro. He says growers do need John Deere’s StarFire application or another third party receiver to use the technology. He adds that Swath Control Pro offers farmers an improved coverage map, and, coupled with John Deere’s AutoTrac, growers can use it to cover more acres in one day than ever before.

Here is the second part of an interview that Chuck did recently with Kirk:

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(4 min. MP3)

Ames Remote describes itself this way: “Welcome to the free worldwide Internet link to remote sensing information and services with an emphasis on precision agriculture.”

It has links to some interesting and useful sites you might want to check out.