Precision Pays

If you have an iPhone and would like to get Precision Pays posts fast and easy on it, there’s now an app for that. ZimmComm New Media this week introduced the Agwired iPhone app that allows quick access to all of ZimmComm’s on-line publications, including Precision Pays. The app is now available for iPhone users to download, free of charge, in the Apple iTunes store.

The app offers one-touch access to all the latest news and information in the agribusiness and agricultural marketing world posted on Agwired.com, including audio, photos and video, and connections to other ZimmComm news sites. The AgWired App features a news tab drop down menu to select ZimmComm News Network feeds as well as individual news on AgWired.com by category.

ZimmComm owns and operates four web-based news sites that are now accessible from the new iPhone app: Agwired, focused on news from the world of agribusiness; Domestic Fuel, which is all about renewable energy – from ethanol and biodiesel to wind and solar; World Dairy Diary for the dairy industry; and Precision Pays, which focuses on information about precision agriculture technology.

Harold Reetz and Jess Lowenberg-Deboer have been named co-recipients of the Legacy Award in the PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence program for 2010.

Harold Reetz has been a champion of technology and precision agriculture throughout his four decade-long career. Starting out in Extension in the Purdue University system in the 1970s, he assumed numerous leadership roles over the years and worked tirelessly as a champion for improving agronomic practices through education, research, outreach, and collaboration with like-minded growers and researchers from around the world. Reetz founded the InfoAg Conference in the mid-1990s as a way of getting people together to share experiences and build a networked community of vendors, users, and service providers. Now with Reetz Agronomics, Harold continues to champion the role of precision technologies in maximizing yield and minimizing environmental impact from crop production.

Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer is currently Associate Dean, Director of International Programs, and Professor of Agricultural Economics in the College of Agriculture at Purdue University, but his prior work in precision agriculture economics played an invaluable role in the growth of precision agriculture practices. His contributions included original research into the profitability of every aspect of precision agriculture, including tracking the adoption of technology at the farm and service provider level. He has published 55 articles in refereed journals, two books, and chapters in six other books, and his work has taken him to over 40 countries.

Both will be honored in Denver next month at the 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture.

Two more recipients of the 2010 PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence have been announced.

For Precision Crop Adviser/Entrepreneur, the award goes to Clint Jayroe and the OptiGro Team, part of the Jimmy Sanders, Inc. retail operation based in Cleveland, MS. The Education/Extension award recipient for 2010 is Dr. Terry Griffin, professor of economics at University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.

OptiGro provides agricultural advice, information, and precision agriculture resources to farmer-customers designed to provide maximum return on investment. OptiGro includes trained Certified Crop Advisors utilizing the latest software applications paired with Web transmission and integration for agricultural data processing, storage, and analysis. OptiGro improves the productivity and profitability of each customer through a higher level of management and expertise.

Jimmy Sanders, Inc. has been an agricultural leader and innovator in the Mid-South since 1953, serving production agriculture with farm inputs and on-farm expertise in all aspects of the unique needs of the Mississippi River Delta region. They service a diverse crop mix of rice, cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat, grain sorghum and even specialty crops such as sweet potatoes and peanuts.

Griffin has conducted economic analyses such as tracking technology adoption and evaluating farm-level profitability of yield monitors, variable rate applications, and GPS-enabled navigation technologies; but he has also worked with scientists not traditionally associated with precision agriculture such as gerontologists to study how GPS guidance impacts the quality-of-life of older farmers or those who suffer from disabilities.

He is active internationally collaborating as the economist and spatial econometrician with agricultural scientists from Germany, South Africa, Argentina, United Kingdom, and Australia, in addition to his domestic work in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Illinois, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Louisiana on analyzing site-specific data.

HarvestMaster just made field data collection a little easier.

HarvestMaster is pleased to announce the release of Field Layout as part of the Field Research Software (FRS) suite. FRS provides a comprehensive solution for mobile field data collection. FRS Field Layout is a new addition to the FRS suite, and is used to map field boundaries with GPS technology. When using Field Layout, a field researcher can set the corners of a field, determine the number of plots within a field, and check that the field is square for planting, all without the help of any additional technicians.

FRS Field Layout on a GPS enabled Windows Mobile® device is designed to assist researchers in establishing field boundaries. Field Layout replaces traditional methods that depend on laborious processes using tape measures, right angle prisms, range finders, and an extra person. Field Layout utilizes GPS signals to define and mark the four corners of the field and lets the user measure distance between any two points to verify location and accuracy. Once a field map has been generated, FRS Field Layout creates individual plots within the defined field boundary. When returning to plant the field, FRS displays field boundaries quickly and allows efficient navigation to those positions.

To evaluate FRS Field Layout, download a demonstration version at http://harvestmaster.com/HarvestMaster/support/Downloads.

An Illinois corn and soybean producer has been named 2010 Farmer of the Year in the PrecisionAg Awards Of Excellence program. Ken Dalenberg of Mansfield, Illinois was recognize for the role he has played in helping to develop and promote new agricultural technology for crop management.

Ken has worked with a number of research projects on his farm to evaluate precision farming technology, along with other innovative products and practices through the University of Illinois, the Potash & Phosphate Institute, the United Soybean Board, and others. He has also served on several Boards of Directors and Research Committees for the American Soybean Association, United Soybean Board, and Illinois Soybean Association, where he helped provide funding and oversight for research projects throughout the US. He has also been involved in numerous overseas programs to help improve soybean production and markets globally.

Ken has helped promote precision farming by doing it, and by sharing his experience, says Reetz. “He has opened his records and his farm to others to share what he is doing and learning. He frequently hosts farmers and industry visitors to show what he is doing and how the technology is being put to use.”

The AG CONNECT Expo team of Rich Jefferson, Sara Truesdale-Mooney, and Charlie O’Brien with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) were at the recent National Agri-Marketing Association annual meeting in Kansas City to promote the second expo coming up next January in Atlanta.

Sara is AEM’s Show Director and she says they were happy with the very first AG CONNECT expo held this past January in Orlando. “We are very pleased with the results and it really exceeded all of our expectations for a first-time event,” Sara said in an interview with Agwired’s Joanna Schroeder.

The next Ag Connect Expo will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, January 7-10, 2011 at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. Sara reports that the educational program is taking shape and it will be bigger, better and have more offerings. AEM is also planning to expand the Innovations Center as well as adding days and sessions on the show floor as well as more seating. Sara noted that all the sessions were full this past January. Sara says they are also planning to have a broader scope of exhibits and more floor space.

Sara also notes that Ag Connect Expo has been selected to participate U.S. Department of Commerce’s Buyer Program. Approximately 35 shows are selected for the program each year, and this will be the second year Ag Connect has been selected.

More information about AG CONNECT Expo 2 is available now on-line at www.agconnectexpo.com.

Listen to Joanna’s interview with Sara in the player below.

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The PrecisionAg Award of Excellence program is still accepting nominations for “the most important people and programs that have helped agriculture realize the full benefits of technology to improve agronomy, efficiency, and stewardship in crop production.”

The awards are given in the following categories:

• Educator/Researcher Of The Year
• Legacy Award
• Crop Adviser/Entrepreneur Of The Year
• Farmer Of The Year

Award nominations must be submitted by a sponsor — any individual or individuals, company, or organization. Nominees can be working with precision technology anywhere in the world. Nominations can be made electronically or via downloadable entry form. Entries will be reviewed and scored by a three-judge panel based on the criteria indicated on the nomination forms. Winners will be invited to attend a special ceremony in their honor at the International Conference on Precision Agriculture, Denver, CO, July 18-21, 2010.

Deadline for entries is May 7. More information is available from PrecisionAg here.

This photo was taken of me with Ag Leader general sales manager Mike Olson at the Commodity Classic as we both checked email on our cell phones to prepare for an interview. Amazing what technology we have in our pockets these days! Some people may argue whether cell phones actually make us more efficient, but most of us wonder what we ever did without them – as most farmers who use precision technology wonder how they got along without it in the past.

I talked with Mike about how precision technology saves time as well as money. Sometimes it may be hard to put a dollar value on our time, but when planting or harvesting windows are as tight as they were last year, saving time in the fields is saving money. “When you start implementing precision ag technologies, it’s amazing how much time you can save,” Mike said. “You think of the steering systems. You’re reducing overlap, that’s obvious, but if you can make less passes across the field then it’s saving you time.”

Also, steering systems allow farmers to work longer hours with less fatigue. “So if you have a good window of a dry stretch it allows you to work longer into the night and plant longer or spray longer,” he added. Time savings may be one of those things that’s hard to monetize, “but if you don’t get a crop in, it’s pretty easy to see how much value there is.”

Listen to my interview with Mike from Commodity Classic below.

Commodity Classic Photo Album

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Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) Director of Research Tracy Blackmer was one of the presenters for the PrecisonAg Learning Center at the 2010 Commodity Classic trade show. Tracy is head of ISA’s On-Farm Network®, which focuses on precision agriculture tools and technology to collect information that can increase growers’ profits from crop production and I interviewed him at Classic for this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology.

The Iowa Soybean Association started this project nine years ago to study both the environmental and economic aspects of farming practices and to help growers find out what works best for them on their operation. Since that time they have expanded into nine other states. “We’re trying to say that growers can use a lot of the precision ag technologies to actually identify which products or practices are working better,” Tracy says. “In Iowa alone we had over 450 replicated trials.”

Listen to the podcast in the player below to find out more about the ISA On-Farm Network®. You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

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This year’s winner of the American Soybean Association scholarship has a passion for precision.

Ben Bellar, a high school senior from Howard, Kansas, was named the 2010-2011 Secure Optimal Yield (SOY) Scholarship recipient during the 2010 Commodity Classic in Anaheim, California. The scholarship package, made possible through a grant by BASF, included a one-time $5,000 education award, a trip to the Commodity Classic and special recognition during the ASA Awards Banquet. Ben is pictured here at the BASF exhibit on the trade show floor with ASA First Vice president Alan Kemper of Indiana and Nevin McDougall, Group Vice President, North America Crop Protection Division at BASF.

As an active member of the ASA and FFA, Ben has been raising soybeans since he was a child and plans to study agriculture technology management at Kansas State University next year, something he decided when his father “finally broke down and bought a GPS” about six years ago. “I just like days when I can go out there, hit one button, go for half a mile, pull out a magazine and read it until I get to the end of the row,” Ben told me during an interview.

Listen to or download that interview in the player below and thanks again to John Deere for sponsoring our coverage of this year’s Commodity Classic.

Commodity Classic Photo Album

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The first-ever PrecisionAg Learning Center at Commodity Classic was a big hit with growers at the trade show.

According to the PrecisionAg.com there was a steady stream of attendees asking questions, sitting in on presentations, and chatting with growers who use precision technology. Among the presenters were Idaho grower Robert Blair and Iowa grower Dennis Friest, Craig Smith from Kansas State University and Tracy Blackmer, Iowa Soybean Association Director of Research.

The Learning Center also offered growers the opportunity to register for great giveaways provided by PrecisionAg partners. In the photo to the right, Mike Olson with Ag Leader Technology is drawing the winning name for an Ag Leader InSight Display. The winner was John Kelly of Hutsonville, Illinois. Other winners are listed here on the PrecisionAg site.

Check out our previous post on the PrecisionAg profit calculator unveiled at Classic. The Guidance & Section Control Profit Calculator is specifically designed to help growers understand their return on an investment in this technology.

Thanks again to John Deere for sponsoring our coverage of this year’s Commodity Classic.

Commodity Classic Photo Album

Spring is just around the corner – the time when a farmer’s fancy turns to thoughts of planting.

Growers stopping by the Ag Leader Technology booth at the Commodity Classic trade show last week definitely had spring on their minds. General sales manager Mike Olson says they talked a lot about what growers need to know to get precision farming equipment ready for the season. “The biggest thing is to get the stuff out early and start going through it,” Mike told me. “You need to bring the monitor out and download all the data from last year, make a back up, and then get it set up for this year. Make sure all your field names are in there, your boundaries, and make sure all your firm ware is updated.”

Mike says updating is important because all companies bring out new features that make things more efficient and easier. Listen to Mike’s interview below and talk to your local Ag Leader dealer for more pre-planting tips.

Commodity Classic Photo Album

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Precision is the name of the game when it comes to farming these days. It’s getting hard to find a farmer anymore who doesn’t use auto steer at the very least – and the options to save resources, time and money just keep growing.

At the New Holland exhibit at Commodity Classic, I talked to Matt Ahrens about some of the products they offer for growers and a program they have that can help farmers see exactly how they can benefit from using different types of precision solutions on their own operations. “We have a website – PutYourFarmOnTheMap – and on that website we have a cost savings calculator and you can go in and put your input costs on their, how much fuel usage per acre depending on implement width, and you can see what kind of savings you can get,” Matt said. “The good thing with that is that it’s their numbers, their input costs, so they get to see what their savings are.”

Matt also demonstrates the new AgGPS® FM-1000™ integrated display working with the Trimble Field-IQ in the video below. You can find out more about New Holland’s product line-up and more on the website PutYourFarmOnTheMap.com.

Commodity Classic Photo Album

Trimble debuted a couple of new innovations at the recent National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, which they were also showcasing at the Commodity Classic last week.

EZ-Sync™ is a wireless data transfer capability that provides enhanced information management for growers and agribusinesses, and the EZ Surface Software provides surface drainage analysis and design for farmers and drainage contractors.

Brian Stark, who does information management for Trimble, is the company’s EZ-Sync expert. “EZ-Sync allows you to take data wirelessly from a mobile computer or from the Trimble FMX display and send that data from the field to the office,” Brian explained in an interview. “Or, if I’m in the office, I can send my data from the office, [such as] prescription maps or target points, to the field.”

Brian says the software is compatible with several different computers offered by Trimble and it lets producers and managers exchange information in real time. Plus, it decreases the amount of data that is lost simply because workers don’t have time to manually enter information gained in the field when they come back to the office. And, managers are able to better communicate with their workers still in the field.

Trimble retailer Joey Schlatter of Schlatter Inc. of Francesville, Indiana explained EZ Surface. “This software helps contractors define watersheds and flow patterns so they know how to properly drain their fields, whether using surface or sub-surface drainage methods,” Joey said.

With this system, elevation data is gathered through using some GPS-based tools from Trimble. “Once we’ve collected all that elevation data, we bring that data into the office, into our EZ Surface program and generate a 3-D elevation map. Then, with a click of a few buttons, we can see the flow lines, watesheds and all the tools we need to properly design that [drainage] system,” he added.

More information on both EZ Sync and EZ Surface are available from www.Trimble.com.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack gave the keynote address during the general session at the 2010 Commodity Classic in Anaheim, California on Friday and focused on the achievements of American agriculture.

Comparing agriculture in this country to gold medal winners and hall of fame inductees, Vilsack talked about the amazing productivity of our producers. “These are people who plant 240 million acres of our land, they are the most productive farmers in the world,” Vilsack said. “They help to produce 108 billion pounds of protein a year that feed 300 million Americans and many millions around the world. In my lifetime, they have gone from one farmer feeding 20 folks, to one farmer feeding 150 folks. They’re responsible for a trade surplus at a time when we talk mostly about trade deficits.”

You can definitely give credit to farmers for taking advantage of advancements in precision technology and biotechnology for those accomplishments!

Listen to Vilsack’s speech in the player below.

Commodity Classic Photo Album

Thanks to John Deere for sponsoring our coverage of this year’s Commodity Classic.

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