Precision Pays

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we’ll look at how some farmers are using their online time and the social media tools they’re using to make important purchases.

A recent survey by AgHaven showed that more farmers are spending more time online but are sometimes frustrated with the results. AgHaven President, Srik Soogoor says they’ve developed a website to help those producers who work on multi platforms. Soogoor says since they’re using these smart phones and iPads, farmers want access all the time.

Meanwhile, Paulsen Marketing looked at how people in rural areas were using the online community. Paulsen’s Alicia DeGeest says their white paper, entitled “Rural Lifestylers are Changing the Way They Research and Buy Products,” delved into what people in these areas were doing. She and her Paulsen colleague Sara Steever found that people identifying with the rural lifestyle were adopting new, online technologies at about the same rate as their non-rural counterparts. DeGeest says these rural consumers used online feedback to influence their buying decisions and even employed their connectivity right in the stores to help them decide what to purchase.

It’s a fascinating conversation, and you can hear more of it in the player below: Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we hear about a new app that can help producers more precisely mix crop protection products.

Precision Laboratories, an agricultural chemical company, has developed, Mix Tank, an iPhone-based app that allows you to save custom tank mixes and share them via email, Twitter and Facebook.

You can hear more about how Precision Labs developed and continue to work on Mix Tank from the company’s Vice President Jim Reiss and Marketing Director Daniel Ori in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

You can find out more about Mix Tank through the Precision Laboratories website.

Throughout March, the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, with some help from the American Farmland Trust and Farm Foundation, has been holding a series of regional meetings across the country to examine conservation programs and policies. Now, the ideas talked about at those meetings will be brought together at the National Agricultural Landscapes Forum April 7-8 at the Marriott Metro Center Hotel, Washington, D.C:

“At a time of increasing competition for natural resources, it is important for all interested parties to offer their perspectives on how best to sustain the nation’s water, soil and natural resource assets,” says Farm Foundation, NFP President Neil Conklin. “Multiple viewpoints are needed to insure that public and private leaders have the tools they need to make informed decisions-decisions that may well have long-term impacts.”

A panel of nationally-recognized thought leaders in soil and water conservation and agricultural landscapes was appointed to contribute to the regional and national Agricultural Landsape meetings. Members are: Roger Allbee, former Vermont Secretary of Agriculture; Varel Bailey, Bailey Farms, Inc., Anita, Iowa; Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group; Otto Doering, Purdue University; P.J. Haynie, Haynie Farms, Hague, Va., and National Black Grower’s Council; Teresa Lasseter, Moultrie, Ga.; A.G. Kawamura, former California Secretary of Agriculture; Pat O’Toole, Ladder Ranch, Wyoming and Family Farm Alliance; Ross Racine, Intertribal Agriculture Council; Charles Stenholm, Olsson, Frank, Weeda Terman Bode Matz PC; and Sara Wyant, Agri-Pulse Communications.

If you want to attend, you need to register by this coming Thursday, March 31. Information is available on the National Forum website.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we hear from a panel that discussed how to maximize yields using precision ag techniques. David Waits, President and CEO, SST Software, was joined by Terry Griffin, Professor of Production Economics and Row-Crop Farm Management at the University of Arkansas and Bruce Erickson, Director of Cropping Systems Management at Purdue University at the recent GROWMARK FS GreenPlan Maximizing Yields seminar.

Waits says the biggest issue is the standardization of data.

“Until we do that, we’re all on a different basis, and we’re going to have trouble bringing very much of it together.”

Erickson, says precision agriculture is much different than when it started in the mid-1990s, with the biggest jump in technology in the guidance field. In fact, he says precision is really now the conventional way of farming.

“I can’t think of a full-time, commercial farmer who I work with right now who doesn’t use some type of precision farming.”

He adds that most of the benefit from precision ag has been in the form of lowering input costs and maximizing yields. But Griffin says we’re also seeing a benefit to farmers’ and their families’ overall qualities of life.

“Even if we ignore the economics, people are happier.” He says less stress and less fatigue that precision agriculture helps bring to the table are making real differences in people’s lives.

You can hear more of what the three had to say in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

The USDA, with some help from our friends at Farm Foundation, is holding a series of forums across the across the country to discuss natural resource conservation policy issues.

The first forum by the Ag Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is this coming Thursday, March 3rd at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois:

The regional forums are opportunities for the public to discuss major policy themes and points of consensus and divergence. At each regional forum, discussion will focus on three board topic areas: water security, climate variability and landscape integrity. For each topic, a panel of invited speakers will present comments, followed by open discussion with forum participants. These meetings are targeted to anyone with an interest in natural resource conservation policy issues.

Input is sought on specific natural resource conservation issues and economic and public policy issues related to agriculture and rural America, including: 1) natural resource status and trends; 2) emerging challenges; 3) emerging opportunities; and 4) long-term impacts on natural resource conditions and food, fuel and fiber production.

After Illinois, there are forums in Cobleskill, N.Y. and Ft. Collins, Colo. on March 10th; Mesa, Ariz. on March 15th; Portland, Ore. on March 18th; and Columbiana, Ala. on March 22nd. These six regional forums will provide discussion for a national conference planned for April 7-8, 2011, in Washington, D.C.

Information from the six regional forums will feed into a national conference planned April 7-8, 2011, at the Marriott Metro Center, Washington, D.C.

Farm Foundation’s website has more information, including the mandatory registration info.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we hear from three real farmers who have implemented precision agriculture techniques and equipment.

During the recent AGCONNECT Expo in Atlanta, farmers Doug Applegate, Bill Darrington and William Masteller talked about how each of them got involved in precision agriculture and why it is so important to them. Their comments came during the Successful Farming Innovations session entitled “Vision for 2020: Does Precision Farming Pay?”

Applegate, who farms near Oakland, Iowa, was a fairly early adopter of precision agriculture, putting the technology to work for him in 1996.

“It gave us a tool to keep track of where everything was planted, compare yields. Variety selection is very big on helping the cost effectiveness of using this equipment. That was our original payoff,” says Applegate.

Darrington, who didn’t come to the precision ag game until 2006, says he was waiting for the right system to come along that would help him farm the hilly terrain of Western Iowa.

“We end up with a lot of overlaps. You all know what it’s like when you’re planting 34,000 seeds, and you double that, you don’t have much yield in those areas.” Darrington says precision ag helps him prevent those types of duplications in seeding and fertilizing that don’t really help the overall yields.

South Dakota farmer Bill Masteller told the group that precision agriculture was a business decision for him to get the most out of his 1,500 acres of wheat, corn and soybeans.

“Farming is a business, of course. And they don’t exactly give land away or make more of it. So, since I have such a limited amount to work with, I have to be efficient as possible.”

All three farmers agree that good technical support is extremely valuable for them to get the most out of their precision agriculture operations.

You can hear more of what the three had to say in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

Researchers with the University of Missouri have found a way to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by agricultural operations, while increasing the yields of the crops. And precision agriculture equipment is playing a key role.

Research agronomist at MU’s Greenley Research Center in northeast Missouri Kelly Nelson says that ag operations in the U.S. create 58 percent of the world’s nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes 300 times more to global warming than carbon dioxide. His work is focusing on the placement and source of fertilizers to reduce that nitrous oxide number.

“The fertilizer placement for a no-till system would be, for dry fertilizers, would be broadcast applied over the soil surface. We thought with a strip-till system we can till a small area, usually about 12 inches wide, usually less than 30 percent of the field, and maintain good soil cover, and apply that fertilizer in a band right under the plant so it has easy access to the fertilizer.”

He says using an enhanced-efficiency polymer coated urea and non-coated urea, they were able to test in a clay pan soil, where there is very poor internal drainage and fertilizer loss can be substantial.

“We saw that over the entire growing season, we were emitting about 2.4 to 3.8 percent of the nitrogen applied as nitrous oxide.” Nelson says that while it doesn’t seem like a big number, it shows how much greenhouse gas can be emitted into the atmosphere. Plus, he says this system was able to increase yields. “We were seeing that our strip-till system was increasing yields by about 50 bushels to the acre (in corn), compared to our no-till system.” And it reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 25 percent, compared to no-till systems.

Nelson admits that they didn’t compare the amount of emissions for running the extra equipment in the strip-till versus no-till operation, but that would be a comparison of CO2 emissions, and as stated earlier, much less impactful when you are considering greenhouse gases. Plus, the increased yields should help make up any differences by increasing the amount of carbon sequestration going on in the higher yielding strip-till operations.

He credits new, advanced precision agriculture equipment and practices for even making this kind of work possible.

“Getting the right product at the right time in the right place, that’s what we’re working toward. Precision ag is moving us in that direction.”

Listen to my interview with Kelly here: Kelly Nelson, MU research agronomist

My friend Dr. John Fulton from Auburn University wanted me to remind everyone who is headed to the AG CONNECT Expo in Atlanta, Ga. to make a short side trip to his school (just 100 miles southwest of Atlanta) for an open house put on by Auburn University, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and the Alabama Precison Agriculture Team.

“We felt like it was a great opportunity [for companies and agencies] who will be attending AG CONNECT that week.”

Fulton says the focus of the one day event on January 6, 2011 will be on the school’s application technology. “Whether that’s for liquid applications, such as sprayers, or dry applicators in our area.”

Fulton estimates that about half of the farmers in the country use some type of precision ag technology, and that number will continue to grow.

He adds that since the event will take place so close to the same day Auburn plays Oregon for the BCS national championship in football, any wayward ducks from the northwest part of the country get a special invitation to a special event.

“We’d love to take them out on a ‘Duck’ hunt!”

The open house, duck hunting not included, starts at 9 am CST on Jan. 6, 2011 at Auburn’s Tom Corley Building (Biosystems Engineering Department). More information is available on the Alabama Precision Ag Team’s website.

Listen to more of my conversation with Dr. Fulton in the player below: Dr. John Fulton, Auburn University

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we talk to this podcast’s sponsor, Ag Leader and review what the company did in 2010 and what’s to come in 2011.

Ag Leader’s marketing manager Dave King says 2010 was a busy year for his company with the introduction of lots of new products, including the Integra displays, the ParaDyme and OnTrac2 steering systems, the OptRx crop sensor system, and the SMS software line.

While new gadgets and software are good, King says Ag Leader has not forgotten that customer service is key. That’s why they have the Blue Delta dealer program.

And coming in 2011, King says we’ll see improvements to the Integra display systems and expansions of the dealer and customer training programs, as well as some new features for Ag Leader’s SeedCommand and DirectCommand product lines and the expansion of the OptRx line for wheat growers.

He says if you’d like to find out more, just check out the company’s website, www.AgLeader.com, or go see a dealer in person or at one of the many farm trade shows Ag Leader will be attending in the coming year. A complete list of shows and dates is available on the Ag Leader website.

You can hear more about what Ag Leader did in the past year and what the company will be offering in 2011 in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we look at the issue of being able to share data between different precision ag manufacturers’ equipment and software. It’s an issue recognized by the precision agriculture industry as a whole. Members of AgGateway, a consortium of ag businesses that helps the industry share information electronically in the agricultural and food supply chains, are taking the lead on how to solve the problem.

Kelby Kleinsasser, who is the director of Ag Information for Raven Industries and the chairman of the new Precision Agriculture Council at AgGateway, says that starting earlier this year, they wanted to find a way to share data in field operations and data transfer, while protecting the proprietary information each company brings to the table. The new council he chairs is now working on the issue and hopes to have a solution that will allow data to be shared between various companies’ programs and hardware, while keeping proprietary information protected.

“We’re not talking about open source. We’re talking about open standards,” Kleinsasser says. Intellectual property will be maintained.

Kleinsasser adds that they’re looking for input from other members of AgGateway so that the standards will best help producers farm and ranch most efficiently. You can follow updates on this subject on the AgGateway website.

You can hear you can hear more about what he has to say about setting the precision ag data standards in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we take a look at a piece of software and iPhone and iPad application that is helping at least one manager of a herd of cattle be more precise.

Everyone wants to be more efficient in how they handle data. Whether you’re multi-national corporation or just a single podcaster, you need to have a way to manage the information you collect on your business, so you can apply the data that you’ve gathered to how you operate. Paul Nehring, the owner of NewGrass Farm near Wausau, Wisconsin found FileMaker, which is helping him manage his 40-head-a-year operation of grass-fed cattle and market that beef.

“There’s just a tremendous amount of data that we all like to keep, whether you’re doing crops or pasture or cattle,” Nehring says. He says the beauty of FileMaker is that it has applications for the iPhone that allow him to put in his information, right out there in the field. That saves him anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes of work at the end of each very long day, and over the course of a year, that could add up to a couple of weeks worth of work.

FileMaker’s Vice President of Marketing and Services Ryan Rosenberg describes as the “world’s easiest to use database for individuals and work groups,” and points out that while the software wasn’t specifically designed for agricultural purposes, it’s ability to handle data makes it ideally suited for those purposes.

“If you’re running a farm, how different are you really than someone manufacturing ice cream?” He says you have to keep track of raw materials, customers, workflow and products, as well as finances. All of that can be managed with FileMaker.

Rosenberg adds that since most folks in the world are not I-T experts, they’ve designed Filemaker to be easy for anyone to use.

More information is available at www.FileMaker.com.

You can hear you can hear more about what they both have to say about this precision tool in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast it in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we take a look at some of the precision technology on display at this year’s Farm Progress Show.

Show manager Matt Jungmann characterized as a bit soggy (four inches of rain on one night of the shows!) but overall successful demonstration of what America’s farmers are doing today. One of those exhibitors that was still able to make an impression on the crowds was our sponsor Ag Leader. Jeff Bentley, GPS Guidance and Steering Sales Manager for Ag Leader , showed off the company’s new GPS guidance and steering technology called ParaDyme, while Ag Leader’s Lucas James demonstrated the company’s SMS Technologies software.

You can hear what they have to say about their precision technologies and what it was like to be at this year’s Farm Progress Show in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast it in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we listen to an explanation of how precision agriculture sometimes actually misses the mark.

The whole idea of precision agriculture is being able to precisely place seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and any other applications in the exact right place at the exact right time in the exact right portion, right? Well, it’s not always that easy. And attendees at the recent International Conference on Precision Agriculture heard that sometimes you just have to realize that precision agriculture is not that precise.

Auburn University associate professor and extension specialist John Fulton held a session where he explained some of the limiting factors you have to consider when using precision practices. He explained you have to consider the actual physics involved to get the molecules of chemicals to the nozzle tip and how the speed the tractor is moving can affect the actual application.

His biggest advice to the audience was to slow down.

You can hear more of my conversation with Fulton in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast it in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

Nothing like moving across country to put you a bit behind. Just a couple of things left over from last month’s 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture that I wanted to share with you. First and foremost is the awards handed out at the ICPA gathering. The awards were presented by Paul Schrimpf, Group Editor the CropLife Media Group at Meister Media Worldwide, which includes PrecisionAg.com, the award sponsors.

Paul presented the Farmer Award to Ken Dalenberg (above) of Marshfield, Illinois – who was recognized 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.

Dr. Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer of Purdue University (left) and Dr. Harold Reetz (right, below) of Reetz Agronomics were honored with Legacy Awards during the conference. Dr. Lowenberg-DeBoer’s work in precision agriculture economics included groundbreaking research into the profitability of every aspect of it, including tracking the adoption of technology at the farm and service provider level, which played an important role in the growth of precision.

Reetz has been a champion of technology and precision agriculture throughout his four decade-long career, founding 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 his champion role, especially as it applies to the conservation aspects of precision technology, and he serves on the board of the Conservation Technology and Information Center.

Picking up the Consultant/Entrepreneur Award was the OptiGro Team at Jimmy Sanders, Inc. of Cleveland, MS. Accepting the award on behalf of the team was Clint Jayroe (left). OptiGro provides agricultural advice, information, and precision agriculture resources to farmer-customers for maximum return on investment, while 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 for 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.

In addition, there were several student winners recognized at the event, including: Eric Allphin, Xystus Amakor, David Harper, Ming Li, Joe David Luck, Daniel K. Mullenix, Georg Ruß, Ajay Sharda, Yeyin Shi and Luciano S. Shiratsuchi. You can see all the photos in the ICPA Photo Album.

Special thanks to for sponsoring our trip to the 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we listen in on one of the sessions at the recent International Conference on Precision Agriculture held in Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Ken Cassman with the University of Nebraska’s Center for Energy Sciences Research told the standing-room-only crowd that if you look at the past 40 years of farming and extrapolate those increases to the next 40 years, food production will still fall short, putting the world’s population … estimated to be 9.2 billion people by the year 2050 … and the world’s food supply on a crash course. He says estimates are that agriculture will have to increase production by 1.75 percent a year. Right now the numbers are closer to about a 1.3 percent increase. And Cassman says world agriculture will have to meet that increasing demand without negatively impacting the water supplies, nutrients, and wildlife of this planet.

So what’s the solution? Increased biotechnology to get more out of crops? Cassman says while biotechnology has increased yields somewhat, there’s no good, hard scientific evidence it will be able to meet the growing demands. He believes the real solution is meeting a food crop’s true genetic potential through something he calls Ecological Intensification.

It’s a fascinating conversation, and you can hear more of it in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.