Precision Pays

This morning’s opening session of the 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture (ICPA) was certainly a good one, as attendees heard that while the world’s farmers have increased the rate of growth of the food they produce, the current increase doesn’t match the rise in the human population and its rising incomes expected by the year 2050 when it’s expected that we’ll share this world with 9.2 billion people.

Dr. Ken Cassman with the University of Nebraska’s Center for Energy Sciences Research told the standing-room-only crowd that without negatively impacting some of the world’s most sensitive ecosystems – the rain forests, wetlands, and grassland savannahs – the current rate of production growth won’t meet the rising demand. He says a process of increasing yields and reducing agriculture’s “footprint” is necessary: a process he calls “ecological intensification (EI).” And he believes precision agriculture could play a key role in that process.

“The buffer between proper management and poor management narrows, that is, the margin for error becomes smaller in terms of what helps the crop or what hurts the crop. So your precision of management becomes the single most important factor in helping farmers achieve yields near the yield potential ceiling.”

Cassman says the goal is to achieve 80 percent of a crop’s genetic yield potential while not increasing the impact that crop has on the environment. He says while biotechnology might help get us there, there is no magic bullet. It will take a combination of new technologies and techniques to hit that potential.

And a man who shared the stage with Cassman during the opening session believes we cannot play down the importance of testing and monitoring of fields to make sure the crops are living up to their potential. Dr. William Raun with Oklahoma State University also made a pitch for funding of extension services so that testing can take place.

“Extension is obviously important to us. We cannot just do research. We’ve got to have thousands of enrich strips and ramps out there in the fields and investing in that extension so farmers can see it.” And he adds that the numbers and formulas are out there to best forecast what can happen in a field. We just need to make sure it’s measured. “Yield potential can be predicted.”

It really was a great session. Because of the length of it, I can’t post all of the audio here, but I am going to let you hear the question and answer session after Cassman’s and Raun’s presentation. You’ll also hear from Dr. Raj Khosla during this segment. You can download or listen to this session at ICPA here: Opening Session Questions and Answers

I’ve also posted the day’s pictures on the ICPA Photo Album

The 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture (ICPA) has kicked off at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver and runs through Wednesday, July 21, 2010.

Throughout the day, hundreds of research scientists, producers, technology company representatives, equipment manufacturers, input dealers, agronomic consultants, software developers, educators, government personnel and policymakers have been pouring into the Mile High City from 40 different countries to look back on the past 20 years of precision ag innovations and to work together on the future of maximizing the potential of the world’s farmlands.

At the opening reception tonight, I caught up with Dr. Raj Khosla, the chairperson of the 10th ICPA and a professor at Colorado State University. He told me with 300-500 participants from such a wide variety of places around the world, he expects a large part of the conversation will be on the hot topic of food security.

“Precision agriculture has been mentioned as one of the soultions in meeting food security. Populations are increasing. People’s eating habits are changing.” And to meet those increasing demands, Khosla says they have to figure out how to translate some of the precision ag techniques used in the U.S. and apply them to lesser-developed countries. He says meeting the food demands of these growing countries could literally transform those societies.

“When you’re tummy is hungry is hard to listen to anything else other than feeding itself. There’s an opportunity for precision ag to contribute to lesser developed countries, smaller field sizes by coupling the technology and the [large labor markets].” He says it is just as important to use the same amount of labor to grow the larger quantities of food so precision agriculture doesn’t end up putting those workers out of jobs.

Khosla says precision agriculture is putting the right inputs in the right place, at the right time, and in the right manner. It’s a great conversation, and download or listen to Khosla’s interview at ICPA here: Dr. Raj Khosla

And check out the ICPA Photo Album

Professionals, professors, scientists and some farmers will be traveling to Colorado next month for the 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture in Denver … an event that happens every two years, and this year happens July 18th through the 21st at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we talk to Raj Khosla, a professor of Precision Agriculture at Colorado State University and the chair of this year’s conference who says this a landmark event, as they mark 20 years of meeting like this.

“It started as a small workshop with a bunch of people in Minnesota.” He says there are several scientific and practioner-oriented papers at this year’s meeting for the anticipated 500 attendees.

While much of the conference is focused on information for the scientists and consultants, he’s hoping to attract more frontline farmers and producers.

“I strongly believe there’s a lot of information for them.”

More information, including how to take advantage of the early bird discount for those who sign up before July 9th, is available on the International Conference on Precision Agriculture website.

We’ll have coverage from the conference, and in the meantime, you can hear more of my conversation with Khosla in the player below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

A South Dakota State professor of plant science is using a formula to optimize planting populations… leading to a more precise way to get the most out of farmers’ fields.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we talk to Gregg Carlson, who is using an algorithm to figure out precisely in each corn field what the optimum planting population should be for specific areas within that field.

Carlson says his formula even shows what fields should not have a lot of precision techniques applied to them.

It’s a fascinating conversation, and you can hear more of it in the player below. In addition, you can contact Carlson and get some insight on some papers they haven’t yet published at the South Dakota State University Web site.

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

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The latest in precision agriculture might not be at the ground level, turning the soil.  It might come just a few feet above the top of the crops in the form of the Autocopter.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we talk to Autocopter president Donald Effren, who describes how this little helicopter with a five-foot blade-span operating at about 25 feet above the ground brings farmers and ranchers a level of sophistication that has its roots in the high-tech Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, better known as UAVs, that the military has been flying in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Effren says his aircraft is actually more stable than some of its military cousins.  And with controls that are easier to operate than most hobby shop model helicopters and a price tag of $30,000, in line with most farm implements, this little dynamo could be the next big thing in precision agriculture.

Listen to the podcast in the player below to find out more about the Autocopter. You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

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