Precision Pays

Another Ag Leader Technology helpful representative I met at the Farm Progress Show was Chad Huedepohl. He was showing growers their new SureStop Electric Row Clutch.

The product was in limited release a year ago but now they’ve done a full release and Chad says the product has generated a lot of interest. He says the SureStop basically shuts down individual seed meters on each row based on yield maps. You can hear him describe how it works in my interview with him. He says this will save on seed and provide a better yield. Looking ahead Chad says growers should order early and not wait until next March. This will assure availability.

You can listen to my interview with Chad below:

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Many of you corn growers using precision technology are very aware of the challenges we’ve had in the ethanol business, especially battling groups with an agenda to distort facts and misinform the public. Growth Energy is a group that was formed to battle that problem on Capitol Hill.

Here at the Farm Progress Show, Gen. Wesley Clark, Growth Energy, announced a new initiative. The organization is calling for country of origin labeling for fuel. I would call that the “COOL for fuel” initiative! Hey, we do it with food, why not fuel?

General Wesley Clark, Co-Chairman of Growth Energy, today called on the United States Congress and the White House to take action to dramatically enhance the market transparency of the nation’s fuel supply by requiring a national standard of country of origin labeling (COOL) for fuel.

Clark also unveiled Growth Energy’s labelmyfuel.com, which showcases the costs of American dependence on foreign oil, and serves to rally grassroots support for Congressional action on COOL for fuel legislation.

So what do you think about this initiative? Good idea?

You can listen to the press conference here:

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The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is seeking comments until July 6 on the proposed petition to deregulate genetically modified (GM) corn that improves ethanol production.

The petition for deregulation, submitted by Syngenta Seeds Inc., is in accordance with APHIS’ regulations concerning the introduction of genetically-engineered organisms and products and is available for the public’s review and comment. As part of the decisionmaking process, APHIS also has prepared a draft environmental assessment and plant pest risk assessment for review and comment.

Reopening the comment period will allow interested persons additional time to prepare and submit comments on the petition.

APHIS will make a determination of nonregulated status if it can conclude that the organism does not pose a plant pest risk. If APHIS grants the Syngenta Seeds petition for deregulation, the genetically-engineered corn and its progeny would no longer be regulated articles. The product could then be freely moved and planted without the requirement of permits or other regulatory oversight by APHIS.

APHIS is responsible for protecting U.S. agriculture and the environment from animal and plant pests. APHIS regulates GE products in cooperation with the EPA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Food and Drug Administration. In compliance with agency policy, Syngenta Seeds submitted a food and feed safety and nutritional assessment summary to FDA for this genetically-engineered corn. EPA is not involved in evaluating this genetically-engineered corn because it has not been engineered to produce a pesticide or to be tolerant to an herbicide.

APHIS has safely regulated genetically-engineered organisms since 1986 and has overseen the deregulation of more than 70 products.

This notice was published in the June 4 Federal Register. APHIS is seeking comment on the petition, the EA and the revised plant pest risk assessment. Consideration will be given to comments received on or before July 6. Send two copies of postal mail or commercial delivery comments to Docket No. APHIS-2007-0016, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road, Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. APHIS-2007-0016. To submit a comment online, click here.

While anti-agriculture naysayers continue to blast away at GM crops as the end of the world, it’s our duty to offer sound science to the discussion.

To this end, a recent study by the British-based PG Economics offers some statistics on the value of biotech crops…as discussed in a recent Nebraska Corn Kernels blog post.

Biotech crops help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the use of pesticides – in addition to increasing yields for many farmers while reducing production risk, according to a study released this week.

In other words, biotech crops help farmers produce more with less – and that’s good on the sustainability front.

Graham Brookes, director of PG Economics and co-author of the report, had this to say:

Since 1996, biotech crop adoption has contributed to reducing the release of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, decreased pesticide spraying and significantly boosted farmers’ incomes. … The technology has also made important contributions to increasing the yields of many farmers, reducing production risks, improving productivity and raising global production of key crops.

The combination of economic and environmental benefit delivery is therefore making a valuable contribution to improving the sustainability of global agriculture, with these benefits and improvements being greatest in developing countries.

If farmers who used biotech were not able to, in 2007 it would have taken an additional 14.6 million acres of soybeans, 7.4 million acres of corn, 6.2 million acres of cotton and 0.7 million acres of canola just to produce the same sized crop. (This total area requirement is equivalent to about 6 percent of the arable land in the U.S. or 23 percent of the arable land in Brazil!)

Other Biotech crop benefits from the study:

• Reduced tillage and fuel use in 2007 which cut carbon dioxide greenhouse gases by the equivalent of removing 6.3 million cars from the road that year.
• Reduced pesticide spraying by 8.8% (1996-2007)
• Increased no-till adoption in many regions, especially South America
• Increased on-farm net economic benefits to $10.1 Billion in 2007, with a total of $$44.1 Billion (1996-2007)
• Almost 50% of total farm income gains are due to yield increases with biotech crops, with the balance from production cost reductions
• Farmers in developing countries got the lion’s share of farm income gains in 2007 (58%), while garnering 50% over the 12 year period.
• Since 1996, biotech corn has added 62.4 Million tonnes and biotech soybeans added 67.8 Million tonnes to global food production.

Read the entire study to gain more insight. And kudos to the Nebraska Corn Board for promoting the value of biotechnology.

This week I’m attending the National Agricultural Aviation Association Convention in Las Vegas. It’s the first contact I’ve had with this group and I’ve been learning a lot. For example, I didn’t realize how big a role precision agriculture is playing in aerial application. I guess it makes sense though. If you can use gps and variable rate on the ground then why not from the air?

One of the people who explained some of this to me was David Eby, AgSync, pictured on the left of Denise and Ryan Eby in their trade show booth. David says that they realized the need for aerial application companies to have a software solution for managing data, especially when they’ve got multiple planes in the air. So they developed AgSync, which is a web based solution for this problem. We’re sure seeing a growth in web based programming aren’t we? Even in ag!

David says they’ve been working closely with BASF on the development of this program. I’ve been hearing a lot of applicators here talking about BASF’s Headline fungicide and I asked him what that has meant for the business. He says “it has changed our world in aerial application.”

Listen to my interview with David here:

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If you’d like to see some photos from the convention then check these out: NAAA Convention Photo Album

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The NFU (Scotland) is promoting a booklet called “Best Farming Practices” produced by Environment Agency, which mentions the importance of precision agriculture.

Farmer Philip Chamberlain found that an integrated approach using manure, compost, crop rotation and precision-farming techniques could significantly reduce his costs.

In 100 pages Best Farming Practices explains how wise stewardship of resources such as soil, nutrients, water and energy can help you cut costs while maintaining or improving productivity. It includes 15 case studies of farmers across England and Wales – from Pembrokeshire to Norfolk and from the Devon hills to the Yorkshire moors. Their stories show how a variety of farm enterprises can reap environmental and economic benefits from a range of simple, low-cost actions.

I’m not so sure about all the political policies of these groups but at least they seem to think precision agriculture is a good thing!

It’s less than two weeks to the Cotton Incorporated, 2008 Crop Management Seminar & Workshops. There’s a nice agenda of precision workshops included in the program in case you’re interested. It’s all going to take place at Harrah’s Casino & Resort in Tunica, MS, November 11 – 13.

Here’s the precision workshops agenda (pdf):

7:00 AM – 8:30 AM REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM LUNCH