Precision Pays

The Alabama Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is encouraging growers to sign up for the Precision Farming Incentive under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

According to State Conservationist Dr. William Puckett, the Precision Farming Incentive is designed to encourage the adoption of variable-rate application of nutrients and pesticides and promote the use of GPS-enabled precision agricultural technology and equipment. The goals of the incentive include improving water quality by targeting areas for reduced nutrient and pesticide application, reducing runoff and leaching of pesticides, enhancing soil quality through reduced erosion and soil compaction and energy conservation through accurate and efficient application of crop inputs. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) is partnering on this initiative.

Annually planted cropland in 38 Alabama counties – about half the state – is eligible for the incentive and April 29 is the batching period cutoff date for selecting applications for funding.

I don’t know if there are other states offering this initiative. I did some searching on the national NRCS site and around but Alabama is the other one I could find specifically offering this program, but it does sound like a good way to help especially smaller or disadvantaged farmers to make that initial investment in using technology that helps the environment while saving time and money for producers.

John Deere unveiled a new line of subcompact tractors at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville this week – the 1 Series Subcompact Utility tractors. John Deere Product Manager Kevin Branstetter gave the media a sneak preview, which you can see in the video posted below.

Kevin says there are two models, the 1023E and 1026R, which are customer designed and will accept a full range of implements. One of those is a mid mount mower deck that allows the operator to drive over it and auto connect! Also important is an auxiliary power outlet so you can keep your mobile phone charged while you’re mowing or working. They’ll be available in John Deere dealers soon.

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

FS Green Plan Solutions, part of the Growmark company, sponsored a great conference in Peoria today for about 300 farmers and consultants around Illinois and surrounding states all focused on the pursuit of maximum yields for corn and soybeans.

The event started off with a dynamic presentation by Purdue University economist Dr. Mike Boehlji, who discussed the good news of demand for exports and biofuels, as well as the challenges for meeting that demand.

One of Dr. Boehlji’s main points is that American agriculture is facing increasing competition from other countries, so farmers need to become increasingly efficient by thinking in terms of biological manufacturing. “We’re increasingly thinking about farming the way you think about a manufacturing process,” he said. “We’re using GPS technology to not only monitor what the yield is across the field, but we’re actually using it now to change the rate of application in fertilizer and chemicals. We’re using that technology to find out where the wet spots are. We’re using a lot of information technology, we’re using sensing technology more, we’re using a better nutritional technology.” Process control technologies, like irrigation control, as well as auto steer tractors, and of course improved hybrids all contribute to running agricultural operations more like manufacturing operations.

Hear more in my interview with Dr. Boehlji here: Mike Boehlji Interview

FS Green Plan Solutions, an integrated, solutions-based approach designed to help producers enhance farm profitability by providing complete agronomic recommendations from a trusted team of FS specialists.

I came across a new blog called ‘The Latest Dirt’ by Illinois farmer Jamie Walter who posted a video and his response to the question… “Does guidance/autosteering really pay?” His answer? A resounding YES!

By using GPS, we can dramatically improve efficiency.  It allows us to reduce overlap, increase speed and decrease operator fatigue.  This saves a bunch on inputs (fuel, seed, fertilizer, labor etc.) and helps us get more out of the very expensive equipment we run over our fields.  At the same time, we’re able to be a little gentler on our environment too! Below is a little video of a common device.

Check out his video here.

More eyeballs were on Precision Pays in 2010. Readership increased this year by a whopping 66% to 48,000 unique visitors!

Our Precision Pays reporters were busy in 2010, posting a total of 308 stories, including 54 with audio interviews or podcasts and 15 YouTube videos. The most popular YouTube video of the year was the unveiling of the Chip Foose designed John Deere tractor at Commodity Classic, which has been viewed nearly 13,000 times. Other top videos of the year including the unveiling of the New Holland T8 & T9 Tractors, Opening Day at National Farm Machinery Show, AG CONNECT Expo Preview, and AgLeader at AG CONNECT Expo.

According to page views, the most popular stories of the year on Precision Pays were:

John Deere Unveils Chip Foose Tractor
Slingshot from Raven at AG CONNECT Expo
How CORS Network Can Fit Precision Farming
John Deere Launches New Precision Technologies
New AgLeader Vacuum Planter Electric Row Shutoff

Thanks to our readers, our sponsors and clients, our freelancers and other friends for making 2010 great! Best wishes to all for a healthy, happy, prosperous and blessed 2011!

We’re making a list and checking it twice of all the nice Precision Pays readers who have taken our survey – and one of them could get some green after Santa Claus comes to town!

We know that people hate giving out personal information on the internet, but we are asking so that we can improve our on-line publications by knowing who our readers are and what they want to know about. That’s why we are offering everyone who takes our survey the chance to win $250 cash money each month. We already sent a check to one lucky reader at the end of November – the next one will be pulled at the end of this month.

It only takes about three minutes to fill out the survey – PrecisionPays Survey – so do it today and make Precision Pays pay off for you!

Agriculture 2.0 is drawing big interest from Silicon Valley venture funds, according to Illinois-based Open Prairie Ventures.

“Current projections are that the food supply will need to double over the next 30 years to feed the ever-increasing demands of the global population,” said Jim Schultz, founder of Open Prairie Ventures. “If we are going to increase our food supply by 100% in the next thirty years, this demand for growth will be fueled by safe agricultural technologies that increase crop yields on less land.”

Schultz believes that technological improvements in the last thirty years which have improved agricultural productivity are only the beginning. Among the most important areas Open Prairie Ventures has identified for future technology developments in agriculture are Quality Control Processes; New market developments; Reduced labor costs; Improved production processes; Reduced environmental damage; and Reduced energy consumption.

Local county extension agents used to be the main source of information for farmers and ranchers in any particular area whenever they had questions about the latest research and technology. These days, it’s getting more commonplace to surf the internet from the farm and get information from all over the world, but the trick is often sorting out the wheat from the chaff.

Combining the county agent as the traditional source of information with the internet is eXtension.org, an interactive learning environment offering researched-based knowledge from experts at 74 different universities across the country. The site includes resource areas from farming to community planning and features professional educators with expertise in those topics to provide online learning opportunities.

Check it out – eXtension.org,.

Check out how one local agricultural dealership in southern Ontario has greatly expanded their precision farming business in the past five years, according to a story in Blackburn Agri-Media.

Dave Petheram of Elmira Farm Service says they’ve gone from selling about a hundred thousand dollars worth of the equipment five years ago to around 2 million dollars worth this year.

As you start your Christmas shopping, consider this for someone on your list – a signed John Deere toy tractor that will support future farm broadcasters.

Joe Ertl has personally autographed each of the numbered John Deere B 1/16 scale toy tractors for the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Foundation. This unique tractor was specifically designed for NAFB and includes a mounted replica of a tractor radio. Only 200 of these tractors have been produced to benefit the NAFB Foundation. Numbers 6-200 have been made available to the public for sale while the first five were auctioned live during the NAFB Convention earlier this month. Only a few are left for sale.

The price per tractor is $85 plus shipping and handling and orders can be made online.

The NAFB Foundation is the nonprofit charitable and educational arm of NAFB that works to keep the quality and viability of the farm broadcasting profession and industry at the highest level through the support of NAFB education, marketing and research activities, annual student scholarships and internship grants to stations and networks.

If you have food on your table today – thank God and thank our nation’s fabulous farmers and ranchers for the affordable, safe and abundant food supply they produce for the world.

I found this poem online that gives good reasons to give thanks today for those who produce the food, fuel and fiber that we all enjoy:

I’m Just a Farmer, Plain and Simple
By Bobby Collier

I’m just a farmer,
Plain and simple.
Not of a royal birth
But rather, a worker of the earth.
I know not of riches
But rather, of patches on my britches
I know of drought and rain,
Of pleasure and pain.
I know of the good and the bad,
The happy and the sad.
I am a man of emotions.
A man who loves this land,
And the beauty of its sand.
I know of a spring’s fresh flow
And autumn’s golden glow,
Of a newborn calf’s hesitation,
And the eagle’s destination.
I know of tall pines,
And long, waiting lines.
Of the warmth of campfires,
And the agony of flat tires.
But I am a man who loves his job
And the life I live.
I am a man who works with God,
I cannot succeed without his help,
For you see,
I’m just a farmer
Plain and simple.

This week, as we “give our thanks to God for the fruits of the earth and the work of man,” Pope Benedict XVI recently offered some reflections on agricultural work and feeding the world.

In a November 14 address, the pope said that “the process of industrialization has often overshadowed the agricultural sector, which, while also drawing benefit from modern technologies, has nevertheless lost importance, with notable consequences, even at the cultural level. I believe that this is the moment for the reevaluation of agriculture, not in a nostalgic sense, but as an indispensable resource for the future.”

Calling for a “new balance between agriculture, industry and services,” Pope Benedict noted the importance of the agricultural sector for employment. “More than a few young people have already chosen this path; also many professionals are returning to dedicate themselves to the agricultural enterprise, feeling that they are responding not only to a personal and family need, but also to a “sign of the times,” to a concrete sensibility for the common good.”

Amen!

Marathon County will be hosting Wisconsin’s Farm Technology Days in 2011 and they are already offering official Marathon County Farm Technology Days apparel and collector’s items for that special someone on your Christmas list.

Among the items they have for sale on-line are hats, hooded sweatshirts, t-shirts (youth & adult), tote bags, travel mugs – and the collectible IH544 toy tractor with a 2-point mounted sickle mower is available for the first time ever. The tractor is being sold exclusively through the 2011 Marathon County Farm Tech Days and only 1,000 will be produced. Proceeds will support the 2011 Marathon County Farm Tech Days. The only catch with the tractor is that you can buy it now, but it will not be available until the show in July.

Wisconsin Farm Technology Days is the largest agriculture exposition in Wisconsin that showcases the latest improvements in production agriculture. Each year, the three day event is held in a different Wisconsin county on a different host family farm. With over 600 exhibitors, the show draws 60,000 agriculture and rural visitors from Wisconsin and surrounding states.

The July 12-14, 2011 show will be held at the Ken & Karen Seehafer farm north of Marshfield. The 3rd generation family farm was originally purchased by Ken’s grandfather in 1930 consisting of 80 acres. The farm grew to 200 acres by Ken’s parents, Alma and Elmer Sr., and were milking 36 cows when Ken joined the operation in l968. He purchased the farm in 1972 and it continued to change throughout the years to its existing 750 acres owned plus 100 rented and 250 milking cows.

Scoop up some extra cash for the holiday season by filling out the Precision Pays Survey. By participating in our fast, easy quick 5 minute survey, you could win $250 to spend on yourself or to help spread the joy to your friends and family.

Here’s all you need to do. Click on this link to complete the survey that will help the blogging team bring you more stories that are of interest to you. Once you’ve answered all the questions, enter to win $250 in cash. Each month, one winner will be chosen from all of the survey’s entrants. Non winners will be put into the drawing for the next month so there is no need to fill out the survey multiple times.

And while you’re at it, send us your thoughts on our monthly poll question. Which precision farming tools do you currently use in your farm operations? You can sound off by posting a comment to this story, or sending your response to PPPoll@hotmail.com. Select answers will be used in an upcoming story for the blog.

Ready to win?  Then click here to begin.

The AgChat Foundation has come up with a unique idea for you to use during this upcoming week of Thanksgiving. It’s called #foodthanks. It’s a way to show your thanks for the food we enjoy every day and the people who produce it.

So what you’re encouraged to do is go to the webpage where you’ll find images for your Twitter accounts and other web purposes. Tweet with the hashtag, #foodthanks, especially on November 24.

Remember that all this week is National Farm-City Week, always the week before Thanksgiving, to celebrate the important partnership between farm and urban residents in providing the nation with a bounty of food, fiber, fuel and a growing list of other other products. Chuck Zimmerman, president of World Dairy Diary’s parent company ZimmComm New Media, took part in a panel discussion to kick off Farm City Week held Thursday in Lancaster, PA. The panel addressed the urban media’s coverage of agriculture in the annual Farm-City Week Symposium “Agriculture: A Growing Story” and explored ways to promote the positive news about farming and ranching.

The symposium was broadcast live on AgriTalk and can be viewed here: