Precision Pays

RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate a constellation of five identical Earth Observation satellites, have successfully run a Precision Farming pilot project for Agro Risk Euro Scan GmbH ( ARES ). The project is called Crop Scan and supports the German farming community in agricultural planning. ARES acts as RapidEye’s service partner for Precision Farming solutions.

From March to September 2009, RapidEye imaged 8,000 hectare multiple times in Germany and provided ARES with up-to-date ground cover maps for different crop types such as wheat, rapeseed, barley, corn and sugar beets each month. The maps helped farmers requesting this product to better plan their agricultural fields and crops for the upcoming months.

Timeliness and accuracy of information is key when providing frequent agricultural monitoring. The RapidEye constellation of five satellites has the unrivaled ability to image individual fields, counties, states or countries on a frequent revisit cycle. Customers can receive field-based information including crop identification, crop area determination, crop condition monitoring, and growth stage determination.

“The results of the project were extremely satisfying, and through this new partnership with ARES we will be able to strengthen our position in the precision agriculture market. We are looking forward to going operational with this service in Germany in conjunction with ARES in 2010. We also expect that we will have additional opportunities to partner with them in the future on other ventures,” commented Michael Prechtel, Head of Sales and Marketing for RapidEye.

I hope, as a precision farmer, you’ve added a ‘communicate with consumers’ recurring task to your weekly if not daily chore list. Whether you do it locally or globally, through talking or through social media, you should join the conversation to support your cause.

Part of that effort is to monitor what’s said about your noble profession. To that end, check out this NY Times op-ed piece “Can Biotech Food Cure World Hunger?” It features a variety of opinions–from economists and activists to nutritionists, university and thinktank folks.

There’s good give and take in these messages, and excellent food for thought. And, if you want to have Google help you track down such stories and send them to your email, it’s real easy to do. Sign up for a Google email account (Gmail) if you don’t have one, then visit Google Alerts and type in numerous words (such as agriculture, farming, farms, GMO, livestock, food, biotech, corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, USDA, etc.) that Google will find in stories, then email those story links to you.

Farmers Edge Precision Consulting based in Winnipeg, Manitoba has become a fast-growing business helping farmers cut fertilizer costs and increase profits. The two agronomy experts who started the company just received an entrepreneur award, according to a report in The Gov Monitor.

Farmers were so impressed with an innovative crop fertilization service developed by Curtis MacKinnon and Wade Barnes that they urged them to take it to market, giving them the push they needed to strike out on their own. Since that initial start four years ago, Farmers Edge Precision Consulting has become a fast-growing business that is helping farmers across the Prairies and as far away as Russia improve their practices and profits. For this success, Wade, 34, and Curtis, 33, have won BDC’s Young Entrepreneur Award for Manitoba.

Farmers Edge helps take the guesswork out of farming. It combines remote sensing equipment and technology to redefine how farmers apply fertilizer to their fields to increase crop yields. The business is helping grain and oilseed farmers increase their profits by $15 to $100 per acre, while contributing to a 15 to 25% decrease in fertilizer application. Now covering 750,000 acres across the Prairies, Farmers Edge has grown to 10 management partners, 34 full-time and 11 seasonal employees, along with 17 consulting partners who are re-sellers of the services. Farmers Edge has just opened its own soil-testing laboratory, has taken its concept to large corporate farms in Russia and is constantly exploring new ideas.

“Before we got started, I was working in the fertilizer business, where research had been done on variable rate technology, but no one had found a way to make it viable,” explains Wade. “Then I started working with Curtis, who is gifted in technology, and together we decided to reinvent the wheel.” Wade hit on the idea of using remote sensing to map out the varying fertilizer needs throughout a field, and Curtis found a way to make fertilizer machines vary their output according to that map. When farmers saw what Farmers Edge could do, the service sold itself.

The two agronomy experts attribute the fast growth of Farmers Edge to the talented team and the unique ownership model they have put in place. That includes a design whereby territory managers take equity in the company. “We have been fortunate to find key people who share our drive,” says Curtis. “That has allowed us to keep growing and expanding.”

Curtis and Wade see expansion as a way of reducing risk. “Agriculture is so influenced by weather that if you are regionalized, one weather disaster could virtually wipe you out,” explains Wade. “Expanding into other regions reduces that risk.” They’re also always on the lookout for possible new ventures. “We’re very quick to seize opportunities. If we have an idea, we chase it.” That led them to Russia in 2006. Since then, Farmers Edge has been developing business in Russia and the Ukraine, tapping into the large corporate farm market.

Satellite photo by RapidEye - Illinois

German-based RapidEye, who uses a constellation of five satellites to photograph earth for numerous industries, partnered with Canadian companies GeoFarm and Agri-Trend to supply growing season images to farmers across Canada.

In a collaborative effort, GeoFarm, Agri-Trend, and RapidEye began working together at the beginning of 2009 to offer enhanced satellite imagery solutions to Canadian clients by offering “near real-time” satellite imagery for agriculture use backed by superior agronomics. The RapidEye satellite system was designed to meet the needs of precision agriculture, as it is the only commercial satellite system that acquires data in the red-edge spectral band. This band provides specific information about the chlorophyll content, and therefore nitrogen status of the crops.

“RapidEye provided high quality imagery products of different types on a ‘field order by field order’ basis to our Canadian customers over a wide range of crop types and conditions. This led to a variety of precision agriculture decisions and applications. With Agri-Trend Agri-Coaches™ providing groundtruthing and agronomic insight, the value of these informative images was understood from a practical agronomy standpoint for the ultimate benefit of our growers,” says Warren Bills, President of GeoFarm Solutions Inc.

Customers benefited from multiple captures of 5 meter resolution, multi-spectral imagery (red, green, blue, near infrared and red edge) of their fields throughout this year’s season. Products such as bare ground, chlorophyll and ground cover maps were delivered via the Internet to farmers, ag-retailers and agronomic consultants.

RapidEye, a German-based GIS mapping technology provider, is working with a France company to test and deliver biomass maps that can help farmers improve Nitrogen efficiency in wheat and canola fields, as reported by Vector1Media.

RapidEye provided S2B’s VISIOPLAINE platform with biomass maps to support nitrogen fertilization of canola fields for five regions from early winter 2008 to early spring 2009. In June 2009, RapidEye delivered chlorophyll maps for 2 different areas in France.

The results and field measurements are being tested, analyzed, and confirmed this year before introducing this solution into the wheat market in 2010. The cooperatives and scientific institutes contributed information collected in the fields, whereas RapidEye was responsible for the analysis from the remote sensing perspective, and delivered an intermediate product in the form of biomass and chlorophyll maps.

Based on these maps, S2B was able to make recommendations for nitrogen fertilization in canola and wheat fields to the farming community through their VISIOPLAINE platform. “In early 2009, S2B and RapidEye entered into a strategic partnership agreement for all remote sensing projects that VISIOPLAINE plans over the next three years.

Through our partnership with S2B’s VISIOPLAINE platform, we will increase RapidEye’s visibility in the French Precision Farming market.” said Michael Prechtel, Head of Sales and Marketing at RapidEye. Future projects with S2B include Precision Farming services for sunflower, potatoes and sugarbeet. RapidEye’s contributions to these projects include identifying variabilities of biophysical parameters within fields such as nitrogen content and leaf area index.

Popular Science magazine did a nice job providing readers with a glimpse into the precision agriculture research that is needed to grow twice as much food by 2050. The writer talked about how this challenge is everyone’s problem, but scientists are hard at work fomenting a second green revolution.

Here are the research projects that the magazine chose:
1. Sahara Forest Project — Greenhouses using seawater and solar power to grow cash crops in the desert.
2. Soil sensors — Research at Iowa State University into wireless soil sensors that may help farmers use water, fertilizer and other inputs more efficiently.
3. Improved rice — Researchers hope to turn this staple crop into a super rice that grows faster in warmer and drier climates by transforming its photosynthesis process.
4. Replace fertilizer — Michigan State researchers attempt to replace/reduce commercial fertilizer use with microbes. They are currently field testing microbial cocktails (Bio-Soil Enhancers) that can simultaneously reduce the need for phosphorous and nitrogen, protect plants against pathogens and boost yields in virtually any type of crop.
5. HarvestChoice — The Gates Foundation is funding data compilation of Africa’s agricultural systems and land use to increase yields to feed the growing continent.
6. Satellite soil moisture — NASA and USDA are working to monitor soil moisture levels around the globe to hopefully improve crop forecasting.
7. Robot labor — The challenge of American specialty crop growers finding human labor is increasing difficult. Current research using robots with a variety of sensors will help machines scan for fungus, growth rate, soil moisture, humidity, light levels and more. But cost of such technology is the current challenge.
8. Rebuilding soil — Scientists hope to turn waste into a charcoal that, when applied to degraded unproductive soil, will attract microorganisms to help plants access nutrients, hold more water and lock in carbon. Companies are working on portable machines to produce biochar on-site.
9. Make supercrops — Research is bioenginering the African staple crop cassava root to turn it into the PowerBar of the vegetable world. They’re attempting to increase protein, add vitamins, increase shelf life, add virus resistance and eliminate cyanide-producing toxins in the root.

Encouraging all farmers, not just the technology adopters, to use precision fertilizer Best Management Practices (BMPs) was the theme of an opening session talk by Clyde Graham, VP of Strategy and Alliances with the Canadian Fertilizer Institute.

Speaking at the bi-annual precision agriculture InfoAg conference in Springfield, Ill., today, Graham cited the importance of a global 4Rs BMP effort with their US counterpart, The Fertilizer Institute, and global science-based organization the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI).

As environmental issues mount and become more personal, the 4Rs—Right source, Right rate, Right time and Right place—can help farmers and the public understand how fertilizer can contribute to sustainability goals for agriculture.

Listen to Graham as he outlines the need to achieve social, economic and environmental goals, and make sure farmers measure their performance to demonstrate an ability to operate without undue regulation.

Listen to part of Clyde’s presentation: clydegrahambmp.mp3

Precision Pays coverage of the InfoAg 2009 Conference is sponsored by: .

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High returns: Collector T. Soundiah inspecting a field of brinjal, raised under precision farming at Mangalam in Tiruchi district. Photo by M. Moorthy, courtesy of The Hindu

Part of India’s National Agriculture Development Program (NADP) promotes a precision farming technique that is gaining popularity, according to a recent story in India’s national newspaper, The Hindu.

Over the past two years, precision farming techniques have been promoted in 900 hectares across the district in various crops including sugarcane, maize, brinjal, tomato, onion, tapioca, sunflower and groundnut.

With installation of drip irrigation system and fertigation (for application of soluble fertilizers) units being essential requirements, farmers could avail a 50 per cent subsidy for the equipment. A farmer could avail a maximum subsidy of Rs.65,000 a hectare, including the cent per cent subsidy of Rs.25,000 for soluble fertilizer, said Collector T. Soundiah, after inspecting some of the precision farming fields in the district on Tuesday.

The higher yield achieved through the drip irrigation systems and fertigation, under which the soluble fertilizer was applied through the drip irrigation system, has been an attraction for farmers.

“This is the first time we have taken up cultivation of brinjal and the results has been encouraging so far,” said A. Ramasamy, who along with his brother A. Easwaran, has raised the vegetable in two acres at Mangalam village in the drought-prone Thathaiyengarpet union. Mr. Ramasamy, who has grown two different hybrid varieties, even takes the longer variety to the Salem Uzhavar Sandhai where such brinjals find a better market.

A cluster-based approach was also being promoted under the scheme, so that small farmers in villages could come together to avail the subsidy given under the NADP in clusters of 20 hectares each. Farmers could achieve up to 50 per cent increase in yield by adopting precision farming techniques, according to S. Robert Vincent, Deputy Director of Horticulture.

Responding to the request of some farmers, Mr. Soundiah said the district administration would take steps to get subsidy for installing solar-powered fences around their fields. Farmers could come forward to avail the subsidy for purchase of refrigerated vehicles, under the National Horticulture Mission, for transporting their produce, he said.

To feed a growing population, we need increased sustainable and global efforts with precision irrigation, fertilization, mechanization and genetically modified crops that improve yields, says a report released today by Deutsche Bank in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

“We are at a crossroads in terms of our investments in agriculture and what we will need to do to feed the world population by 2050,” says David Zaks, a co-author of the report and a researcher at the Nelson Institute’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.

By 2050, world population is expected to exceed 9 billion people, up from 6.5 billion today. Already, according to the report, a gap is emerging between agricultural production and demand, and the disconnect is expected to be amplified by climate change, increasing demand for biofuels, and a growing scarcity of water.

“There will come a point in time when we will have difficulties feeding world population,” says Zaks, a graduate student whose research focuses on the patterns, trends and processes of global agriculture.

Survey of arable farmers in England show only 35% have even looked into what precision farming could do for them, according to a recent story in the UK farm magazine Farmers Weekly.

Fertilizer price rise is driving greater interest, as precision applications of typical fertilizer and lime are touted to save approximately 30%. SOYL Ltd, an independent company that provides precision farming advice and services to growers in England and Scotland, is busy promoting GPS-based soil sampling, variable-rate fertilizer application, and a wide-array of manufacturers and technology.

Isobus plug-and-play technology is the buzz-phrase around manufacturers of precision-farming kits, according to SOYL’s Simon Parrington.

“Everyone in the industry is now talking about plug and play – it’s the way forward in my view. If you’re upgrading any of your arable kit, from combines to cultivation equipment, you must talk about compatibility with dealers and reps.”

There are three areas that farmers looking into precision farming should investigate:

• Sampling. Precision-sampling fields pinpoints data that can be used to variably apply fertiliser. SOYL has has already precision-mapped 15% of the entire UK cropped area, giving 750,000 soil samples that provide an idea of variation nationally.
• Tackling technology. There’s a mind-bending array of manufacturers and options for kit that will apply variable rate. John Deere is the market leader with its Greenstar system, while for implements, Kverneland leads the way with more ISO-ready implements than any other manufacturer.
• Research and best practice. A recent HGCA survey shows only 35% of arable farmers have even looked into what precision farming could do for them. The HGCA. Be PRECISE project aims to bring precision farming to a wider audience and arm growers with the know-how needed to get the best out of the technology.

If you’ve heard news about potential failure of satellites in the GPS constellation by 2010…the sky is not falling and it’s not time to panic.

Is there concern? Yes. A study just released by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that the Air Force (which maintains the system) and suppliers have not lived up to their promises of replacing satellites—which have an operational life of about 7.5 years.

If new satellites are not deployed on a more timely basis, there is an increased likelihood that the overall GPS constellation could fall below the number of satellites required (24) for proper function.

What does that mean for agricultural uses? Precision Pays talked to sources at Trimble who stated that there is concern, but it will likely cause only potential degradation of the free WAAS signal.

Trimble expressed confidence in the GPS satellites, and stated they are preparing for the future by incorporating signals from other systems. Their AgGPS 442 receiver (with the new AgGPS FmX Integrated display) can receive signals from the Russian version of the US GPS, known as GLONASS. This system isn’t as developed yet as the US system–currently containing 18 satellites–but it is predicted to increase to 30 satellites by 2011, according to the Russian space agency Roscosmos. While the current 18 satellites are not enough to be an effective system by itself yet (minimum of 24 needed), adding those extra satellites can make a significant difference in uptime for anyone who can reference both the US and Russian systems with one receiver, according to Trimble.

As more countries add their own navigational systems (like the Compass system being developed by the Chinese Aerospace Industry—which Trimble is a 50-50 partner), Trimble predicts there will be a shift in thinking. It will shift from exclusively US GPS to thinking GNSS (global Navigation Satellite System), which includes GPS, GLONASS, Compass and several additional satellite constellations being developed in the EU (Galileo) and Japan (QZSS).

BREAKING NEWS…
If you are a Twitter member, the Air Force (who tweets at AFSpace) conducted a tweet forum Q&A session on this issue yesterday (May 20) and just posted a transcript this morning. Bottom line from the conversation is that the Air Force “has plans to mitigate risk and prevent a gap in coverage,” and it’s very unlikely that a user will notice any difference in GPS accuracy. Currently there are 30+ satellites in orbit, and they plan to launch another in August and one in early 2010. “Going below 24 (satellites) won’t happen,” stated Col. Dave Buckman, AFSPC command lead for Position, Navigation and Timing.

What could happen if the GPS falls below the needed 24 satellites? Check out this piece by GPS World magazine.

If you like to track what company’s technology is used where, GPS World offers an interesting take on the OEM market for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) business.

Industry consultant Rob Lorimer writes about the future of three competing OEM business models. 

One. The first model posits that core OEM GNSS technology (at board or chip level) is designed in-house and released to market-focused internal divisions and JV’s at undisclosed transfer pricing. The same products (or variants of it) are also released via an OEM business unit for external customers. Examples of this model are Trimble (who market their professional OEM GNSS boards via Pacific Crest) and Topcon.

Two. The second model resembles the first, but the supplier and customer are slightly more at arm’s length, such as the cases of NovAtel supplying Leica (both companies belonging to the Hexagon group) and Navcom supplying Deere (Navcom now a Deere company).

Three. In contrast to the first two models, the third model is based on relationships between unrelated parties. This allows for a wide range of commercial terms and conditions covering length of contract, sole/multiple supplier status, exclusivity, and so on. Examples of existing open market arrangements include Septentrio supplying Veripos and Hemisphere GPS supplying Farmscan.

Looking at the precision agriculture side of the biz, Lorimer looks at three professional OEM GNSS suppliers working with 70% of the global machinery manufacturers.  You have Trimble‘s JV with Caterpillar and an OEM deal with CNH–supplying two of the top four machinery manufacturers. Then there’s Topcon‘s relationship with AGCO and Komatsu. And you have Navcom supplying Deere. 

To learn more details about his scenarios on how this industry may or may not shake out…read more.

Competing with neighboring farms and other US farmers has long been a stimulus to help farmers adopt tools of precision agriculture that improve efficiency.

But in our global economy, it’s always wise to track what other farmers around the globe are doing. To this end, check out how this 43-year-old Australian farmer is using precision farming tools for efficiency, as reported in a story by WAtoday.com.au.

The giant red tractor edges along steadily at 9.6 km/h — on auto steer — and the air seeder it tows behind drops seeds in freshly made furrows, a few millimetres above fertiliser that has just gone in.

The tractor drives in a straight line for the length of the paddock, 2.2 kilometres, before Mr Luehman touches a red stop sign on the screen, disengages the auto steer and negotiates a bumpy U-turn over dozens of furrows. Powerful headlights light up the long red bonnet and the flat Mallee paddock ahead. Similar headlights are doing the same turn in the paddock over the fence, while behind there is only soft moonlight. The scene is repeated in many Mallee paddocks in this district tonight, because it’s prime cropping time.

It is 7.30 on Thursday, 12½ hours after Mr Luehman arrived in “Harry’s Paddock” to start spraying weeds. He’s got another three hours of sowing before knocking off. It’s a long day but the time for sowing is ideal; the farm received up to 27 millimetres of rain in late April and he wants to capitalise on the conditions.

Five years ago he overhauled his approach to farming to become more efficient. He stopped ploughing his paddocks before sowing and moved to direct drill sowing, ripped out all the internal fences to enlarge his paddocks, sold all his livestock and changed his sowing timetable. The changes mean he has cut his tractor hours by 1200 per year, his fertiliser use by 60 tonnes and his diesel consumption.

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!

Precision technology can play a vital role in helping to feed a growing world population, which is why it was a focus at the World Food Prize symposium last week in Des Moines.

John Deere CEO Robert Lane participated in a panel conversation on “The Role of the Private Sector in Global Food Security and Development,” together with representatives from other major agribusiness companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta, and Bunge.

Lane says Deere has been in the business of bringing productivity tools to the best producers in the world for 170 years. “Precision agriculture is a huge step forward because there is now intelligent machinery that takes productivity to a much higher level,” Lane told me. “We have a limited amount of land and an even more limited amount of water and to make that work so we can double the amount of food production, precision agriculture is indispensable.”

Listen to a short comment from Mr. Lane after his presentation at the World Food Prize:

wfp-08-lane.mp3

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