Precision Pays

Special coverage of two recent Precision Ag Expo days, in Casselton and Dickenson, N. Dak., has been documented by Farm & Ranch Guide–and the webpage includes educational videos of numerous presentations. Both field days were hosted by North Dakota State University Extension Service.

You can learn about site specific hardware, history of GPS, GPS system choices, accuracy of GPS, LIDAR technology and drainage, satellite imagery, precision ag adoption in ND, and much more.

Check it out!!

The Alabama Precision Agriculture Team is sponsoring and participating in the International Conference on Precision Agriculture to be held July 18-21, 2010 in Denver Colorado.

Team members will present on various topics including Profitability of RTK and Its Influence on Peanut Production, Adoption and Use of Precision Agriculture Technologies and Proper Implementation of Precision Agricultural Technologies for Conducting On-farm Research. In addition the Alabama Precision Agriculture Program will sponsor an exhibit at the conference featuring current projects and outreach efforts of the program.

For further information on presentations provided by team members click on the individual titles below. Visit the Alabama Precision Ag Website at www.AlabamaPrecisionAgOnline.com for current precision ag information and updates.

A Case Study for Variable-Rate Seeding of Corn and Cotton in the Tennessee Valley of Alabama

Adoption and Use of Precision Agriculture Technologies by Practitioners

Application Rate Stability When Implementing Automatic Section Control Technology on Agricultural Sprayers

Determination of Crop Injury From Aerial Application of Glyphosate Using Vegetation Indices and Geostatistics

Economic Analysis of Auto-Swath Control for Alabama Crop Production

Precision Agriculture Education: Using Social Media

Profitability of RTK and Its Influence on Peanut Production

Proper Implementation of Precision Agricultural Technologies for Conducting Field-Scale Research

Tip Flow Uniformity When Using Different Automatic Section Control Technologies During Field Operations

Variable Rate Application of Nematicides on Cotton Fields: A Promising Site-Specific Management Strategy

UC Davis has prepared a great all-day workshop on Site-Specific Management to help increase widespread adoption of this valuable tool. It will be held July 14 in the UC Davis conference center (the day before Weed Day). Here’s a look at the program:

Workshop Goal: Present and discuss SSM concepts and applied research in order to provide the audience with a comprehensive understanding of how to identify and manage within-field variability to improve crop management.

Target Audience: Soils and crop management professionals, including UCCE Farm Advisors and Specialists, Pest Control Advisors, Certified Crop Advisers, Growers and others having an interest in improving their knowledge of SSM techniques.

Session I (8:30 AM to Noon) - Theory of SSM: Overview of concepts and techniques used to identify and manage within-field variability, Jose P. Molin, Biosystems Engineering, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Integrating geospatial technology with agronomic practices, GPS/GIS overview, methods for detecting soil and crop variability, use of sensors and yield monitors, creation of maps and variable rate input recommendations.

Noon to 1:00 PM – Lunch break

Session II (1:00 to 5:00 PM) - Applied research findings and examples illustrating the practical benefits of this technology

• Use of Precision Agriculture in the West - Rob Mikkelsen, Director, Western North America IPNI

• Site-specific methods for reclaiming salt-affected soil using electrical conductivity; and Use of Remote sensing on cotton fields for irrigation management, planning defoliation and its relationship with cotton growth and yield. Richard E. Plant, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis

• Site-specific nutrient management in California orchards – identifying almond yield and fertility variability and its implication on fertility management. Patrick Brown, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis

3:00 to 3:15 PM – Break

• Site-specific herbicide applications based on weed maps provide effective control. Tom Lanini, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis

• Site-specific management at Bowles Farming Company – Cannon Michael, Vice President Bowles Farming Company

• Knowledge Acquired, Intelligence Applied: Tomorrow’s Technology for Today’s Crops – Jason Ellsworth, Regional Technology Specialist, Wilbur-Ellis Company

5:00 PM – Adjourn

Please contact Andre Biscaro for details: asbiscaro@ucdavis.edu  (661) 974-8825

Click here to register: http://ucanr.org/sites/paica/Registration/

Click here for flier: http://ucanr.org/sites/paica/files/13632.pdf

ARS researchers have developed a way to make more precise agricultural maps of fields from data generated by LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors to help farmers target more of their resources to the highest-yielding parts of their fields. Graphic courtesy of James M. McKinion, ARS.

Using an airplane with LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors is helping USDA-ARS researchers build better management zone maps that can accurately predict yields based on topography.

With the maps fed into computerized, variable-rate fertilizer applicators, precision farmers can divert more of their costly fertilizer to the highest-yielding zones and the least to the lowest-yielding zones. They can also use the zone maps to make other decisions, such as planting more drought-tolerant varieties in low-yield zones, or sowing less seed.

Five years of comparisons between these maps and actual “on-the-go” yield monitoring for cotton and corn on a farm in Mississippi showed that accurate yield predictions can be made based on topography.

Researchers contracted to have a plane with LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors fly over the 1,000 rolling acres of the farm. LIDAR is a form of radar that can map elevations digitally, showing slopes and sun exposures, by bouncing laser light off the landscape.

By blending yield results with the maps, the scientists divided fields into high-, medium-, and low-yield zones.

One advantage of LIDAR landscape mapping is that it only has to be done once.

LIDAR topographic mapping is spreading from state to state. Louisiana, for example, has financed LIDAR mapping of the entire state.

Otherwise, it is expensive for an individual farmer to pay for LIDAR mapping. So, McKinion is also looking for alternative topographic mapping techniques.

James McKinion, an electronics engineer at the ARS Genetics and Precision Agriculture Research Unit at Mississippi State, Miss., did the study with entomologist Jeff Willers and geneticist Johnie Jenkins at the ARS unit in Mississippi. This research was published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security.

I have not met a grower involved in precision agriculture that doesn’t love, no crave, more information on the subject. To this end, check out the very good Precision Ag Blog, compiled and written by various extension pros in the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

Recent blog posts talk about variable rate (VR) seeding, VR calibration, data management, data collection with cellular modems, the value of on-the-go nitrogen sensors, firmware upgrades and much more.

The blog site also categorizes posts into topics to help you sort for exactly the info you seek.

If you’re looking to experiment with corn planting populations yet this spring, check out a very good paper on plant population compiled by South Dakota State University researchers Gregg Carlson, Paul Gaspar and David Clay.

Many agronomists and producers conduct experiments that test the impact of rates of fertilizer, population, or pesticide on yield. To analyze this data we need to conduct a yield response analysis. Agronomists and or producers that understand yield response and how to use yield response to determine the point of optimum economic return will be able to make better management decisions. The point of optimum economic return is determined by:
1. Conducting a yield response experiment
2. Converting the yield response data to a functional relationship,
outputcorn yield = f(input the plant population)
3. Using calculus to determine where the change in the value of the input equals the change in the value of the output.
In site-specific farming, scientists have found that yield response relationships may change spatially and temporally.

To learn more, read the paper “Using Yield Response Analysis to Calculate an Optimum Plant Population“.

During the recent Galileo Appreciation Days held in Brussels, the high degree of accuracy and precision that’s possible with EGNOS, Galileo and other GNSS technologies were celebrated, as reported by the European GNSS Supervisory Authority.

“EGNOS is already a success story in the agricultural sector,” said Aguilera. “It already has 50% market share, which is expected to reach 70% by 2010. The ultimate result will be increasing yields, conservation of resources and materials, and lower costs. The benefits are there, the EGNOS signal is already being exploited by farmers, and it is available free of charge.”

The Galileo Application Days ‘High Precision’ session highlighted a number of GNSS applications already being used in the agriculture sector.

Michael Quinckhardt of Claas Agrosystems outlined how his company is exploiting advanced GNSS-based applications. “Precision farming includes automatic steering for tractors and monitoring of all our machines,” he explained. “We can help farmers to know where their machines are and what they are doing at any given moment.”

Tracking and yield analysis can also help to optimise the use of fertilisers. “One can understand that different fields across a wide area will differ in terms of various qualities and in their abilities to support crops,” said Quinckhardt, “But the fact is there is a degree of variability in terms of soil quality even within a single field.”

By recording information from harvesters about what the soil is producing from one patch to the next within a field, and matching that information with precise GNSS-based location information, farmers can pinpoint very accurately where they need to apply more fertiliser and where they can save money by applying less.

Rob Kiernan of Leica Geosystems discussed the three phases of action in agriculture: planting, crop protection and harvest. “Maximising production in agriculture is all about doing the right thing at the right time in the right place,” he said. “Systems like Galileo and EGNOS tell us about place with a high degree of accuracy throughout the production cycle, and this is revolutionising the way we work.”

For more on this story…

Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) Director of Research Tracy Blackmer was one of the presenters for the PrecisonAg Learning Center at the 2010 Commodity Classic trade show. Tracy is head of ISA’s On-Farm Network®, which focuses on precision agriculture tools and technology to collect information that can increase growers’ profits from crop production and I interviewed him at Classic for this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology.

The Iowa Soybean Association started this project nine years ago to study both the environmental and economic aspects of farming practices and to help growers find out what works best for them on their operation. Since that time they have expanded into nine other states. “We’re trying to say that growers can use a lot of the precision ag technologies to actually identify which products or practices are working better,” Tracy says. “In Iowa alone we had over 450 replicated trials.”

Listen to the podcast in the player below to find out more about the ISA On-Farm Network®. You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

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Clouds can often interfere with aerial imagery from satellites or high level aircraft, while wet conditions on the ground can make it difficult to use ground based sensors. Research being done in Australia combines ground type sensors with low flying aircraft to deal with those situations.

For this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we go to the Precision Agriculture Research Group (PARG) at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia where they are working on Ultra Low Level Airborne (ULLA) sensing. I spoke with group leader David Lamb about the system and its potential for helping growers who need timely aerial imaging information in challenging weather conditions and potentially saving them both time and money in the process.

Subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

Listen to or download the podcast here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Yesterday, I provided my list of the “Best of Precision Pays 2009″ for  January through June. Today’s list of stories runs from July through December. And tomorrow, look for the top product-related stories of the year.

I hope you continue to find value in the information provided. And, as always, we appreciate any and all comments from our readers.

Enjoy. And have a fun, safe and happy New Year’s Eve tonight.

July
Planter and Sprayer Controls Make Precision Farming Pay
InfoAg Speaker Promotes Fertilizer BMP Needs
Virtual Weather Technology Helps Agronomic Decisions
InfoAg Talk: Soil Management Zones Increase N Efficiency
InfoAg Talk: Understanding Nutrient Variability

August
Precision Farmers Cut Pesticide Use With Seed
Add Precision Farming Promotion To Your Chore List
Yield Monitors: Extreme Value in Precision Farming

September
Precision Farming: How To Grow Your Technology
Free Satellite Images Help Spot Field Problems
Variable Rate Precision Farming – The Next Big Thing
Precision Farming And Water Quality Efforts

October
The Power Of Harvest Data
Researchers Using GPS To Cut Erosion With Waterways
Precision Soil Sampling Made Easier
Harvest Data That Keeps On Giving
Talk Precision Farming With Your Seed Dealer
Can Precision Farming Cure World Hunger
GPS Accuracy – How Accurate Is Accurate

November
Think About Saving Seed Input Dollars In 2010

December
Precision Farming Adoption And Payback
Precision Agriculture Starts At The Soil Level
Precision Farming 2009 – What We Learned
Technology Helps Farmers Plant And Fertilize More Precisely

Precision guidance, autopilot and other precision agriculture technologies can give farmers yield advantages and input savings when implemented into certain cropping systems, said a Purdue University agronomist.

“Automatic guidance gives producers precision farming capabilities throughout the growing season by allowing them to map tillage operations and crop planting, spraying and harvest, and can help tailor fertilizer and chemical applications to avoid waste,” said Tony Vyn.

The most precise form of automatic guidance, real time kinematic, or RTK, is especially helpful to guide planting in strip-till corn systems. RTK guidance can help achieve precisely parallel strip-till passes in the fall or spring. The same guidance system can ensure the corn planter is centered on the strip-tilled berms, even if the planter is wider than the strip-till unit itself, and even if the berm positions are difficult to see in spring. Planting in the center of the berms helps achieve higher yields, especially in high-residue situations like corn after corn, Vyn said.

“When we’re talking about preplant nitrogen application in the form of urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) in either no-till or strip-till systems, precision guidance allows producers to plant corn either directly on top of the fertilized bands of the soil or at a precise distance away to reduce the risk of corn or seedling injury when higher UAN rates are applied,” Vyn said. “When preplant UAN exceeds 50 pounds per acre, it is safer to plant corn at least 4 to 5 inches to the side. This is another area where automatic guidance gives an advantage because it offers precisely parallel planting abilities.”

But automatic guidance isn’t the only precision agriculture technology that can increase producer efficiency. Take, for example, yield monitors, automatic planter row shut-off and automatic sprayer boom control.

Data from yield monitors can prove a need for tiling and show how it will pay off in specific fields. Both automatic planter row shut-off and sprayer boom control prevent overlap, and thus help producers improve the bottom line by decreasing waste.

The most important aspects of the advanced guidance and other precision technologies are more than just cost alone.

“Sometimes with precision technology, the challenge is for farmers to stay sufficiently alert in the tractor or the combine,” Vyn said. “Although automatic guidance helps farmers to work longer days, and although the improved ability to monitor implement functions helps farmers make fewer mistakes, the guidance technology is no substitute for doing all field operations with sound agronomy.”

When choosing an automatic guidance system, or any other precision technologies, there are a few tips Vyn said producers should keep in mind:

* Assess the farming operation before investing in precision agriculture tools. Decide what level of precision is needed for each field operation, both within a season and from year to year, and what financial benefits the technologies will bring to a specific cropping system.

• Make sure the system purchased has upgrade capability, as new technologies continue to come into the market.
• Less expensive systems won’t save producers as much as the higher quality guidance and monitoring systems.
• Review the compatibility of the precision technologies with the current equipment and planned replacement equipment.
• Look for a dealer with experienced precision farming technicians who can assist with any questions or issues producers may have.

All agricultural technology enthusiasts are invited to attend the 10th Annual Nebraska Agricultural Technologies Association Conference (NEATA), January 27-28, 2010 at the Midtown Holiday Inn, Grand Island, NE.

Pre-conference programs will focus on Optimizing Pivot Irrigation Management (9:00 to 4:00) and Social Media Applications in Agriculture (1:00 – 4:00) will be offered the afternoon of January 27.

The conference opens Wednesday evening with Dr. Raj Khoslo, Precision Agriculture Specialists, Colorado State University, discussing Precision Nutrient Management on Site-specific Management Zones, followed by Bill Kranz, Irrigation Specialist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln addressing Monitoring Irrigation Water Application with Computerized Controllers.

Thursday morning opens with international guest and precision agriculture expert, Sam Tengrove, Australian farmer, sharing Adoption of Precision Agriculture by Australian Grain Growers. Additional general sessions offered include Broadband: Who Needs It?, Mapping Evapotranspiration with High Resolution and Internalized Calibration (METRIC), and Global Perspectives of Site-specific Weed Management.

Twelve concurrent sessions addressing a variety of emerging agricultural technology topics will also be offered on Thursday. The concurrent sessions in the Ambassador room will be hands-on workshops. See the conference brochure.

Up to 8 CCA credits are available for conference participants with an additional 6 CCA credits available to those who attend the Optimizing Pivot Irrigation Management pre-conference workshop.

More information is available at http://neata.org.

Case IH and Ritchie Implement teamed up with University of Wisconsin-Platteville (UWP) to benefit agricultural students and their studies of precision agriculture.

“Access to new Case IH agriculture equipment will be a tremendous asset to Pioneer Farm – the precision farming solutions will greatly increase the productivity of our operations,” says Phil Wyse, director of Pioneer Farm. “But more so than that, this partnership advances the mission of Pioneer Farm – to enhance the agricultural education experience for students on campus and for agriculturists throughout the surrounding communities. That’s what we’re really excited about.”

Pioneer Farm, the university’s 430-acre working farm, boasts some of the best soil in southwest Wisconsin. The gently rolling fields, managed with conservation in mind, rotate between corn, oats and alfalfa, and those crops help support the farm’s dairy, beef and swine enterprises. A combination of new Case IH tractors, hay tools, skid steers, tillage implements, a planter and a combine, delivered in early 2010 and each year thereafter, will be used in the farm’s day-to-day operations. The equipment allows students and farm visitors to see the productivity-enhancing benefits of Case IH equipment in real-world applications.

“With the support of Ritchie’s and Case IH, the UWP Pioneer Farm is able to make use of cutting-edge farming technology,” Wyse adds. “We applaud Ritchie Implement and Case IH for this valuable partnership.”

“Students and university researchers will get to see, run, test and learn all about the newest innovations in production agriculture first-hand,” explains Ron Ritchie, president of Ritchie Implement Inc., a Case IH dealer with locations in Barneveld, Cobb and Darlington, Wis. “Our goal is not only to broaden ag students’ educational experience and better prepare them for their farming careers, but also to enhance educational opportunities for active producers locally, regionally and across the state. We’re excited to be part of that important effort.”

As part of the agreement, Case IH product specialists will be available to support classroom instruction and participate in student clinics and shared community activities such as University Field Days with hands-on field demonstrations.

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.

It’s a proven fact that grass waterways and stream buffer strips reduce erosion and runoff. Current research at the University of Kentucky strives to develop reliable prediction models for accurate placement of these grassy strips in a field using GPS.

Tom Mueller, associate professor in the University of Kentucky (UK), College of Agriculture, guided Adam Pike, UK graduate student, on a project that examined whether reliable prediction models could be created to identify eroded waterways from digital terrain information such as landscape curvature and estimates of water flow from upslope areas.

“The terrain attributes were calculated from elevation data obtained with survey-grade GPS measurements collected on a farm in the Outer Bluegrass Region of Kentucky,” Mueller explains.

Results from the study are published in the September-October issue of Agronomy Journal. This work supported by a special grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The authors developed equations that accurately identified the potential locations of erosion-prone areas. They found that simple regression methods could be used to fit these equations as well as more complex non-linear neural-network procedures. The equations were used to map areas in fields where erosion was predicted. These areas corresponded very well with actual field observations of erosion. This work was confirmed with a leave-one-field-out validation procedure.

Research showed these maps could help conservation planners and farmers identify where erosion from concentrated flow is likely to occur, but not necessarily the exact shapes of these features. Field site-assessments would still likely be required for verification and to accurately delineate the boundaries of erosion-prone areas.

Mueller stated, “while this study is promising, more work is needed to determine whether these techniques can also be used with USGS digital elevation grids and from elevation data obtained with light detecting and ranging (LIDAR) data. Further, we need to evaluate whether models can be developed to predict across larger geographic areas.”

Mueller is conducting follow-up research to evaluate quality of erosion predictions created with 10-m USGS data sets and evaluating the performance of these models on fields in western Kentucky. He hopes to present the results of some of this work at the 2009 Annual American Society of Agronomy Meetings.

http://agron.scijournals.org/content/vol101/issue5/#SOIL_QUALITY__FERTILITY