Precision Pays

If you are in the market for geospatial data, check out USDA’s Geospatial Data Gateway that “provides One Stop Shopping for natural resources or environmental data at anytime, from anywhere, to anyone.”

The latest must-have product in the geospatial shop is new satellite images depicting agricultural land cover across most of the nation for the 2009 crop year from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

The images, referred to as cropland data layers (CDL), are a useful tool for monitoring crop rotation patterns, land use changes, water resources and carbon emissions.

NASS produced the CDLs using satellite images observed at 56-meter (0.775 acres per pixel) resolution and collected from the Resourcesat-1 Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS), Landsat Thematic Mapper and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The collection of images was then categorized using on-the-ground farm information including field location, crop type, land cover, elevation, tree canopy and urban infrastructure.

The images are currently available for 47 of the 48 contiguous states, all except Florida, which is still in process. Get them on either the Geospatial Data Gateway website or from the NASS Research and Development division.

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

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.

USDA crop analysts add another tool to their crop monitoring capability by approving DMCii as a remote sensing solutions provider.

DMCii was invited to supply satellite imagery to the Office of Global Analysis, USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service (OGA USDA FAS) because it provides a unique combination of technical advantages for agricultural monitoring. Firstly, its satellites provide 22m and 32m Ground Sample Distance (GSD) multi-spectral imagery with a large 650km swath width that is capable of monitoring large areas rapidly. Secondly, the company is able to acquire daily images of a given location by coordinating the multi-satellite DMC constellation. Finally, multispectral image data is ideal for monitoring crop growth and is delivered in a highly calibrated Landsat-compatible format for immediate use in crop monitoring applications. DMC data has long been in regular use by precision agriculture services in Europe, where the speed of acquisition, accuracy and very large image size are exactly what is needed for successful monitoring of critical crop growth stages across entire countries.

Bob Tetrault, USDA Satellite Imagery Archive Manager, commented, “The use of DMC satellite data allows the crop analysts to receive broad area, multi-temporal monitoring coverage which is critical in our operational global food security analysis.”

Dave Hodgson, Managing Director DMCii, added, “Our multi-satellite imaging service is ideal for frequent coverage and crop monitoring as the data is collected as large images and delivered in a highly calibrated Landsat-compatible format so applications don’t need to be reinvented.”

DMCii delivers highly calibrated ortho-rectified imagery that can be imported directly into GIS applications. It has delivered 32metre GSD multispectral imagery since the first DMC satellite launched in 2002. The recent launch of two new 22metre GSD satellites, UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 has greatly increased the imaging capacity of the constellation and has also doubled the number of image pixels per hectare to boost the effectiveness of the system for monitoring agriculture.

By coordinating the constellation of satellites, DMCii covers vast areas within a very short space of time so that data shows the state of vegetation for a very specific period. For example, DMCii coordinated the imaging of 38 countries in Europe within tight time windows specified by each country. DMCii will provide a rapid delivery of data to OGA USDA FAS so that it can be used for rapid decision making during growth seasons.

Cross compatibility is another important consideration when using different satellite imagery. The multi-spectral imagers used on the DMC satellites provide exactly the same spectral bands as the Landsat bands 2, 3 and 4 (R, G, NIR). They are also specially designed to provide highly calibrated imagery, with negligible differences in radiometry between DMC satellites so that data can be combined seamlessly. The large size of DMC images saves considerable time and expense for end users, because they cover huge areas and reduce the need to process large numbers of datasets.

Whether you’re a novice at collecting harvest data or an old pro who could wallpaper his office with yield maps and more—you understand that more data layers beyond yield are necessary to add management decision value.

Yield by hybrid by soil type...

I talked to Bruce West this week, who helps growers adopt just about every precision farming solution imaginable through his independent company West Enterprises in Geneseo, Ill. Bruce, who was finishing a yield monitor install for a grower who was going to collect his first yield data, works with a wide variety of customers. “I help customers grow their precision technology capabilities at the speed they desire—which ranges from this basic first installation I’m doing today, to the other extreme of helping a customer develop variable rate applications of seed, nitrogen and starter in one pass at planting, with all rates being independent of the other,” he says.

When we discussed how growers are managing their data being collecting right now at harvest, he says there are basically two groups of growers. “There are cutting edge guys who want to learn to do it all themselves, and then there is the larger group who want someone else to manage their data—and I work with both groups.”

Finding Solutions. For growers looking into software to help manage data, Bruce says a lot of growers are not sure where to start. “What we need to know from growers usually starts from the bigger picture of what agronomic principles they want to accomplish. Is it fertility based on soil types or management zones? Is it plant populations based on soil types or fertility levels? And we discuss their technology feelings as well—toward auto steer, planter row and spray boom shutoff and more. The great thing about Ag Leader is that it has the products—from a software and hardware perspective—that can do basically anything and everything.”

Value of Training. Bruce usually holds his software training classes in January for customers. “We conduct very informal sessions, because growers often find great value in learning how other growers are using the software, addressing issues, learning specific tasks. They truly come away from these meetings with a greater understanding of just how powerful this Ag Leader SMS software really is, when it comes to managing many layers of data and helping them make intelligent management decisions.”

If you’d like to talk to Bruce, you’ll find West Enterprises (309-944-5736) listed as a Master Service Dealer for Ag Leader Technology—along with other professional precision farming sources from more than 20 states.

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.

With the advent of quality mobile and desktop software, as well as rugged mobile devices with GPS capabilities, precision soil sampling has greatly improved.

SMS Mobile makes it easier than ever to include your field scouting data into your overall precision farming practices. SMS Mobile integrates seamlessly with your SMS desktop software so you can easily add soil sampling, crop scouting and other data.

I talked this week to George Ropp, a retired county extension agent turned soil fertility consultant in northwest Ohio, who has a lot of experience with such technology. His use spans way back to the early days of mapping software, using AgLink from Applications Mapping. “Once that company was sold, I had to find new software—so I did a lot of searching and settled with Ag Leader,” he says. “I was pessimistic at first, wondering if this company that was more know for its yield data technology could develop good software for fertility. Well, it turned out they had exactly what I needed.”

Ropp consults with a core group of farmers near Van Wert, Ohio—helping them with grid or management zone soil sampling, and fertility recommendations. “I do all the grid work, the fertility recommendations as well as write the prescription programs, all using the SMS software. I’m such a believer in this technology that I became a dealer, and have since sold probably 50 SMS software programs and 20 SMS Mobile Field PCs, because growers really like the software’s capability and ease of use,” he adds.

To take soil samples is the same grid locations, Ropp downloads the map of the sites into the mobile PC. “The Ag Leader SMS software and handheld computer guides me easily between sample locations, which farmers really like. And if I’m doing a new field, it’s simple to create a new project on the fly right in the field.”

Ropp says he’s beginning to sell more Field PCs to farmers who want to collect their own soil samples. “Growers can save about $5 to $6 per acre by taking their own soil samples, and this technology makes that process real easy to do,” he adds. “And once they get one of these mobile units, they start using them for numerous other tasks, such as field tiling and crop scouting.”

The bottom line is about saving input costs—making precision pay—and Ropp is truly helping growers find efficiencies by managing their data.

For more information on precision soil sampling, check out these links:

Soil Sampling for Precision Agriculture

Developing Zone Sampling Maps

Management Zones Soil Sampling: A Better Alternative To Grid and Soil Type Sampling?

Take a Good Soil Sample to Help Make Good Decisions

Precision agriculture is more than just right source, right rate, right time and right place. It’s also about responsible conservation measures to help reduce nutrient and soil loss.

It’s anyones guess if the EPA will try to regulate farm field runoff. But irregardless of that, there are good programs in place now to help farmers pay for sound conservation practices that help reduce potential runoff.

The latest such initiative announced recently by the USDA-NRCS is a 12-state voluntary, incentive-based program to improve water quality in the Mississippi River Basin — heartily endorsed by the American Society of Agronomy (ASA).

“Clean water and profitable crop production are possible with deployment of crop production practices that have been developed by ASA members. The initiative will enable growers to put conservation practices into place on more acres. Our Certified Crop Advisers look forward to being able to work with producers to put the most appropriate practices into place for each field. Cleaner water and more sustainable production programs will result from this initiative,” says ASA President Mark Alley, Virginia Tech.

The USDA’s Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative provides a $320 million investment over four years to support programs in 12 states: Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Wisconsin to help farmers voluntarily implement conservation practices which avoid, control, and trap nutrient runoff, improve wildlife habitat, and maintain agricultural productivity.

According to Alley, agricultural researchers are committed to developing sustainable conservation practices to decrease soil erosion and nutrient runoff. ASA’s Certified Crop Advisers are uniquely qualified to provide nutrient management recommendations to farmers.

The goal of the USDA initiative is to target resources in those watersheds that could have the largest impact on improving water quality in the basin and the Gulf of Mexico. The program will be implemented by USDA-NRCS using funding from the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative and other Farm Bill Conservation Title programs.

The causes of and solutions to the Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxia zone/dead zone in the Mississippi River basin will be discussed at the ASA Annual Meeting, Nov. 1-5 in Pittsburgh. Events include a presentation by Clifford Snyder, International Plant Nutrition Institute on Nov. 2, and a lecture by Duke University’s Curtis Richardson on Nov. 3. For more information on these lectures or other presentations about hypoxia, please visit www.acsmeetings.org or call 608-268-4948 or email suttech@agronomy.org

For information about the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative, please visit: www.nrcs.usda.gov.

Check out this step-by-step guide to learn how this program works, and how you can implement it on your farm.

Designing field terraces will soon become easier thanks to a new Internet-based terrace design tool under development at the University of Missouri.

Allen Thompson, Associate Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, says his computer-assisted tool can upload GPS-based topographical data to facilitate design and installation on complex fields.

Another benefit, aside from cutting the terrace development process in half, is the ability to develop several designs to compare costs, conservation effectiveness and farmability based on boundaries, row spacing, equipment size, water flow and other considerations.

More details are in the September issue of Resources magazine, compiled and published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.

One important item on your list of daily chores should be to help educate our customer, the consumer. To that end, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has a site called Corn Farmers Coalition. Not only does it highlight growers using precision agriculture tools that help reduce environmental impact (see “Farmer Innovations” tab), it also features excellent corn facts.

It was designed to help educate policy-makers in Washington D.C.

Check it out, and pass it on!