Precision Focus: Put Technology to Work
June 22, 2011 
- The Seward family of Louise, MS, treat their farming operation as if it were a factory.
- Family makes the most of variable rate spraying and field mapping.
The Seward family operates one of the largest and most prosperous agribusinesses in the southern Mississippi Delta. The term “agribusiness” is often twisted into negative connotations when it comes to farming, but it’s a term that Darrington Seward, along with his father Byron, feel is befitting their approach to managing the operation.
“We are an agribusiness,” he asserts. “Considering the large volume of money it takes to farm, and risks we face every year, that’s how you need to approach it. Think about the input costs, the seed costs – we have $4 million tied up in harvesting equipment that we use two months out of the year. There’s a lot riding on that investment, so we are committed to acting like manufacturers, where the field is really like a factory floor. Everything needs to run like clockwork, and work like it does in manufacturing.”
The father and son pair along with partner Scott Harris run two planting companies covering some 18,000 acres of cotton and grain crops near Louise, MS, and have worked to establish an operation that is not only standing on firm ground today, but is poised for future growth should opportunities to acquire more land come along.
To build their efficient crop manufacturing “factory,” technology evaluation and adoption has been a critical component to reaching their goals. The technology and practices they’ve adopted have served to improve agronomic practices, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.
Of course, people are still the key to any successful business, and the Seward operation is no exception. The business features three managers, two assistant managers, a full-time bookkeeper, an inventory manager and two “all-purpose” laborers who provide general support to the day-to-day activities. They also employ 17 equipment operators and a mechanic.
The Factory Floor
Through years of testing, trial, error and success, the Sewards have a well-established stable of technology and agronomic practices they rely on to produce the crop efficiently from planting to harvest. They’ve been doing variable rate fertilizer for nearly two decades, beginning with flagging different sections of field to manually apply a variable rate application, and evolving into fully geo-referenced fields running soil sample based prescriptions. Regarding equipment guidance, the Seward’s went from row markers ten years ago and transitioned through basic guidance into using real-time kinematic (RTK)-level GPS service they use today.
The Seward operation used to own its own RTK base stations, but a couple of years ago it signed on to a network run by the local John Deere dealer. “We had posts set up at ground level and on top of grain bins, but over the course of several years even if the posts settle just a little bit it throws it off,” says Seward . “About the time we started re-surveying our posts, our dealer set up a network and we went with it. We get good coverage out of it – he has three different base stations we can use depending on what farm we are on and it’s worked well.”
All of Seward’s fields are defined by GPS boundary. “These boundaries are stored with our seed and chemical retailer, Jimmy Sanders Inc., inside its web based software called OptiGro. I can make any form of map out of OptiGro, save it, and e-mail it to my managers. They in turn are able to store these maps of all our farms digitally in a single phone, which is a lot less for them to keep up with. Data is centralized in a single and compact point.”
On the planting side, it has generally been about using GPS to plant straighter rows more efficiently. But Seward is participating in a study with Tom Barber and Terry Griffin from the University of Arkansas to test the benefits of varying seed rate in certain soils.
“It’s a continuation of studies that UA has conducted in Arkansas,” says Darrington Seward. “The principle driving this research is that heavier soils require a slightly higher seeding rate to establish a solid stand of cotton than sandier soils. We are using soils featuring diverse clay content to create variable rate herbicide prescriptions in combating resistant weeds this growing season. Cotton on heavier soils can withstand high rates of residual herbicides than cotton on lighter soils.”
In season, the Sewards still rely on “boots on the ground” scouting to keep tabs on insect and weed issues, but imagery has proven highly beneficial as a management tool for taking the established crop to harvest with PGRs and defoliants. A key partner, Jimmy Sanders, Inc., coordinates the imagery service.
“Sanders provides us with someone that does imagery,” explains Seward. “Because it is not nearly as prevalent as it was back in 2003-04 when cotton took such a hit, it helps that they can find someone they can send out to collect the imagery.”
Using the images, which measure Normalized Differential Vegetative Index, managers can identify zones both for PGR and defoliant use and set up variable rate application prescriptions, helping to ensure and evenly maturing and more efficiently harvested crop by working toward maximum crop consistency.
To go with its fleet of ground application rigs, which include a Deere 4830, an AGCO RoGator and a GVM Prowler, Seward owns an AirTractor 802 equipped with Hemisphere GPS equipment to allow for variable rate application of any nutrient in liquid or dry form as well as other inputs as needed.
Communication and Control
One challenge to the idea of the “field as factory” is the daunting challenge of monitoring, analyzing, and improving the operation of field equipment. With only cell phone or radio contact to an applicator in the field, the rig driver has largely been on his own to ensure that work is done accurately and efficiently.
Now, new and emerging wireless communication technology, software and Internet-based tools are helping to bridge that management gap, and the Sewards are already successfully using it to more actively manage the farm. This season, Darrington will be able to wirelessly access the internet from the laptop in his pickup truck, pull up a connectivity tool and see exactly what the operators of his equipment are seeing in real time.
How this happens takes a bit of work — because of the mix of equipment and the lack of compatibility across colors of equipment, Seward has relied on supplier partners to help make this capability a reality. Jimmy Sanders has been an important partner on this front with its OptiGro software program. Also key to the mix is AgJunction, the software division of GVM and Dakota Fluid Power.
In addition to providing a window on the operator’s machine, the software also collects a wide range of information about the machine’s operation. Along with logistical information such as where the machine has travelled that day and what paths it took to get there, it records a comprehensive package of engine data that helps to track factors such as engine maintenance and fuel consumption.
While the systems work now, Darrington would like to see compatibility improve so this sort of high-level management and tracking capability could be made much simpler and straightforward so the operation could gain more efficiency benefit. He’s also hopeful that the new BlackBerry Playbook might be the appliance through which a dashboard of these logistics and monitoring tools could be made available to managers.
“It is our plan to utilize a tablet like the Blackberry PlayBook since we’re going all Blackberry,” says Seward. “This will allow the phone’s data connection to be routed through to the tablet and provide a larger work space, especially when it comes to viewing some of these web-based platforms.”
Finally, the in-cab computers are providing useful data for ongoing efficiency improvement, notes Seward. “We have the ability to record the application of inputs such as seed, fertilizer, and chemicals by creating ‘as-applied’ maps with the controllers that are required for precision ag and variable rate,” he says. “These maps help provide ‘measurement’ so we can more effectively manage our operation; a form of digital ‘quality control.’ We hope in the future through telemetry to be able to receive these maps from the field in almost real time, giving us the ability to be able to catch any mistakes almost as they happen.”
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