A Strong Foundation
January 15, 2010 The mention of precision agriculture probably brings to mind complex charts and confusing technology to most growers who haven’t already taken the plunge into precision practices. Modern technology has advanced to the point where satellites can control where and what our machinery is doing from outer space.
But precision practices have their roots in far more basic practices. In the 1930s, aerial photographers documented the first soil surveys from above, giving farmers a more accurate picture of how their operations worked.
The idea back then was that better understanding of the soil would lead to better use of the soil. Today, that idea still holds true. While precision practices may seem confusing and expensive at first glance, experts from across the Belt agree that they ultimately provide a positive return for those growers willing to take that first step.
Often times, the foundation to an effective precision program begins with soil mapping and yield monitors. These two practices can unlock worlds of useful information for a grower. In this issue, we’ll take a closer look at these two basic practices, and how they can impact your bottom line.
As the Director of Agriculture Research at Cotton Incorporated, Dr. Ed Barnes spends much of his time focused on the best and latest precision practices. From GPS guidance systems to “smart” sprayers that measure plants as they are carried throughout the field, Barnes has seen it all.
Still, he says, there’s no substitute for a solid foundation.
“I like the term ‘building blocks’ when we’re talking about soil mapping and yield monitoring,” Barnes says. “These are things that are easier to manage. And lots of times there are people who you can contract to do some of that for you. So you don’t have to invest in some of the technology up front, but you get the experience of looking at the specs of variability on your farm before you go out and buy a bunch of variable rate controllers or invest in the software.”
Because soil variability is often directly related to the variations in cotton yield, the benefits of soil mapping are readily apparent. The knowledge gleaned from soil mapping will “be there every year,” according to Barnes.
Despite the best efforts of Cotton Incorporated and Extension experts across the Belt, yield monitoring is a practice that has been slow to catch on. According to Cotton Incorporated’s 2007 Natural Resource Survey, 73% of U.S. producers reported using some form of precision technology, but only 12% were using yield monitors.
“I’m a big fan of yield monitors for anyone doing any variable rate application. It’s the only way to see if a variable rate plan is really working out,” says Barnes.
“Seeing where the yield is and is not coming from can really help in variable rate management decisions. I know of more than one instance where a producer converted a corner of a field to pasture after realizing they lost money there every year.”
Extension experts from around the Cotton Belt have also been perplexed by the lack of interest in yield monitors from cotton growers. Randy Taylor of Oklahoma State University compares getting started with a yield monitor to the last chore you want to take up on your “to do” list. Because yield monitors will often provide information that raises questions about how growers approach a field, some growers are hesitant to begin with them in the first place. “They go ‘man I just don’t want to deal with it,’” says Taylor.
The truth, he says, is that gleaning information from yield monitoring is way less painless than growers are sometimes led to believe.
“There’s nothing magical about it, there’s no cookbook that says this is the way you’re supposed to do it. It’s just information. You know how you choose to use it determines the potential economic return from it,” says Taylor.
Although these practices have been slow to catch on in Taylor’s area in Oklahoma, he believes that they will eventually become much more widely accepted. He points to the rapid pace of innovation over the past century to a major reason why precision agriculture practices – particularly ‘information based’ practices like soil mapping and yield monitoring – are here to stay.
“The mechanization of agriculture is considered one of the top 10 achievements of the 20th century. We went from mules and oxen to satellite guided vehicles in one century. That whole mechanization process, where we took the drudgery out of farming, we used to call it ‘mechanized agriculture.’ We don’t call it that anymore, its just agriculture,” says Taylor.
“If we look at the precision agriculture technologies that are being infused right now, we call it ‘precision agriculture.’ In the future, it’s just going to be agriculture, because that’s just the way we’re moving.”
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