In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we listen in on one of the sessions at the recent International Conference on Precision Agriculture held in Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Ken Cassman with the University of Nebraska’s Center for Energy Sciences Research told the standing-room-only crowd that if you look at the past 40 years of farming and extrapolate those increases to the next 40 years, food production will still fall short, putting the world’s population … estimated to be 9.2 billion people by the year 2050 … and the world’s food supply on a crash course. He says estimates are that agriculture will have to increase production by 1.75 percent a year. Right now the numbers are closer to about a 1.3 percent increase. And Cassman says world agriculture will have to meet that increasing demand without negatively impacting the water supplies, nutrients, and wildlife of this planet.

So what’s the solution? Increased biotechnology to get more out of crops? Cassman says while biotechnology has increased yields somewhat, there’s no good, hard scientific evidence it will be able to meet the growing demands. He believes the real solution is meeting a food crop’s true genetic potential through something he calls Ecological Intensification.

It’s a fascinating conversation, and you can hear more of it in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

He makes extensive use of precision farming technology. For instance, he uses variable rate planting, determined by soil type. “Soil type reflects the water holding capacity of the soil,” he says.

“Some soils are more productive than others, and the more productive soils get the higher plant populations. In sports terms, we play defense with our less productive fields and play offense with our more productive soils.”

He also uses global positioning and auto-steering on his equipment for swath control during planting, spraying and applying fertilizer. “This cuts down on over applying and wasting money,” he says. “We strive to protect the environment and be the best stewards of the land and water that we can be.”

As a result of his success as a row crop farmer, Nichols has been selected as the 2010 Kentucky winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award.

“The goal I started with was to build an operation from scratch that could someday be viewed as one of the best, well-managed farming operations in North America,” he says. “This overarching goal is what drives me each day.”

Read the entire story.

The app offers one-touch access to all the latest news and information in the agribusiness and agricultural marketing world posted on Agwired.com, including audio, photos and video, and connections to other ZimmComm news sites. The AgWired App features a news tab drop down menu to select ZimmComm News Network feeds as well as individual news on AgWired.com by category.

ZimmComm owns and operates four web-based news sites that are now accessible from the new iPhone app: Agwired, focused on news from the world of agribusiness; Domestic Fuel, which is all about renewable energy – from ethanol and biodiesel to wind and solar; World Dairy Diary for the dairy industry; and Precision Pays, which focuses on information about precision agriculture technology.

I read a recent piece by DTN agronomist Dan Davidson, written during the recent International Conference on Precision Ag in Denver, Colo. He stated, “But what is interesting is how the use of yield monitor data, grid soil sampling and variable fertilizer application hasn’t changed much in two decades with only about 20% adoption. But the introduction of lightbar navigation (80+% adoption), assisted steering and section control really showed farmers that there were benefits from adopting the right technology.”

Sure, this is oversimplification of a lot of complex factors, but we’re also dealing with a larger percentage of farmers near, at, or beyond retirement age who, most often, seek simplicity and reduced investment. One look at the light-speed adoption of glyphosate-resistant crops is one example this simplicity model. (Although that simplicity is now resulting in greater management due to resistant weeds.)

Yes, precision farming technology is complex, and turning data into sound management practices that improve the bottom line often takes hired experts, in the same vein as why crop scouts are hired. But make no mistake, the profitability of certain technologies has improved dramatically in the past 10 years. It just takes hard work by a grower to find what can pay on a given farm.

Growers wouldn’t pay $300 for a unit of seed corn if they didn’t see the value. They just have to work harder and smarter when it comes to investing in precision agriculture technology. But that process is getting easier.

Who should attend?
- Farmer operators wishing to get more return on their precision ag dollar investment.
- Crop consultants and industry agronomists who desire to provide more accurate information and better service to their customers.
- Corporate industry and government agency personnel needing to know and understand the technology being used in today’s production agriculture.
- Precision ag instructors.

The inaugural Late Season Session is scheduled for August 31 through September 2 at the UNL Ag Research & Development Center near Mead, Neb. Curriculum includes:
• Introduction to equipment used at UNL’s Agricultural
Research and Development Center and site-specific
management capacity; introduction to case study
fields
• Entry points to GPS auto-guidance, yield monitoring
progressing to yield mapping, Google Earth, aerial
imagery, county soil survey, Web Soil Survey, recordkeeping
• GPS principles
• Yield monitoring/mapping principles; data filtering
• Variable rate technology and control systems
optimizing autosteer and swath control.
• On-the-go soil sensing
• Collection of active crop canopy sensor data
• Develop N recommendations
• Aerial and satellite imagery
• Group exercises

Winter Session is scheduled for December 2010, with date and location yet to be determined.

Learn more at http://ardc.unl.edu/precisionagpracticum/

Enrollment is limited so act soon!

Like flat screen TVs, precision ag monitors keep getting better with more features. Thanks to software improvements, you can even watch yields as they shift among hybrid locations in the field. Ag Leader recently upgraded their SMS desktop software so it can import planting data from various planter monitor brands to export as reference files to the INTEGRA display.

“The SMS software’s ability to translate data from almost any brand of planter monitor and export it into our INTEGRA display is a great tool, as it allows the varieties to show up as different colors during harvest on the display, as well as to be used for variety tracking,” says Corey Weddle, director of software solutions for Ag Leader.

Before, if two monitors were used to plant and only one of those monitors is used for harvest, you couldn’t combine the planting data from both monitors into one. “SMS Basic and SMS Advanced Version 10.0 software can handle that task,” he says. “And it’s a simple, straight forward process to export the data.”

Read more about it here: http://precisionpays.com/2010/07/watch-hybrid-and-variety-harvest-results-in-real-time/

Visit these links for more information.

SMS Software http://www.agleader.com/products/software/

INTEGRA http://www.agleader.com/products/integra/

Yield Monitoring http://www.agleader.com/products/yield-monitor/

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!!

SMS Mobile PC is the latest way to utilize SMS Mobile software. This newest SMS software product enables the support of SMS Mobile for portable PC devices, including netbooks, tablets and laptop computers; the product can be utilized on any device running a Windows operating system – XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

SMS Mobile PC offers another way for growers to collect information in the field that can flow between their mobile device and their SMS desktop software. Utilizing SMS Mobile on a netbook, tablet or laptop gives users the ability to see more information on one screen.

“SMS Mobile PC puts SMS Mobile on a larger screen so you can adjust the size of windows and their location on the screen to match the way you want to work,” says Corey Weddle, Director of Software Solutions. “The new portable PC device support allows for higher screen resolution, larger buttons, faster processing and more memory than the traditional SMS Mobile PDA version.”

SMS Mobile PC provides five field operations in which a user can record data: Boundary, Soil Sampling, Crop Scouting, Coverage Logging and General Logging. Ag Leader Technology offers industry leading customer support, and all SMS products are backed by our software-dedicated support team.

Dr. Ken Cassman with the University of Nebraska’s Center for Energy Sciences Research told the standing-room-only crowd that without negatively impacting some of the world’s most sensitive ecosystems – the rain forests, wetlands, and grassland savannahs – the current rate of production growth won’t meet the rising demand. He says a process of increasing yields and reducing agriculture’s “footprint” is necessary: a process he calls “ecological intensification (EI).” And he believes precision agriculture could play a key role in that process.

“The buffer between proper management and poor management narrows, that is, the margin for error becomes smaller in terms of what helps the crop or what hurts the crop. So your precision of management becomes the single most important factor in helping farmers achieve yields near the yield potential ceiling.”

Cassman says the goal is to achieve 80 percent of a crop’s genetic yield potential while not increasing the impact that crop has on the environment. He says while biotechnology might help get us there, there is no magic bullet. It will take a combination of new technologies and techniques to hit that potential.

And a man who shared the stage with Cassman during the opening session believes we cannot play down the importance of testing and monitoring of fields to make sure the crops are living up to their potential. Dr. William Raun with Oklahoma State University also made a pitch for funding of extension services so that testing can take place.

“Extension is obviously important to us. We cannot just do research. We’ve got to have thousands of enrich strips and ramps out there in the fields and investing in that extension so farmers can see it.” And he adds that the numbers and formulas are out there to best forecast what can happen in a field. We just need to make sure it’s measured. “Yield potential can be predicted.”

It really was a great session. Because of the length of it, I can’t post all of the audio here, but I am going to let you hear the question and answer session after Cassman’s and Raun’s presentation. You’ll also hear from Dr. Raj Khosla during this segment. You can download or listen to this session at ICPA here: Opening Session Questions and Answers

I’ve also posted the day’s pictures on the ICPA Photo Album

“For a long time growers have used our yield monitor to compare varieties at harvest. However, the field had to be harvested with the same display that planted the field to see the variety map in real time,” says New Business Development Manager, Roger Zielke. “I’m happy to say this added feature gives our customers a solution, regardless of their planting display. SMS-compatible data can be read into the software to create a reference file. That file is then loaded on to the INTEGRA display to show the variety map at harvest.”

Using SMS software to generate variety maps helps farming operations with multiple precision ag displays or mixed fleets of precision ag equipment in the operation.

“We take great pride in the number of precision ag products SMS can read and manage data from. Now we can integrate variety map data from multiple collection devices and make those maps available on the INTEGRA display to use in harvest operations,” says Corey Weddle, Director of Software Solutions. “Users with the following precision ag equipment brands can take advantage of this feature: Ag Leader, AGCO ISO-based displays, Case IH, DICKEY-john, Flexicoil, John Deere, KINZE, Mid-Tech, New Holland, Raven, RDS, Trimble and any ISO11783 display using the XML file format. That’s an extensive list; we’re excited to facilitate this data exchange among multiple brands in order to help growers get the most benefit from their precision ag equipment.”

This new feature is available in the recent INTEGRA firmware release, Version 1.5; SMS Basic or SMS Advanced Version 10.0 (released in May) is required to export hybrid/variety reference maps to the INTEGRA display. The update is available for existing INTEGRA owners to download at www.agleader.com, under “Customer Support”.

“When I used to shut the boom off, the nozzles didn’t shut off immediately,” French said, who custom sprays about 50,000 acres of rice and soybeans in northeast Arkansas. “There was still product coming out of the tips, and that’s just wasting money.”

To overcome the frustrating problem of continued spraying after the boom has been switched off, French started using TeeJet Technologies’ Flow Back valves.

“The shut off time when the nozzles actually quit spraying went from 5 to 8 seconds to about 1 second when we started using the Flow Back valves,” he said. “This reduces chemical waste tremendously and saves our customers a lot of cost. There is no doubt it saves chemical.”

Sprayers with standard valves trap pressure in the boom when they are switched off. As a result, the boom continues spraying for several seconds before completely shutting off. The technology behind Flow Back valves includes an extra passage that allows boom pressure to be dissipated immediately – this passage allows spray solution to return to the tank to relieve that pressure, and is the key to fast shut off at the boom.  The boom remains full of liquid and spraying resumes immediately when the valves are switched back on.

“Due to the rapid shut off of spray tips when the boom sections are shut off, Flow Back valves eliminate product waste and improve sprayer accuracy by reducing skips, overlaps and re-sprays,” said Pat Maney, wet products business manager with TeeJet Technologies. “Applicators can spray to the end of the row while minimizing the overlap that can occur in the end rows.” Without Flow Back valves, operators must try to compensate for shut off delays of five to 10 seconds or more, which can lead to over application or costly re-sprays.

Flow Back valves are compatible with all levels of sprayer control systems, from simple to sophisticated, and require no special wiring or plumbing. They also are an excellent companion to automatic boom section control systems. The compact, electrically-actuated Flow Back valves are available in three product platforms – 430 FB, 450 FB and 460 FB ‑ each rated for different pressures and flows.

Throughout the day, hundreds of research scientists, producers, technology company representatives, equipment manufacturers, input dealers, agronomic consultants, software developers, educators, government personnel and policymakers have been pouring into the Mile High City from 40 different countries to look back on the past 20 years of precision ag innovations and to work together on the future of maximizing the potential of the world’s farmlands.

At the opening reception tonight, I caught up with Dr. Raj Khosla, the chairperson of the 10th ICPA and a professor at Colorado State University. He told me with 300-500 participants from such a wide variety of places around the world, he expects a large part of the conversation will be on the hot topic of food security.

“Precision agriculture has been mentioned as one of the soultions in meeting food security. Populations are increasing. People’s eating habits are changing.” And to meet those increasing demands, Khosla says they have to figure out how to translate some of the precision ag techniques used in the U.S. and apply them to lesser-developed countries. He says meeting the food demands of these growing countries could literally transform those societies.

“When you’re tummy is hungry is hard to listen to anything else other than feeding itself. There’s an opportunity for precision ag to contribute to lesser developed countries, smaller field sizes by coupling the technology and the [large labor markets].” He says it is just as important to use the same amount of labor to grow the larger quantities of food so precision agriculture doesn’t end up putting those workers out of jobs.

Khosla says precision agriculture is putting the right inputs in the right place, at the right time, and in the right manner. It’s a great conversation, and download or listen to Khosla’s interview at ICPA here: Dr. Raj Khosla

And check out the ICPA Photo Album

Called SmartPath, this new ‘drive and guide’ pattern is designed for fields beyond the straight and flat, and it doesn’t require the traditional set-up using beginning and end points.

“If you have farmed contoured fields, you know there is no sequential pattern that is followed; it’s much more random. With SmartPath, once you drive the first pass, all subsequent passes are GPS-guided to follow the previous path,” says Matt Leinen, product manager with Ag Leader. “This pattern will make planter row shutoff or sprayer boom shutoff technology very effective, especially when dealing with the convergence of many point rows.”

While this type of pattern isn’t unique in the industry, Leinen says their technology is designed to follow the best path. “The challenge with this type of pattern is the convergence of numerous paths which come together that are unevenly spaced. We designed the SmartPath to select the right path.”

This pattern is available with any of Ag Leader’s manual guidance, assisted steering or automated steering products, including the INTEGRA and EDGE displays, as well as the OnTrac2 and ParaDyme steering systems.

SmartPath is joining a family of guidance patterns available with Ag Leader’s guidance and steering, including Straight AB, A+, Identical Curve, Adaptive Curve and Pivot. It is available in the following firmware releases: Version 1.5 of the INTEGRA display and Version 3.5 of the EDGE display. Updates can be downloaded from www.agleader.com, under ‘Customer Support’. http://www.agleader.com/customer-support/

Visit these links for more information.
SmartPath http://www.agleader.com/media-center/
Steering products http://www.agleader.com/products/steering/

Over 580,000 acres are in the Southern States precision agriculture program. Howard believes that this number will continue to increase. “Precision agriculture tools will help producers maximize yields and protect the environment, and that’s good for the future of agriculture.

Another component of precision agriculture is called Variable Rate Technologies (VRT). VRT involves applicators that can automatically change their application rates in response to their relative position. VRT systems are available for applying a variety of materials including granular and liquid fertilizers, pesticides, seed and irrigation water. VRT applicators consist of a controller that adjusts the substance flow rate, a positioning system, and a map which details the preferred application rates for an individual field.

VRT controllers are comparable to those used on many sprayers, spreaders and other agricultural equipment. On conventional machines, the operator controls the application rate by selecting the desired rate from the console panel in the cab. By integrating GPS and geographic information system (GIS) databases into the system, application rate changes can be made automatically as the vehicle crosses the field.

Southern States has made a substantial investment in precision agriculture equipment, Howard said. Providing information and services to the producer through precision agriculture will maximize his potential for production and will provide the most economical return.

Southern States offers precision agriculture services in 31 locations with a goal of expanding services to all major crop production areas within the next two years. Precision agriculture services offered include geo-referencing field boundaries and site-specific soil testing, electronic site specific nutrient fertility recommendations by field and electronic variable rate nutrient application maps utilized to variably apply the site-specific fertilizer or lime recommendations

Custom variable rate nutrient fertilizer and lime application with dry and liquid applicators is also available. Southern States can also develop a recommended electronic variable rate crops seeding map to be utilized by the producer to plant crops by field location.

The economic factor driving precision agriculture is the savings realized when crop inputs are applied only when needed and where needed. But another important benefit to consider is that by utilizing such site-specific nutrient management, precision agriculture also reduces excess run-off and improves the environmental sustainability of crop production.

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

Even if you are not a power user of software yourself, it’s nice to know that those suppliers creating maps and prescriptions for your fields have the expertise. To that end, Ag Leader Technology offers it’s three-day SMS Certified Training course for its SMS Advanced Software program – held at its Ames, Iowa headquarters. The next course is July 13-15.

“This class is mostly for ‘power users’ of our SMS Advanced program, primarily service providers like crop consultants and retailers who have already been through the one-day Basic and Advanced training and have worked with the software for at least six months to a year,” says Issac Bauer, Software Support and Training Supervisor for Ag Leader. “We created these small group classes because users wanted greater in-depth knowledge of our analysis tools—from yield by hybrid and yield by soil type comparisons to writing the needed equations for prescription application.”

Not only do participants receive a 500+ page, in-depth manual (only available with this class), but they also receive 22 CCA credits toward their Certified Crop Advisor accreditation. “At the end of the course, the 10 to 12 participants are tested on their knowledge. If they pass, they earn a plaque as a Certified SMS Software user, which they can promote to their customers.”

Class size is kept small to ensure all individuals get all their specific questions answered. “Participants really like this course because they get to drill down and really understand the power of the software. Not only do they learn how to speed up the processes they are already doing, but they learn more about the analysis tools—from how to run multi-year data analysis and how to compare data sets, to learning the ins and outs of the equation editor to create management zones, create layers and make prescriptions,” Bauer says. “In addition, attendees get to interact with others from different areas and backgrounds to discuss ways they handle different situations.”

For more information on this and other SMS Software training classes, call 515-232-5363 extension 1.

For more information:

SMS Advanced Software: http://www.agleader.com/products/sms-advanced/

Upcoming SMS Software Training Classes http://www.agleader.com/customer-support/training-sessions/software-training/

The new John Deere SeedStar XP monitoring system allows producers to monitor and adjust a wide variety of planting operations on-the-go for optimal seed placement and increased productivity.

“Everything that customers said they wanted in a fully integrated monitoring system for planting operations went into the SeedStar XP system,” says Chris Savener, project manager, planters, for John Deere Seeding.

“This includes an easy-to-read, at-a-glance screen with seed skip information and data on row-unit ride dynamics, which are critical to monitoring and maintaining overall planter performance at the row-unit level. Ultimately, the SeedStar XP monitoring system helps ensure that every seed is planted to the correct depth and spacing within the seed furrow across the entire field. Tests show that the system helps producers save planting time and seed while maximizing yields.”

The GreenStar 2 compatible SeedStar XP system features a user-friendly, full-color planting monitor, or it can be integrated with a producer’s existing GreenStar 2 display to eliminate clutter in the cab. The system is supported by a series of row-unit sensor nodes and downforce sensors configured to the specific model of planter. In addition to the features of the original SeedStar 2 monitoring system, the SeedStar XP system includes these enhancements:

• Seed singulation and seed spacing monitoring
• Row-unit downforce monitoring and adjustment
• Row-unit ride quality monitoring
• Overall row-unit and planter performance monitoring
• Split-screen applications for planting and guidance (AutoTrac)

The SeedStar XP system is available on select model year 2011 John Deere planters, including the 1770NT, 1770NT CCS™, 1790 and DB Series planters, and is fully integrated and compatible with other Ag Management System products used for planting, such as Swath Control Pro for planters, GreenStar AutoTrac assisted steering and Apex farm management software.
For more information on the John Deere SeedStar XP monitoring system, see your local John Deere dealer or visit www.JohnDeere.com.

To this end, I applaud anyone in agriculture who takes time to listen and understand consumer thoughts and feelings–without getting defensive about farming practices. If you want to learn good techniques (especially via social media), Michele Payn-Knoper is doing an awesome job educating farmers. Check out the upcoming training seminar.

Right now, as we’re fully into the county fair and soon approaching state fair time of the year, I challenge growers to seek out consumers at these events and help them better understand your role in putting food on their table. Ask questions and truly listen, rather than preach.

Farm shows are another good venue, especially if the show makes an effort to get consumers on the grounds. The upcoming Wisconsin Farm Technology Days farm show near River Falls on July 20-22 has set up special “Courtesy Tours” for consumers.

Jay Richardson, organizer of “Courtesy Tours” is excited about this unique feature of this year’s show: “We love telling our story to the 98% of our population who are not engaged in producing the food they consume. This year we are setting up special tours to educate and answer questions about production agriculture.”

The Applied Technology Education tent will serve as headquarters for a group of almost 50 dairy and crop producers that have volunteered to serve as tour guides of tent city. These producers will take small groups on guided tours along predetermined routes through tent city. Each tour will be about an hour to an hour and a half in length. During that time the participants will be able to ask questions of the guides about the equipment that is on display as well as general questions regarding modern agriculture.

The goal is to reach out to the people that may be attending in hopes of learning more about what it is that dairy and crop producers do and the tools that they use to produce the world’s safest and most abundant supply of food. Even though Farm Technology Days is primarily a show for farmers, many curious non-farmers attend as well. With the close proximity to urban areas, this year’s show in Pierce County hopes to capitalize on its location. “We want to welcome and educate those that might not call a farm ‘home!’”

Tours will leave about every 10 minutes from the Applied Technology Education Tent; starting at 9:30 a.m. with the final tour leaving at 3 p.m. each day.

For more information, please contact Jay Richardson at 715-495-8440 or Liz Doornink at 715-760-1221 or visit www.piercefarmtech.com

Time for other farm shows and country fairs to use this idea! Pass it on.

Agricultural engineers Susan O'Shaughnessy and Nolan Clark adjust an infrared thermometer that measures crop canopy temperature as a way of controlling a center pivot irrigation system.

A system that turns irrigation water on and off automatically based on leaf temperature is being developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) soil scientist Steven Evett and colleagues in Texas.

Evett, a soil scientist at Bushland, Texas, and cooperators are developing time-temperature threshold (TTT) technology that is based in part on a discovery by Evett’s colleagues at Lubbock, Texas, that plants grow best at certain narrow temperature ranges that vary by crop species.

Later developments by Evett and his colleagues led to invention of an irrigation control system that uses feedback from the crop, in terms of leaf temperatures, to control irrigation and crop water use efficiency.

Evett’s colleague Susan O’Shaughnessy, an agricultural engineer at the ARS Soil and Water Management Research Unit at Bushland, has developed wireless infrared thermometers mounted on center pivot irrigation arms as well as in the field. She is also integrating sensors that can help determine whether to skip watering parts of a field because plants are suffering from disease rather than drought or because no plants have survived in that part of the field.

Ultimately, she and Evett will seek a cooperative research and development agreement with a center pivot manufacturing company that can build the sensors and control system into their equipment.

This research is part of the Ogallala Aquifer Program started in 2004, a partnership between ARS and the Ogallala region’s universities. The Ogallala Aquifer underlies eight states from Texas to South Dakota and is one of the world’s major aquifers. The goal of the Ogallala Aquifer Program is to protect the towns and their livelihoods, including agricultural industries, by stopping the depletion of the aquifer.

Water availability is key to farming in the Ogallala region. Automated irrigation systems are seen as one major way to move towards sustainable use of the aquifer because they can reduce water use while enhancing profitability due to the reduction in pumping costs.

For more details, read on…

The expos will include educational presentations, exhibits, field demonstrations, ride and drive demonstrations and user sharing sessions.

Precision agriculture includes management practices that allow farmers to be more precise in field operations and apply crop inputs more efficiently. A global positioning system (GPS) is the basis of most precision agriculture practices. The most common GPS applications in farming are operator-assisted tractor guidance systems and completely automated steering systems.

“However, farming in North Dakota includes an increasing number of other precision agriculture applications, such as variable-rate fertilization, crop yield monitoring, section and row control on planters and sprayers, precision irrigation and GPS-guided field drainage equipment,” says John Nowatzki, NDSU Extension Service agricultural machine systems specialist. “Specialized farm geographic information system (GIS) computer programs also are an essential element of precision farming. GIS programs are used to correlate crop and soil factors with satellite imagery. Farmers use remote-sensing products and in-field sensing technologies with a GPS to manage individual field sections based on potential productivity.”

The primary goals of the expos are to explore energy efficiency aspects of precision agriculture management practices and demonstrate precision agriculture technologies. More information and a registration form are available on the NDSU precision agriculture expo website at http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/agmachinery. The public also is invited to visit and contribute to the expo Facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/pages/NDSU-Precision-Agriculture/110144575694517?ref=ts. Expo organizers encourage people to join the discussion groups on the Facebook site to provide input into planning the events and activities for the expos.

The events at both locations will begin with the regular field day crop plot tours from 9 a.m. to noon. The tours include reports by various NDSU research scientists. More information about the Casselton field day tour is available at http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/casselto/ and the Dickinson tour at http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/dickinso/.

The precision agriculture expos will follow lunch with educational presentations from 12:30 to 2 p.m. There will be a variety of concurrent educational presentations, including the economics of precision agriculture, satellite imagery delivered on cell phones, GPS problems and concerns, online field mapping services, precision manure application practices and remote-sensing options for agriculture.

Equipment and technology companies that sell precision agricultural technology will conduct field demonstrations, have displays and feature ride and drive demonstrations. Field demonstrations at both locations will include tractor and machine guidance, section control on sprayers, row control on planters and variable-rate fertilization. At the Casselton expo, there also will be field drainage software and equipment demonstrations. The Dickinson expo will have precision haying and manure application demonstrations.

Indoor and outdoor exhibit areas will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. An evening meal will be served from 5 to 7 p.m.

Franksville, WI, grower Mike Borzynski attributes his personal best in the field due to his investment in the new Ag Leader ParaDyme steering system with the INTEGRA display. He used the system on part of his 3,500 acre grain and 4,000 acre vegetable operation—along with another 1,200 acres of custom work.

Borzynski used the INTEGRA to run the SeedCommand with his ParaDyme system to achieve those seed savings over 1,240 acres of corn. And after these results he plans to plant other crops with it in the future. “The ParaDyme worked great. After the first week using it, I bought another one,” he says. Using multiple ParaDyme systems on his operation, Borzynski is confident that he’ll see even more reduction in his input costs in the future.

The ParaDyme automated steering system can be easily transferred from one piece of equipment to another. This allows growers like Borzynski to utilize the ParaDyme not only for planting, but also for application and harvesting.

His next trial is moving this system into his John Deere 7230 tractor, using DirectCommand and his pull-type sprayer to reduce application costs. When asked if he would recommend ParaDyme to a friend or neighbor, Borzynski says without hesitation, “Absolutely. I believe in it 100 percent.”

The ParaDyme automated steering system can be used with the INTEGRA or EDGE display, and offers its users a wide range of benefits for their precision ag operations. For more information about the ParaDyme steering system, visit www.agleader.com.

For more information, visit
Ag Leader Technology Insights newsletter http://www.agleader.com/docs/insights-jun10.pdf

ParaDyme steering system http://www.agleader.com/products/steering/

Updates include:

• Improved touch screen response
• Split Screen option is available in RealView Guidance mode on the Matrix 570G
• Improved touch screen calibration for the Matrix 570G
• Up to eight cameras can be used on the Matrix 570G (with the 8-Channel VSM)
• Updated translations to all languages except Swedish & Italian

Matrix v1.04 Software Update – software and instructions for updating your product.

TeeJet Technologies introduced the only system available offering guidance and live video to be displayed simultaneously, which helps improve accuracy and efficiency in field operations. Matrix Guidance System with RealView Guidance Over Video is an affordable system that allows growers to monitor what’s ahead or difficult to see machine parts or operations while at the same time viewing guidance information.

“The Matrix Guidance System offers growers exclusive features at an unbeatable price,” said Rich Gould, vice president and guidance business manager at TeeJet Technologies. “By combining guidance with live video instead of a virtual image, the operator now has access to more and better information to help make GPS guidance more intuitive to use.”

Matrix not only has the benefit of guidance over video, it can also be economically upgraded with automatic boom section control for use with sprayers and spreaders. Automatic boom section control helps minimize costly chemical consumption by automatically switching off sprayer boom sections when they enter a previously applied area.

Matrix is the interface for the FieldPilot® Assisted Steering System from TeeJet Technologies. Assisted steering helps improve accuracy, decrease input costs and reduce driver fatigue and stress. All of these benefits can improve operation productivity.

FieldPilot with Matrix Guidance can also easily be installed on older tractors. “There is a perception out there that you have to have a newer tractor to take advantage of precision ag benefits,” Gould said. “We have more than 65 custom installation kits for 275 different vehicles, new and old. It’s a great way for growers to add assisted steering capabilities without a costly investment.”

A recent report by Purdue University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture predicts more than 54,000 agriculture-related job openings annually between 2010 and 2015.

“There isn’t a better business to be in right now,” says Randy Smith, a member of the Weed Science Society of America and a field research and development leader for Dow AgroSciences. “Agricultural scientists have an opportunity to feed a hungry world and to write the next chapter in the ‘Green Revolution.’ It’s a cutting-edge profession and a noble calling.”

But despite the promising employment outlook, there is a talent shortage in the applied agricultural sciences. Data from the National Academies shows 4,010 baccalaureate degrees awarded in agriculture business and management in 2007 – but only 177 in crop production. A 2008 USDA review shows Bachelor’s degrees awarded in agronomy and the crop sciences decreased by almost a third between 1984 and 2003. Several universities have dropped or consolidated programs in the agricultural sciences because of low enrollment and dwindling funds.

“The issue of talent development in the agricultural sciences is a topic of paramount concern within higher education and industry circles,” says Emilio Oyarzabal, technology development manager, Monsanto. “There are many students pursuing degrees in the marketing, sales and business side of agriculture, but the number in the applied agricultural sciences is declining steadily.”

Oyarzabal and other experts say a number of intersecting trends are contributing to the dwindling talent pool. Publicly funded graduate assistantships have evaporated. Budget cuts, retirements and competition from higher-paying industry jobs have resulted in the steady drain of agricultural sciences faculty – the very individuals responsible for recruiting and training. Grant monies are pouring into molecular biology and other basic sciences – not into applied sciences like agriculture. One possible reason:

“There is a misperception that the agricultural sciences have matured and aren’t as exciting as some of the newer, emerging sciences, such as biotechnology and molecular biology,” says Roger Gast, product development leader, Dow AgroSciences. “But nothing could be further from the truth.”

Don Wyse, Ph.D., a professor of agronomy and plant genetics and director of the Center for Natural Resources and Agricultural Management at the University of Minnesota, says changing demographics also play a role.

“The number of students raised on a farm has plummeted, and we haven’t yet figured out how to engage and recruit students from urban communities,” he says. “The link between their lives and how their food is produced is really remote at best.”

Initiatives to build a sustainable agricultural workforce

What’s the solution? The Weed Science Society of America and nearly 30 other scientific societies and agricultural industry partners have begun to collaborate on ideas for building a sustainable agricultural workforce. Some of the proposed initiatives include:

• Promoting an awareness of career opportunities in the crop sciences.
• Building a pipeline of students in middle and high schools who are interested in pursuing degrees in applied and basic agricultural sciences.
• Generating awareness of the importance of sustainable agro-ecosystems and the crucial role of the agricultural sciences in feeding a growing world population.
• Funding scholarships to attract the best students into agricultural science studies and to support applied learning programs.
• Developing innovative recruitment and training programs to attract high-quality graduate students with leadership potential.

Most agree it will take a sustained investment of resources to reverse the talent shortage. And the need has never been more critical.

“To feed a growing population, experts predict we will need to produce more food over the next 40 years than we’ve produced over the past 10,000 years combined – and with diminishing land and water resources,” says Lee Van Wychen, Ph.D., science policy director of the Weed Science Society of America. “The stakes couldn’t be higher.”

To that end, I like to hear about companies and their retailers continually offering product and software training to customers. Starting next week and running all summer, dealers for Ag Leader Technology will be hosting day-long product training sessions across the Midwest.

The focus is on products involved in fall operations, everything from harvest to fall tillage. “Our summer hardware training sessions will talk about Ag Leader displays, DirectCommand setup and operations, automated steering with ParaDyme and OnTrac2, yield monitoring systems and other topics,” says Andy Boyle, Training Coordinator, Ag Leader Technology. “We’ll have opportunities for customers to ask questions and bring up issues from this past year to help optimize performance and gain tips for smoother operation.”

Currently, the company has 17 sessions scheduled, winding through Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and more (see link to sessions below). “Check with your local Ag Leader dealer and ask if they plan to hold a training session,” Boyle says.

“Dealers will tailor specific topics to local needs, and primarily discuss what to do before heading to the field at harvest—such as what components to check and how to calibrate and when recalibration is needed,” he adds.

Registration is $25, which includes a meal. To register call Kimberley Warnick at 515-232-5363, extension 6205.

For more information, visit
Customer training http://www.agleader.com/customer-support/training-sessions/

Product training schedule http://www.agleader.com/customer-support/training-sessions/hardware-training/

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we talk to Raj Khosla, a professor of Precision Agriculture at Colorado State University and the chair of this year’s conference who says this a landmark event, as they mark 20 years of meeting like this.

“It started as a small workshop with a bunch of people in Minnesota.” He says there are several scientific and practioner-oriented papers at this year’s meeting for the anticipated 500 attendees.

While much of the conference is focused on information for the scientists and consultants, he’s hoping to attract more frontline farmers and producers.

“I strongly believe there’s a lot of information for them.”

More information, including how to take advantage of the early bird discount for those who sign up before July 9th, is available on the International Conference on Precision Agriculture website.

We’ll have coverage from the conference, and in the meantime, you can hear more of my conversation with Khosla in the player below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

To this end, I’m sharing a story written by Michele Payn-Knoper, who is building and training a wonderful coalition of farmers who want to speak out and help their cause. To help reconnect rural and consumer. I hope her words stir you to join a most worthwhile effort… for your livelihood.

Mindset Matters: How will you agvocate?

Are you adept at adapting? Are your reacting or reaching out? Are you living in 2010 or 1990? Being adept at reaching out in 2010 looks very different than it did in 1990 (the pre-internet era) . As is the case in any revolution, this means exciting opportunities exist. I believe the 460 million people on Facebook and 50 million tweets per day translate to agriculture’s chance to engage.

Many people reference their birthdate when opportunities around social media are brought up. Let me share a bit of a reality check; thought leadership doesn’t come with a birthyear – nor does the proper mindset to leverage tools that just make sense for farms and ranches.

If you are a person who’s adept at adapting and have reached out to build a community to be an “agvocate”, it may be time to move your skillsets to the next level. Perhaps you have a Facebook, but you’re not sure how to fully use it to share your farm story. Or, you’re on Twitter and have found it interesting, but don’t really “get it.” There’s been a conference designed just for farmers and ranchers who are ready to move up the technology mindset ladder. The AgChat Foundation just announced an”Agvocacy 2.0 Training Conference in Chicago on August 30-31. The program includes agriculture’s best and brightest in social media, with the training set in a variety of learning formats for 50 selected people. Core areas of interest include:

• Bridging basic communications with social media
• Community Building for Twitter and Facebook
• Extending your community beyond ag
• Creating effective content for YouTube and blogs

It’s been exciting to watch the program develop; I’m firmly convinced that participants in this inaugural Agvocacy 2.0 Training Conference will walk away with incredible ideas when the noon to noon agenda is complete. Successful social media is about engaging human to human interaction; this conference is an exciting chance to bring top agvocates together to “ideate” around best practices in Facebook, Twitter, blogging, Linkedin and YouTube. It’s about moving your mindset up another level on the agvocacy ladder. Workshops, roundtables and panel discussions include:

• Growing your communications skills & understanding of consumer research.
• Building Message House Diagram: Learn to logically build messages and supporting talking points.
• Twitter Community Building: Find tools, hashtags, strategy to maximize impact of ag voice on Twitter.
• Facebook Profiles/Fan Pages/Groups: Maximize farmer understanding of Facebook as a tool to put a face on the plate.
• Extending beyond ag: Find personal interests, data, lists & best practices to reach beyond traditional ag circles.
• Burning questions: Personalize your learning by getting the info you need in one-on-one Q&A.
• Creating Impactful Video: Grow in-depth understanding of tools to create, upload and share videos to agvocate.
• Building an Effective Blog: Help farmers understand how build, share and monitor an effective blog while finding personal style.
• Real World Show & Tell: Learn from case studies of SM use to take farm to others.
• Road map for your action plan to agvocate.

If you’re ready to embrace change and be a part of the conversation for agriculture’s benefit, I’d encourage you to apply at http://agchat.org/ to tell the AgChat Foundation how you have the mindset to make agriculture matter. You have until July 1. There’s no time like the present!

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

“After planting with RTK and implement guidance, I would
never want to plant any other way,” says Glendenning. “I used
to spend a lot of time looking back, and trying to compensate for the planter sliding down sidehills, but now I don’t have to.”

Glendenning also added Tru Count air clutches to all 24 planter row units. “We have countless acres of point rows and waterways, so we used to have a lot of overlap and wasted seed. With all the multiple-trait seed we plant, seed costs are around $125 per acre. I’d estimate we saved $1,200 in seed costs per day this spring. And since we aren’t overlapping in the headlands, the plants won’t be overcrowded and lodging. That should improve yield.”

Tillage is another benefit Glendenning sees from his Trimble
equipment. “We’ve found WAAS is just not accurate enough
for doing skip rows on 200-acre fields; by the end of the field
you can end up being off by six to seven feet. But if we pair an
EZ-Guide® 500 system with the Ag3000 modem in our tillage
tractor, we can till very efficiently.”

To learn more, check out the June issue.

Engineered for large acreage small grain growers who need to cover thousands of acres in a short planting window, the Precision Air 3580 has a three-compartment tank with a total capacity of 580 U.S. bushels.

The three tank compartments hold 135 bushels, 183 bushels and 262 bushels respectively, providing growers with more seeding and fertilizer options and higher capacities in one pass. Tanks are made of steel, with tough, powder coat paint inside and out for a harder finish, better rust protection and longer wear.

“Our broadacre customers are asking us for larger drills and carts with more capacity, so they can run longer between stops,” says Gord Engel, Case IH seeding product manager. “The less time farmers spend re-filling seed and fertilizer tanks, the more acreage they cover during the prime planting window, and the more they reduce seeding costs.

“Whether you’re growing wheat, barley, rye, oats, canola or pulse crops, the further north you go, the smaller the planting window gets,” Engel adds. “Planting at the right time helps maximize yields. With the Precision Air 3580, growers cover more acres per hour, per day, per week and per season.”

To learn more, visit this link.

This July, Ag Leader is sponsoring Farm Journal’s Corn College events near Bloomington, IL. Led by Ken Ferrie, Associate Field Agronomist, Missy Bauer and the Corn College crew, the events are packed with take-home crop production knowledge integrating both classroom and in-field instruction. The Corn College location is surrounded by 17 acres of demonstration plots which allow attendees to head out to the field with Ferrie, Bauer and other agronomic coaches.

As a sponsor of Corn College events, Ag Leader experts will present a Tech Session on crop sensors. Growers can learn details about how sensors work, how to collect crop scanning data, how to implement crop sensors into a nitrogen program and how this information can lead to successful management decisions.

“We’re participating in this event to not only educate growers on precision farming and the latest technology, but also to learn from the sessions and by visiting with growers,” says Jessica Reis, Marketing Communications Specialist for Ag Leader Technology.

The company will also be located in the vendor tent to answer questions about the latest technology trends and how growers can put together a year-round precision farming system—designed to achieve optimum input efficiency and maximum productivity.

If you cannot attend, Reis says to check out their Precision Point blog (link below) as they will be posting knowledge gained from the meetings.

Corn College is being held July 19-23. If you register for Corn College by Friday, June 18 (TODAY), you get the early-bird rate of $199. Otherwise you pay $249. Sessions are filling up fast. For more information and to register, visit www.agweb.com or http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=804054

For more information, visit

Precision Point blog http://www.agleader.com/blog/

Farm Journal Corn College https://secure.lenos.com/lenos/pcg/fjland/summer.htm

Corn College Registration http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=804054