GPS Meets Agriculture for Precision Farming

mskfisher writes "NASA Science News is reporting a story on a NASA project called Ag20/20, which involves farmers using GPS-aided crop and field analysis to improve accuracy and yields. Instead of blanketing the whole area with a set level of pesticide or fertilizer, they can now vary it via computer, based on IR and soil data gathered from aircraft, satellites, and tractor-mounted sensors."

Comments

Hardly original

[MiTEG]

This is hardly original. A simple google search and one of the more interesting results here

From the article:
Indeed, perhaps only a decade or so hence, Isbell will climb down from his tractor holding a palm-sized computer in direct contact with Earth orbiting satellites.

John Deere is already selling GPS-receiver equipped tractors (marketed as "StarFire receivers") that look about the size of a palm.

Not new

[jweb]

Growing up in rural Iowa (no stoplights within a 20 mile radius even today), I can tell you that this is not a new concept. Heck, I remember the local paper (no web site, they're that much behind the times) running a multi-part story about farmers using GPS in 1996 or 1997.

Yup

[wiredog]

At least since the late 80's. I used to read some surveyor/gps magazines (like GPS World) back then, my father is in the remote sensing field, and this sort of thing used to be reported on monthly. I remember one article where the farmer used DEM type maps, ArcView, a WADGPS system for accurate placement, and a Newton (remember those) for data collection.

Other neat GPS applications not mentioned

[jageryager]

As many have pointed out, precision farming is not a new thing. Check this link for a bunch of companies involved:

http://www.prairielinks.com/aglinks/Farm_Equipme nt /Precision_Farming/

The GPS allows them to do some neat stuff not mentioned in the article.

Some systems can keep maps of the paths that equipment took traveling over a feild. This information can be used to guide the operator down the exact same path within an inch, or 2, on the next application. This can minimize crop damage from getting run over, and also reduces soil compaction.

Some systems can be programmed to know how wide of a swath the equipment covers, and can then guide the operator to get very accurate coverage without skips or overlap. This functionality is particularly valuable when making applications that can not be easily seen by the operator, such as sprays.

Better systems can even have a limited auto pilot feature that is integrated into the tractor. Once you are on track you tell the system to take over and it steers.

Cool stuff!

Kevin

Re:Well, sure, it's cool, but...

[SnapShot]

* The cost of the tractor per bushel has plummeted (how many acres could you seed, plow, etc. with that tractor in 1902)
* And the cost of labor per bushel has plummeted (how many people did it take to harvest a bushel in 1902)
* And the yield per acre as shot up (if they haven't then I guess Monsanto hasn't been doing their job)

Like every other industry, farming benefits from efficiencies of scale.

I am the last person on earth to want to see farm land turned into housing developments, but try not to be so simplistic that you insult your readers.

This is my Job

[Tsu-na-mi]

I write software for this industry for a living. We collect field boundaries, fertilizer and pesticide data (types and amounts used, application method), and other farming practices. When it comes time to harvest the crop, a device called a yield monitor (GPS plus flow and other sensors) collects data on how much crop is harvested at a given point in the field.

It's an idea that had been gaining a lot of momentum in the farming industry for a while, but it is starting to become apparent it is not as useful as they thought. The growers like the pretty pictures the GPS maps give them, but their utility as tools is severely limited. Changing levels of chemical application in a field does not have as much of an impact as you would think. Not to mention the education level of the average ag worker is not all that high, so data collection is a difficult process.

What IS useful however is statistical analysis of these farming practices. Seed companies like Pioneer have universities run tests on their varieties and report on the results. The problem is that these tests are all conducted on tiny "test plots" of a fraction of an acre. It's simply too small a sample to get reliable results. With the data we have collected, we can state with a fair degree of certainty what farming practices will result in higher yields. Conventional vs No-Till farming, what crop order to rotate, what row spacing to plant at, etc.

--
David Christpher Asher
AgVenture, LLC.