One of the big “new” things at the 2012 World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin this week is New Holland Agriculture which has made a major multi-year commitment to support the event. New Holland has sponsored a 26,000 square foot Trade Center tent outside the Exhibit Hall to provide room for additional exhibitors and also has a selection of equipment … Read More
Committee, Ag Leaders React to FARRM Bill Passage
It took nearly 15 hours, but members of the House Agriculture Committee were able to pass their version of the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM) Bill. Committee Chair Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) praised the bipartisan legislation: “This is a balanced, reform-minded, fiscally responsible bill that underscores our commitment to production … Read More
Precision Agriculture Comes To Hay Bales
Just when hay bales thought they could remain anonymous forever, along comes New Holland to give them a personality–or at least a brand! CropID, an individual bale identification system for large square bales, uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in the twine to track bale atributes. This innovation enables commercial growers to uniquely tag and sort bales based on a … Read More
Precision Feeding Aims To Reduce Environmental Risks
To help reduce excessive nitrates from manure, Penn State research is focused on reducing manure nitrogen by 30-50% and phosphorus by 40-60% by precision feeding dairy cattle. The Chesapeake Bay Commission has determined that, by far, the most cost-effective way to minimize the environmental impact of the large volumes of manure generated within the estuary’s watershed is by adjusting feed … Read More
Precision Pasture Grazing With Sensors
Taking 200 grass measurements per second, the Rapid Pasture Meter from C-Dax Systems in New Zealand helps dairy and intensive grazing operations ensure optimum grazing conditions. The concept came from the New Zealand Center for Precision Agriculture at Massey University, which continues to provide input into the ongoing development of the technology. Farmworks develops the accompanying PDA and desktop software. The … Read More
Measuring Moisture in Forage With HarvestLab
One of the ways dairy farmers are using precision agriculture is in the area of forage production. It allows them to measure the moisture in it very precisely? John Deere was on location at World Dairy Expo once again to showcase their HarvestLab Moisture Sensor. I met and spoke with Luke Kerns. he says the unit uses a near infrared … Read More
Precision Ag Needed In The Dairy Industry
You don’t usually think of precision agriculture when it comes to the dairy industry. However, I heard it this morning in a press conference for GEA Farm Technologies at the World Dairy Expo. So I asked their CEO and President, Vern Foster, what he meant by it. Basically, he says that agriculture is changing and even in a dairy there’s … Read More
Precision Agriculture in the Dairy Industry
This week a couple of your Precision.AgWired.com editors will be attending the World Dairy Expo in Madison, WI. We’re hoping to learn a little bit about the application of precision agriculture in the dairy industry. In preparation I did a little looking around on Google and found out about a just-concluded (I assume) USDA Ag Research Service project titled, “Quantifying … Read More