“Balancing Fertilizer Price Risk and In-Field Management to Optimize Yield and Profitability” was the topic of a Learning Session at the 2011 Commodity Classic in Tampa last week, sponsored by John Deere. Deere’s Pauley Bradley, manager of nutrient applications, had a full house for the session which discussed nitrogen practices today, concerns that fall anhydrous application may not be around … Read More
Precision Potato Farming Aims at Sustainability
Precision agriculture is playing a much larger role in helping potato growers become more sustainable, according to a recent story in Spudman. Bruce Crapo, a grower of 6,000 acres of commercial potatoes and 2,000 acres of seed potatoes in Idaho, is a good example of how the average potato farmer looks at precision agriculture – he uses technology to reduce … Read More
Maximizing Corn and Soybean Yields
Precision agriculture means more than just the use of equipment and technology to save time and money, it also means the “application of technologies and agronomic principles to manage spatial and temporal variability associated with all aspects of agricultural production for the purpose of improving crop performance and environmental quality.” At the recent GROWMARK FS Green Plan Solutions “In Pursuit … Read More
Wheat Growers Gain Nitrogen Sensor Technology
For wheat growers who normally top-dress nitrogen, the use of crop sensors could boost yields and reduce over or under application. Today, Ag Leader Technology, Inc., a leader in the development of precision farming solutions, announced the release of the North American Wheat algorithm for OptRx, a crop sensor used for mapping, data collection and real-time variable rate nitrogen application. … Read More
Missouri Researchers Reduce Greenhouse Gases, Raise Yields
Researchers with the University of Missouri have found a way to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by agricultural operations, while increasing the yields of the crops. And precision agriculture equipment is playing a key role. Research agronomist at MU’s Greenley Research Center in northeast Missouri Kelly Nelson says that ag operations in the U.S. create 58 percent of … Read More
New Variable-rate Field-IQ Control System
Trimble offers a new Field-IQ system that controls and monitors seed and fertilizer delivery capabilities to enhance variable-rate functionality. The Field-IQ system pairs seamlessly with the guidance capabilities of the Trimble FmX integrated display or CFX 750 touch screen display, which both run Trimble’s unique overlap detection technology. Farmers using the Field-IQ crop input control system for seed placement have … Read More
Iowa Power Farming Show Ready for 56th Year
The fourth largest indoor farm show in the country is prepping for it’s 56th annual show in Des Moines, Ia., on February 1-3. It continues to break attendance records now for seven years in a row, with around 19,000 attendees spread out among six floors in the three buildings that comprise the Iowa Events Center (Hy-Vee Exhibit Hall, Wells Fargo … Read More
Variable-rate Irrigation Teams with Prescription Service
The precision irrigation from Valley has now teamed up with the variable-rate precision data services of CropMetrics. This agreement creates an alignment of Valley Irrigation dealers with the latest in agronomic technology to provide growers true precision irrigation with center pivots. Valley Irrigation with VRI Zone Control, and CropMetrics with automated agronomic VRI prescription services, are also proud to announce … Read More
The Year in Precision Farming – 2010 Recap
This past week, I caught up with Matt Darr, Iowa State University ag engineer and precision farming guru, to chat with him about this past year in precision agriculture. “We’ve said for a few years now that ‘accuracy is addictive.’ Well farmers are proving that as this has been a year driven by higher precision—a move to more RTK accuracy.” … Read More
New Publications on Auto Section Control
The Alabama Precision Ag team has compiled three good publications on automatic section control (ASC) for sprayers, planters and spreaders. Automatic section control (ASC) has been one of the most adopted precision ag technologies in recent years. This technology has the ability to save producers on input costs by minimizing application overlap at headlands, point rows, or other odd-shaped areas … Read More