News
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New Technology
High
- Tech Harvest
The days of farmers sitting around
the country store swapping yarns and seat-of-the-pants
predictions for the growing season are long gone. Oh, the
farmers still talk and spin yarns, but mostly through e-mail
and Internet chat sessions. And the conversation today focuses
less on creaky-bone predictions of rain and more on precision
farming, the Global Positioning System (GPS), the reliability
of precise soil samplers, yield monitors and computer
interfacing problems
Local Irrigation
Water
may be readily available in the soil but not accessible to the
plant. Time-release water polymer gels that soak up water and
hold it for plant use have evolved into versatile, proven
water management tools. Superabsorbent gels on the market
today absorb from 30 to 800 times their weight in water. As
plants require water, their roots easily withdraw water from
the gel material. More than 90 percent of the moisture held in
the gel is available to the plant. After the growing season,
the products eventually degrade in the soil and disappear.
Some gels remain effective through many swell-shrink cycles
and can work for five years or more.
Soil
researchers at Texas A&M University and the USDA Agriculture
Research Service (ARS) are developing a computerized
irrigation system that measures and calculates how much water
to apply every half-hour. The automated time domain
reflectometry (TDR) system uses stainless steel probes placed
in the ground at varying depths, from a few inches down to
several feet. A computer-controlled TDR instrument sends an
electronic pulse through a buried cable to the probes. The
longer it takes for the pulse to travel through the probes,
the more soil water. The probes work in most irrigated
agricultural soils and one TDR system can handle up to 241
probes.
A new sprinkler head may help growers apply precisely the
right amounts of water and farm chemicals to their crops. The
head is designed to avoid over-irrigating, which wastes water
and can cause leaching of fertilizer or other chemicals into
underground water supplies. Unlike pulsating devices that
alternately turn the flow on and off, the variable-rate
sprinkler head never completely shuts off the flow. The amount
of flow that's blocked is determined primarily by the diameter
of a pin that moves in and out of the nozzle without altering
the area covered by the spray. The needle is controlled either
by an electrical power source or a hydraulic actuator
activated by a networked computer. In effect, each area within
the sprinkler's reach becomes a garden plot.
The sprinkler head can be incorporated into precision-farming
technologies. When an irrigation system delivers fertilizer or
other chemicals along with water - a technique known as
chemigation - application rates can again be customized to
take into account natural variables such as the fertility of
different soil types.
Today's
high-tech farmer needs to know as much about computers and
satellites as he does about agronomy and phases of the moon.
Modern precision farming allows farmers to work more
efficiently, while obtaining increased yields from their
crops. Theoretically, precision farming means using
information technologies such as GPS and geographic
information system software to gather, store, view and analyze
vast amounts of data - which can then be converted into usable
knowledge to make better farm management decisions for crop
production. Practically, precision farming means that farmers
can visualize, identify and control crop patterns from a
central computerized location. The goal is to improve
profitability and reduce risks. For example, an increasing
number of tractors are linked to GPS, so their position can be
tracked from a distant office. Land management information in
office computers then tells tractors where to go, stop, turn
or activate cutting or fertilizing equipment. Through a
tractor-based GPS, a farmhand is told when and where to turn
to begin tilling each row of a field. This can greatly reduce
overlap, which on a large farm saves hours of work. It all
works continuously in the field with a 3-in. accuracy, even
while the tractor is moving. Here is how the parts of today's
high-tech farm work and fit together.
Images from the robot
shepherd camera are analyzed by the computer program to find
the positions of the robot and flock. Electronic ear tags
allow individual pigs to be identified. A high-tech chicken
coop meters food and monitors health.
Yield Monitors
The
use of GPS in farming has grown beyond the early practice of
grid soil sampling and variable rate fertilizer applications
to a new, more useful focus on yield monitoring. In precision
farming, growers break fields down into regions, or cells,
analyzing growth characteristics of each cell and improving
crop health and yield by applying precise amounts of seed,
fertilizer and pesticides as needed. Many associate precision
farming with combine yield monitors, equipped with GPS. Some
farmers now use multi spectral imaging to produce gray scale
values that are converted to color images showing poor to good
vegetation conditions.
Yield monitors can forecast yield as bushels per acre, total
pounds, acres per hour worked and grain moisture content. This
is all done while the combine is in use, and can be recorded
on a memory card for later analysis. Sensors monitor,
calculate and record, in real time, each field's yield as the
combine harvests the crop. This eliminates having to wait
until the entire harvest is complete before projecting yields
and making important decisions on how much to store or sell.
Field Scouting
Field scouting uses a portable geographic information system
unit that allows farmers to identify and record the location
of problems or events that will affect production - including
soil differences, insect infestations, fertility deficiencies
and weed problems. Remote sensing, and satellite and infrared
images also can be employed while scouting fields. Satellites
that capture infrared images can look at moisture content and
quickly assess the health of a crop before visible damage
appears. Soil testing, however, still requires farmers to walk
across their fields to take samples.
Smart Spraying
Equipment
is now available - and more is being developed - that will
allow chemicals to be applied to a single field at variable
rates. Sensors monitor tractor speed and adjust the amount of
fertilizer or pesticide sprayed on the soil.
Generally, the system records, in 2-second intervals, the
amount of pesticide that was applied.
A new "seeing-eye" sprayer for weeds uses a light-reflectance
sensor to scan the ground for patterns that match weeds. It
then kills them with less herbicide than conventional sprayers
use. The eight-row hooded sprayer uses its sensor to
distinguish differences in the light reflected from bare soil
and from weeds between crop rows. If it "sees" a weed, it
sprays it. The sprayer was developed for row crops through a
cooperative research and development agreement with Patchen,
of Los Gatos, Calif., and ARS scientists in Mississippi.
The Silsoe Research Institute (SRI) in Britain is looking into
improving the accuracy with which solid manure is spread onto
land. This system, based on a side discharge impeller-type
tanker spreader, features an electrohydraulic-operated
discharge control door and a novel driveline torque transducer
capable of sensing discharge rates in real time. The
integrated control system communicates with the tractor and
spreader subsystems to control engine speed, gear selection
and spreader settings. Once a desired application rate has
been selected, the system automatically adjusts the spreader
and/or tractor settings.
Sensors also can monitor the speed of a tractor and adjust the
seed planter to keep spacing consistent. This ensures optimal
spacing, while letting farmhands concentrate on other matters,
such as making sure the seed planter does not clog.
Robot Farmhands
Automation is even working its
way into the barnyard. Research into flock behavior and
modeling led a research team at SRI to develop a robot
that could enter a field, gather a flock of ducks and
steer them safely to a predetermined destination.
The robot system includes a robot vehicle, computer and
camera. Commands are then sent by radio to the robot,
which guides the ducks to the goal. Using ducks, instead
of sheep, allowed the trials to take place on a smaller
and more convenient scale. Duck flocking behavior is
recognized by shepherds as similar to sheep, and ducks are
often used in sheep dog training.
The project also looked at flock dynamics and how
individual animals in a flock behave.
Weighing pigs is the most basic guide to quality control
but it's time consuming and stressful to both farmers and
pigs. SRI has developed the Growth Rate and Conformation
Evaluation System, which uses image analysis techniques to
watch pigs grow. The image analysis system uses a video
camera connected to a computer, mounted over a feeder. The
computer measures
body area, ham width and ham area, and determines each
pig's shape, weight and growth rate.
During the 20th century mechanical technology made it
possible to feed a rapidly growing American population
while keeping the price of food lower than any other place
on earth. In this century, making these machines smarter
will extend these benefits to the world
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Using satellite data, GPS
allows farmers to precisely steer equipment and map the
land to be tilled. |
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