BRANDON – With precision farming tools such as yield monitors becoming as common as air conditioning on new combines, it is time to get serious about collecting and analyzing the information they produce.
That was the message Steve Tupa, head of global technology for equipment maker Agco, delivered to farmers attending Ag Days in Brandon last week.
Tupa gave a primer on precision farming equipment and his assessment of how these tools will change farming in the future.
The tools include global positioning systems that help make guidance more accurate with light bars or automated steering systems, variable rate technology for fertilizer and data collection systems.
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Auto steering is the latest technology touted by equipment makers. He said systems are expensive, but offer many benefits.
They allow the farmer to operate at faster speeds, provide exceptional accuracy even on hilly land and reduce operator fatigue.
“The biggest thing is that they are going to be able to pay more attention to what they are doing out there – pay more attention to whatever is going on behind them, whether they are seeding or whatever.”
Auto steering is particularly good if the farm operates more than one seeder in a field at the same time, he added.
Tupa provided an example of a California farmer who compared his per acre costs for tillage with and without automated steering.
Without auto steering he was able to till 714 acres in 84 hours. With auto steer he was able to till 847 acres in 70 hours.
In addition to saving time, he was also able to use 27 percent less fuel per acre.
Tupa said those are significant savings, but they could be greatly compounded when farmers consider reduced overlap and savings on seed, fertilizer, herbicides, other chemicals and reduced wear on machinery.
“The number is phenomenal, but it checks out,” he said.
A system to provide positioning accuracy to less than 21/2 centimetres is another advance.
The satellite signals that global positioning systems use to plot their location must be corrected to provide usable accuracy.
Today’s standard correction provides accuracy to within 20 to 25 cm. For more money, farmers can get accuracy to within five cm.
But local base stations are the next thing in differential correction.
The portable units combine GPS receivers and radio transmitters with other technology and can provide a corrected signal to vehicles operating within a 25 kilometre radius.
“You are going to get your highest level of accuracy – under (21/2 cm) on pass-to-pass accuracy.”
Base stations are costly, but because farmers own them, there are no annual fees as with today’s correction services.
“Basically what it is, is that you own your own differential correction.”
Also, they can provide the corrected signal to many tractors, combines or vehicles in the operating range, whereas today’s subscription services apply only to the receiver they are bought to serve.
While such technology captures the spotlight, the real change in farming will come from compiling data, studying it, identifying zones within a field that have certain attributes such as high, medium and low yields and creating management strategies for each of them.
“Data collected during an operation may be more important than the operation itself,” he said.
Yield monitors provide one set of data, but yield is just the first of many attributes that can be identified, measured and mapped, he said. Other attributes include nutrient data from soil tests, soil texture and electrical conductivity.
Even surveying a field for elevation variation can help provide a picture of where moisture will be retained and its effect on nitrogen.
There are software packages that can use this data to come up with management plans, but they are expensive for individual farmers, he said.
“But there are service providers out there who own the software and can sit there and analyze it for you and present it to you for you to decide what to do with it. Use them,” he added.
