B.C. farm takes nano step forward – Special Report (story 1)

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Published: April 24, 2008

A British Columbia vineyard is taking a futuristic approach to the traditional family business.

King Family Farms near Penticton recently installed a network of 60 wireless temperature sensors in its fields.

Researchers at Agriculture Canada’s Pacific Agri-food Research Centre in nearby Summerland monitor the sensors with the help of the King family.

The sensors were developed by Intel, the company known for the chips found in most computers.

“What it does, and it’s really great for us, is that we can have a real time look at the temperature variation in that vineyard,” said Pat Bowen, a researcher at the Summerland research centre.

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This is the second time the King family has used such a system. Early trials in 2003 lasted a year.

“Five years ago we were the first ones to do this in an outdoor setting,” Bowen said.

New, upgraded sensors were installed in March.

“The sensors themselves are tiny …. They’ve got it rigged up in a little tiny screen that’s maybe an inch cubed, to shield it from direct sunshine,” said Don King, who runs the vineyard with his brother, Rod.

“They run that, with wire, back to a piece of (plastic pipe) that they’re using and in there is actually the batteries and the router, radio equipment and what have you.”

If these trial runs are effective, King said, it may mean good things for precision agriculture. It might also be a stepping stone for even smaller sensors, so tiny they can’t be seen.

The microscopic sensors would be created by nanotechnology, the new science of controlling matter at the atomic and molecular level to make novel products with unique applications.

In agriculture, scientists are using nanotechnology to create animal health and crop protection products and have talked about creating “smart fields” monitored by a network of sensors.

Such networks would monitor variables in a field that can detect developing problems, such as dry soil or challenges from pests. With this detailed information, the farmer would be able to tailor the treatment, such as irrigation, pesticides or herbicides, and deliver it where needed.

As small as the sensors are at King Family Farm, they have not incorporated nanotechnology, but the concept is the same.

They now monitor only temperature, but other types of sensors are already in the works, including soil moisture, light, surface temperature and air humidity.

“Anything that there’s a sensor for, you can pretty much put onto these things,” Bowen said.

The sensors have told King things even he didn’t know about his farm.

“In certain areas we’ve taken vine damage, and (we) don’t really know why … and yet if you look at some of this data now I think it’s because it’s actually warming up more in the day and then it gets nailed in the night, when it’s cold.”

The system is working, but there are kinks to work out.

“I think everyone would like these setups, and I think everyone sees potential use for them, but the technology hasn’t been developed that well yet,” Bowen said.

“I’m kind of surprised, five years (after the 2003 test), I would have expected to just buy a system off the shelf and put it out and it works, but that’s not the case. Ours works, but we had to build some of it on our own.”

The sensor network opens up possibilities for precision agriculture, Bowen said, but nanotechnology may have wider reaching applications.

“There’re newly designed sensors that take advantage of membranes and things like that, that you can build on the nanoscale that I think are the future, but there’s still lots more to do.”

About the author

Noel Busse

Saskatoon newsroom

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