CALGARY — Farmers are forgoing billions of dollars in lost yield by not embracing technology and the latest farming techniques, says a South Dakota State University agronomist.
Gregg Carlson said technology is the key for farmers to remain competitive and enhance productivity.
He blames lost yields on a lack of investment in agricultural education that would encourage farmers to adopt the latest technology.
“I would argue a part of that problem is we are under-investing appreciably in the knowledge and understanding,” Carlson told a recent precision agricultural conference in Calgary.
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“That needs to be understood by our leadership, in agriculture and political.”
A comparison of yield data from South Dakota State University’s crop testing program and national agricultural statistics of on-farm yields from 1970 to 2010 clearly show the lack of education on new technology.
Corn yields in the crop-testing program were 185 bushels per acre while the on-farm average was 134 bu. Soybean yields at the university’s crop testing program were 20 bu. per acre more than on-farm yields.
The yield loss of those two crops is worth $2 billion to the South Dakota economy.
Carlson said the crops that farmers grow on their farms should out-yield crops grown in the university’s crop testing program because the university grows all kinds of varieties, even if they are poor yielders or bred for different soil conditions.
“Farmers are selecting their own varieties. Why are they not out-performing the variety test?” Carlson said.
He is even more concerned that the yield gap between the average farm yields and the university testing centre is increasing.
“I believe the divergence is being caused by the lack of using top level management,” he said.
“Our failure to embrace technology results in the grain yield gap.”
Carlson said the gap started to widen when continuing education funding started to decrease.
“Are we missing significant opportunity for economic development by disinvesting agronomic education?”
He said auto steering is one of the simplest and most cost effective technologies to adopt because it has an almost instant payback in reduced chemical and fuel use.
It’s then easy to add on other precision agricultural equipment to improve seed placement accuracy and variable rate fertilizer application.
Precision agriculture also allows farmers to know the optimal seeding rate, depending on soil type. The top soils in the field can be seeded at the recommended seeding rate and the poorer soils at half the rate, which dramatically reduces seed costs without affecting yields.
