Grain growers should seriously consider precision farming if Ottawa
ratifies the Kyoto accord, says an expert on the technology.
Nitrous oxide, one of the nastiest greenhouse gases, is often created
during the breakdown of nitrogen fertilizer.
Melfort, Sask., farmer Dennis McIntosh thinks agreements like Kyoto
will eventually limit the amount of nitrogen that farmers are allowed
to apply, which should stimulate interest in precision farming.
“By the year 2010, grain farmers will be under major pressure to
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introduce this technology in its fullest forms on their farms,” said
McIntosh, who has been researching global positioning systems for six
years.
GPS technology has three agricultural applications: guiding sprayers
and seeders; mapping fields; and applying nutrients at variable rates.
Farmers who just want to get their feet wet with the new technology
should stick with guidance systems. McIntosh said it’s a big leap from
“ground zero” to using GPS systems to create yield maps and
prescription nitrogen formulas.
His main advice to farmers considering buying an entry-level guidance
system is to find a neighbour who is using one successfully. That’s
because each system performs differently depending on the circumstances.
“I started in the dark days of precision farming and I’ve seen many
issues and incompatibilities and show-stopping situations on my farm.”
McIntosh said basic guidance systems cost about $6,000. Farmers can buy
an integrated box, which consists of a receiver and a display module in
one unit, or they can buy them separately.
“The major advantage of the integrated units is portability,” he said.
These units, which can be as small as a desktop calculator, consist of
a magnetically mounted antenna attached to the top of the vehicle’s cab
and an integrated box that is plugged into the cigarette lighter.
“You can easily move the integrated ones in a matter of 10 or 15
minutes from one machine to another.”
Receivers and display modules that are bought separately may require an
additional cable harness and another display unit to make switching
back and forth practical.
“It’s awkward to say the least to use those for quick interchange
between vehicles and it drives the cost up.”
McIntosh said the standard, affordable GPS systems are still “a little
bit lacking” in their ability to precisely guide seeders. Farmers can
expect about a 15 centimetre margin of error on each pass, which is too
big for some farmers.
However, the technology appears to be excellent for spraying.
“Farmers’ tolerance levels for overlap and miss are generally much
higher on spraying than they are on seeding.”
The ability to log which parts of a field have been sprayed is a nice
feature available on new guidance systems at relatively little extra
cost, he added.
McIntosh said it’s a good way for farmers to familiarize themselves
with the more powerful features of precision farming technology – yield
mapping and variable rate nitrogen application, for example – without
serious consequences.
“If you mess it up somehow, so you lost a coverage map. You didn’t end
up with your fertilizer put on at the wrong rates all over the field.”
When shopping around, McIntosh advised farmers to ask about the
receiver’s update frequency. He said they should probably avoid ones
with a slow frequency of one update per second and stick with units
that offer five or 10 updates per second.
He also recommended determining where their farm is located in relation
to the Wide Area Augmentation System, or WAAS correction service. This
is a free service that enhances a guidance system’s accuracy.
Farmers located on the fringe of WAAS coverage might want to consider a
receiver with a built-in e-Dif option, which is an alternative
correction method.
