By:
Tom Nordlie

Source(s):
Larry Halsey lah@mail.ifas.ufl.edu, (850) 342-0187
Daniel Lee wlee@agen.ufl.edu, (352) 392-7664 ext. 227
Craig Kvien ckvien@tifton.cpes.peachnet.edu, (229) 386-7274
Charles Moss cmoss@fred.ifas.ufl.edu, (352) 392-1845 ext. 404

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MONTICELLO, Fla. — Old MacDonald had a… global positioning system?

Don’t laugh, it’s already happening. Precision agriculture, which uses satellites, portable computers and other high-tech hardware to improve farming efficiency, is a sophisticated new way to apply traditional methods, say experts with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

“Farmers always need to learn about their land and manage its variability,” said Larry Halsey, Jefferson County extension director and a founding member of UF’s Precision Agriculture and Remote Sensing Group, a statewide coalition of experts. “Precision agriculture is the latest collection of tools to help achieve those goals.”

In addition to walking their fields to observe soil conditions, topographic features, weed environments or insect levels, precision agriculture allows farmers to access this information from scientific instruments and online databases, Halsey said.

“Technology is giving us back some of the attention to detail we lost in the Industrial Green Revolutions, when farmers began managing larger areas,” he said.

While precision agriculture has many potential uses, it’s most often employed for fertilizer application, said Daniel Lee, a UF assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering and a member of the remote sensing group.

He said a typical scenario begins with a farmer using satellite photographs and map-making technology to divide a field into sub-sections. Then, carrying a satellite receiver to access a global positioning system (GPS) and pinpoint exact locations in the field, the farmer collects soil for fertility analysis.

The resulting data let the farmer make a “fertility map” of the field, showing where nutrients are plentiful or scarce. The data is then used to program a variable-rate applicator mounted on a tractor and linked to GPS. In the field the GPS monitors the position of the tractor or spreader truck while the computer tells the variable-rate applicator how much fertilizer to dispense at any location.

Currently, precision agriculture is most popular in the Midwest, where large producers use it for field crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans, said Craig Kvien, University of Georgia professor of crop and soil sciences stationed at the National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory (NESPAL) in Tifton.

“Fewer crops are grown in the Midwest, so it’s easier to use precision agriculture there,” Kvien said. “In Florida and Georgia, some counties grow 80 to 100 crops. It’s harder for producers to use precision agriculture in smaller, more complex markets, but there is a possibility of greater reward. It’s up to the private sector to determine which aspects of the technology are worth developing.”

Improved crop yield is often considered the goal of precision agriculture, but farmers should instead focus on maximizing their profits, said Charles Moss, UF professor of food and resource economics in Gainesville.

“You have to look at the extra returns precision agriculture will provide, versus the extra costs of using it,” Moss said. “The greater the value of a crop, the more likelihood you can increase profits with precision agriculture. That’s good news for Florida, because we grow many high-value crops here.”

Large-area land management efforts such as citrus and sugarcane farming, forestry and multi-enterprise farms will probably be the first to benefit from precision agriculture in Florida, said Jim Fletcher, former Madison County extension director. Fletcher continues to introduce farmers and ranchers to technologies in his role as Brevard County extension director.

For small farmers, start-up costs for precision agriculture can be as low as $1000, Fletcher said. The minimum expenses are $600 to $800 for a Personal Digital Assistant and GPS antenna, plus several hundred dollars for mapping software.

“The technology has become more affordable in the last five or 10 years,” Fletcher said. “Precision agriculture may not reduce operating expenses, but our research indicates you’ll get a better return on your money.”

In demonstration fields, Fletcher and Halsey use precision agriculture for fertility mapping of cotton, corn, pastures, hay and vegetables. They have demonstrated pesticide application with an all-terrain vehicle that Halsey outfitted with a variable-rate sprayer. This year, Halsey will expand research to include irrigation in cooperation with NESPAL.

“You have to be conversant with information-based technology and computer tools to use precision agriculture, and farmers are busy people,” Fletcher said. “We have to show them that it’s worth not only the money but also the time it takes to get on board.”

UF’s Precision Agriculture and Remote Sensing Group includes faculty in a variety of disciplines who meet to share resources, discuss research opportunities and help chart the future of precision agriculture in Florida, Halsey said.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Further information on UF’s Precision Agriculture and Remote Sensing Group is available at the following Web site: http://pars.ifas.ufl.edu

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