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Auburn Researchers and Extension
Specialist Build Field of Dreams
(Dr. Paul Mask,
Extension agronomist and precision farming coordinator, inspects crop
residue with Jose Terra, Auburn University doctoral student in
agronomy. The two are involved in a massive research effort
focusing how how precision farming techniques can be more effectively
merged into a seamless crop management system. )
Auburn,
Aug. 26, 2003
--- It
could be described as a field of dreams --- 20 acres of cropland at
the E.V. Smith Research Center near Montgomery where Auburn University
scientists and Extension specialists are testing everything they know
about precision farming.
“The main thing we
wanted to do was to put all the things we know about precision
agriculture into a field to try and answer a few basic questions,”
said Jose Terra, an agronomist with Uruguay’s National Institute of
Agricultural Research who was sent to Auburn University three years
ago to earn his doctorate in agronomy. The insight gained from this
experiment will be the focus of his doctoral dissertation.
In the process of
answering these questions, Terra and other scientists hope to learn
how all of the elements associated with this new technology can be
merged into one seamless, workable crop management system. Still, as
he is the first to admit, this is easier said than done. Agronomy,
after all, traditionally has been a very diverse field --- one in
which many different kinds of experts hold their own unique piece of
the puzzle.
But precision
farming, like so many other new farming technologies, is forcing them
to wear many different hats. And many agronomists are among the first
to admit it’s high time they did.
“In the past, I
think we have taken a piecemeal approach,” said Dr. Paul Mask, an
Alabama Cooperative Extension System agronomist, Auburn University
professor of agronomy and coordinator of Extension’s precision farming
program who, along with Terra, has been intimately involved with the
research from the start. “One scientist studied the effect of ph,
while another studied nitrogen. We needed to move past that --- and
we have.”
The field of
dreams is one tangible expression of this new approach. From the very
beginning, it’s been a very big project involving lots of experts --
experts willing to wear new hats.
Most importantly,
Mask said, is that it is highly practical research that “mimics what
goes on in a producer’s field and that combines all the issues they’re
facing.”
It has also
involved ambitious goals and an almost superhuman effort.
“First, we wanted
to see how we can develop management zones for different types of
crops --- in this case, a corn/cotton rotation,” Terra said. “Second,
we wanted to learn how precision worked with two different types of
soil management systems, conservation and conventional tillage.”
Grid sampling
throughout the field also has yielded a staggering amount of soil
data.
“That adds up to
500 hundred positions in all where we have collected soil samples
within the past two years,” he said.
Yield monitors are
being used to determine the productivity of every square foot of the
field. The yields are then compared with soil data and other key
factors such as topography and water consumption.
Next, GIS is used
to “overlap this information and see everything that goes on,” he
said.
What they’ve
learned so far is that conservation tillage used in conjunction with
precision farming offers huge advantages in areas of the fields that
are limited from the standpoint of productivity --- those with slopes,
lower fertility or problems with water and rotation capacity, Terra
said.
But just as the
research has instilled Terra and Mask with an appreciation for the
advantages of this new technology, it has also provided them with a
better understanding of what shouldn’t be done.
“It really has
given us a grasp of limits,” he added. “When I got into this
business, my idea was to take those lower productivity areas, find out
what’s wrong with them and make them productive. “
However, Mask said
they quickly learned now naďve that approach was and had to abandon
it.
“As Jose
mentioned, in a lot of these areas the physical properties of the soil
or their position in the landscape limit what they can do.
“And there is
nothing Jose and I, as agronomists, can do in the short run to change
that. It sort of gets back to the old prayer, ‘God give me the
patience to accept what I can’t change.’
“We’re trying to
match inputs with productivity,” he said. “In other words, if a soil
is capable of yielding a hundred bushels per acre of corn, we
shouldn’t be fertilizing it to produce 150. So you match these inputs
with what you can do.”
This, Mask said,
accomplishes two things. First, it helps farmers see the bottom
line. Second, by lowering inputs in areas of the field where they’re
not needed, it reduces potentially adverse effects on the environment.
(Source: Dr. Paul
Mask, Extension Agronomist and Precision Farming Coordinator,
334-844-5490.)
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