Precision Farming Project Tests Crop-Yield Questions

Technology brought the world to Larry Rothe's farm outside Wiggins.

Launched in 1997, a multi-disciplinary Precision Farming Project in northeastern Colorado started with a question: "how to decrease yield variability?"

Rothe and other area farmers had long been looking for answers on how to deal with varying crop yields within specific fields for their traditional farming methods. Burgeoning technology was making it possible to map fields and pinpoint yield levels, but acquiring that technology cost thousands of dollars. So the question remained.

Then gradually, that original question blossomed into a high-tech project with four test plots on farms in Wiggins, Yuma and Greeley, under the study of as many as 18 scientists and 30 graduate students, some from as far away as India and Pakistan. Bruce Bosley, Colorado State University Extension area cropping systems specialist, said that experts have scrutinized such wide-ranging factors as soil composition, water application, weeds, insects and plant diseases and how they affect yields. And because the project takes place in multiple counties, it tests yield factors on a regional basis.

"The neat thing about the project is the collaboration of many different disciplines," Bosley said. "It's everyone working together using technology to see how the different aspects of field factors impact yields. It includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, Colorado State researchers, Extension specialists, and private industry cooperators, including irrigation, fertilizer and computer technology companies."

Dale Heermann, USDA-ARS, chairs the project's research management team. He explained that precision agriculture techniques bring the information age to crop production with an objective to apply the right amount of inputs to the right place at the right time. Industry is providing new tools and technologies to make this possible--including yield monitors, variable-rate application equipment, remote sensing interfaced with Global Positioning Systems--GPS, and geographic information systems--GIS, for determining position and analyzing data.

"The challenge for the project is to join the science of crop production with development of knowledge to provide economic and environmental benefits to farmers," Heermann said. "Participants learn from each other and from the different disciplines involved in the entire production system. It is exciting to be on the cutting edge of new technology and to add to the science expertise that will allow farmers to wisely adopt new technologies."

In addition to Heermann and Bosley, the project management committee includes Extension faculty--Philip Westra, weed specialist; Frank Peairs, entomology specialist and Raj Khosla, agronomy specialist; Soil and Crop Science Professor Dwayne Westfall; and Kim Fleming, the project's field coordinator since its inception.

"For me it's kind of fun," Rothe said. "I get to meet all kinds of people and see all kinds of research. It's interesting to talk with faculty, because you always learn a little bit from all these different people and their different disciplines." His 173-acre center-pivot circle has been planted in corn since the project began, but this year scientists will switch to study potatoes.

On Bob Geisick's nearly 2,500-acre Wiggins farm, which he farms with his brothers Ron, Rodger and Gary, a 133-acre circle has been devoted to the Precision Farming Project since its beginning. The Geisicks took information from the project and fine-tuned a zone-management technique. Using a yield map or aerial photos, they drew zones of high-producing soils, and mapped out medium- and lower-producing areas. Then they adjusted fertilizer applications and applied different amounts in an attempt to even out the field. They determined exactly how to adjust fertilizer, water and other inputs.

The experts are still working on the question--is it better to put less inputs--fewer seeds and less fertilizer--on low-yielding areas, and more in the areas that yield well, or the reverse? Bosley said, "I think the scientists are leaning to less, but the farmers aren't convinced yet." The test plots have yet to yield one definitive answer, but farmers are using information from the project.

For Rothe, the project has yielded a few surprises. "I found out that in one particular part of the field, I've been over-applying nitrogen by almost 100 pounds--about $25 worth--per acre," he said. "If I can match applications to soil tests, I can save money by not over-applying fertilizer." Rothe has gleaned similar research results for water application, insects and weeds. "Too much water was being applied in some parts of the field, and weeds and insect pests were less of a factor in affecting yields than we thought," he said.

Bosley said the study has been able to demonstrate to cooperating farmers how various field factors interact with each other and how they can rely on information gathered from their fields to reduce inputs. "We've been able to show that 10 inches of extra water may be good insurance, but it also leaches nitrogen from the root zone," he said.

The Precision Farming Project serves as a reminder that successful farming relies on asking questions, seeking answers and embracing change. "Producers who are invested in watching it and tinkering with it are more willing and ready to change. They tend to be the survivors in the long run," Bosley said.

--Sue Lenthe

For more information, contact your local Colorado State University Extension office.

Go to top of this page.

Uploaded Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Error processing SSI file