Members and Prospective Members of the Precision Agriculture Research Association, (PARA)

The reorganized PARA (Precision Agriculture Research Association) will hold its monthly meeting beginning at 9:00 a.m. in the basement of the Wheat Building located in Great Falls at 750 6 SW, Great Falls, Montana.

The elected officers for 1999 are:
Carl Mattson, President
Mike Choriki, Vice-President
Bruce Wright, Secretary/Treasurer
Steve Raska, Board Member
Gary Arnst, Board Member

The concept of PARA originated with a group of producers who had been working in the realm of site-specific farming issues. Many of these producers have or had projects with either MSU directly or MSU Extension. With the help of MSU staff and monies from UMAC (Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium) the organization was established in January 1997 as a non-profit organization, producer driven, with the goals in mind of sharing and helping each other out as we all attempt to accomplish various GPS/GIS tasks.

It was until the fall of 1998 that Chuck Merja was successful in getting a group of producers together at which time we began the sharing of ideas and needs as a group. It was decided to take the concept of PARA, which was already in place, and become active. Since that time, the loosely organized group had the opportunity to attend a UMAC "learning" session at MSU under the direction of Jerry Nielsen and staff from the University. As a group, PARA felt there was a need for all of us sharing information to be using similar software, especially on the GIS side when analyzing the data and creating maps. Through negotiations, a few copies of "SSToolbox" are being used by some of the PARA members to help the group and the University decide if that software is the tool we wish to pursue using.

Dr. Dan Long, from Northern Agricultural Research Center at Havre, has been invited to the February 17 meeting to share ideas with the producers about how to develop a "trial" on our farms for crop season 1999. Dan will suggest projects he feels would be of value to precision agriculture. Time permitting, he will give us guidelines on how a trial should be set up in order to meet the standards necessary to gather information of statistical credibility. We will discuss if we, as individual producers, wish to do something of our own in 1999 in addition to a "trial" in which our methods are similar as a group.

Membership to the PARA organization is open to the public. Presently, members include producers, ag industry, and university academia. It is felt we can learn from each other no matter what our experience has been in site-specific farming. It was voted that the due structure would be a flat $100 per farm per year, with each year being a calendar year.

Anyone wondering if PARA is an organization that can provide something to them in their pursuit of precision farming are welcome to attend a meeting and then make a commitment (in the form of dues) thereafter. Since the organization is in a stage of infancy, it is still forming its "direction" and looking for input from its members. Tentatively, the meetings have been scheduled for the third Wednesday of each month, with the location moving around the state. Discussion will be held as to whether or not we will meet during the months of seeding and harvest.

If interested, please join us on February 17, 1999 at 9:00 a.m. in the Wheat Building in Great Falls.

Annual Membership Dues

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The PARA (Precision Agriculture Research Association) organization has undergone some changes. There is a new board of directors, new officers, and a new focus on the goals of the organization. Along with the restructuring of PARA comes a new dues structure. The old system was a sliding dues scale, based on a member's revenue. That system is gone. PARA will now collect annual dues of $100 per representative per year. The new year began January 1, 1999. Anyone wishing to submit their dues may do so by sending them to either:

New Website Updates!

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The PARA site can be found at clay.msu.montana.edu/para. There are now back issues of the newsletter posted, as well as links to other sites, information on the officers and directors, and more. Make sure to try out the new member forum. Check it out!!

Dates of Interest

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3/8/1999
Agriculture in the 21st Century

There is plenty of evidence the structure of agriculture is changing rapidly. To provide a forum for discussing ways this change can be made to benefit Iowa, ISU is sponsoring a satellite program on March 8th. Keynote speaker will be Michael Boehlje, agricultural economics professor at Purdue University. Also speaking will be Bruce Babcock, Director of ISU's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development. Audience questions will be called to the broadcast origination site in Ames and answered during two question-and-answer periods. There is a $20 registration fee to cover the cost of lunch, support materials, etc. Broadcast time is 8:45 a.m. and ends at 3:00 p.m. To inquire about locations please contact C. Phillip Baumel, ISU Department of Economics, 460 Heady Hall, Ames, IA 50011, or call 515-294-7318.

3/15/1999 to 3/19/1999
12th GIS in Production Agriculture Workshop

The upcoming 12th GIS in Production Agriculture Workshop, a week-long, in-depth look at the world of precision farming and GPS/GIS technologies is sponsored by Farmer's Software Association and held at the Ag-Chem Technology and Education Center in Jackson, MN from March 15th through 19th, 1999. The workshop will provide attendees with timely information and hands-on learning about mapping procedures, data analysis, and GIS capabilities. The two-day Introduction to Site-Specific Farming Methods session provides basic concepts and skills necessary for successful adaptation and implementation of the technology. The one-day GPS Equipment Calibration and Yield Mapping Fundamentals session provides hands-on GPS set-up, calibration, and signal collection, along with acquiring skill in processing yield data and evaluating yield maps. The two-day Advanced Spatial Analysis Tools session will extend insight in understanding the concepts, statistical methods, and issues of spatial data examination. These sessions will enable you to go beyond "pretty maps" to a fully operational management system through the instructions of Dr. Joe Berry and others. Application areas to be discussed include map analysis, precision economics, fertility management, GPS navigation, aerial imaging, yield mapping, soil sampling, on-farm variety trials, and video mapping. Also learn more about SoilRx, a new multivariate spatial analysis tool from Red Hen Systems. For more information, visit our web site at http://www.farmsoft.com/agchem99.html or contact Farmer's Software Association at 970-493-1722. For more information contact: Carol Snyder at 970-493-1722.

6/21/1999 to 6/24/1999
4th Int'l Airborne Remote Sensing Conference and Exhibition

Ottawa,Ontario Canada
Organized by ERIM. Contact ERIM Airborne Conferences, Box 134001, Ann Arbor, MI 48113-4001. For more information contact: ERIM at phone 313/994-1200 ext.3234 fax 313/994-5123 e-mail wallman@erim.org

Western Precision Agriculture Conference

http://www.eus.wsu.edu/c&i/programs/precisionag.htm
The last conference was hosted by Washington State University, in cooperation with the University of Idaho and the Idaho Precision Agriculture Association. Currently, there are no plans for a 1999 conference. The next conference is slated for the year 2000.

For membership or other information: Contact: Bruce Wright at osmose@aol.com or Chris Erlien at cerlien@montana.edu