Montana State University |
Montana State University |
by Carol Flaherty
11/21/00 Fife, Mont. - Whether or not hi-tech tools help ag producers increase profit, producers at a Fife field day say they'd never go back to farming without the information they get with the help of global positioning system satellites.
With GPS, producers record information about almost anything -- soils, weeds, yield and chemical history for specific places in their fields. They can use that information to guide management decisions or field applications.
The producers at Fife described very different GPS uses, but all who spoke said they're farming smarter with site specific management than they were before.
Tracy Beeman of Broadview said that in a field that had never yielded more than 30 bushels per acre, he reduced fertilizer by 10 percent and increased yield to 44 bushels per acre. In other fields, Beeman cut fertilizer by 50 percent and increased yield a few bushels per acre. Overall, he reduced his fertilizer applications by 40 percent by matching fertilization to yield potential.
It was quite a lot of work to get to that success. Beeman and Mike Choriki of B & C Ag Consultants in Billings knew Beeman's fields had great soil variability, said Choriki.
"Before GPS, we had no way of mapping the variability and working with it," said Choriki. Relying on extensive soil testing was unrealistic for thousands of acres. The two began mapping soil conductivity to give them a hint about the soils, then did extensive but not universal soil sampling to get more details.
Adding soil sampling to the raw conductivity numbers is "time consuming, but it has to be done," said Choriki. "If you try to use the raw numbers, you won't get the results you hope for."
After mapping the soil depths and programming that pattern into a fertilizer spreader, Beeman greatly reduced fertilizer on the extremely shallow soils, and increased fertilizer on the deep soils.
Each speaker described specific goals, not all-inclusive use of GPS tools.
Gary Arnst of Valier said his goal is to get the best wheat-barley-canola rotation he can.
"Crop quality is what I'm after," said Gary Arnst of Valier. "I'm trying to apply less nitrogen so I don't hurt my malting barley."
Steve and Lola Raska of Fife hosted the field day, which was sponsored by the producer-led Precision Agriculture Research Association and Montana State University. PARA is a nonprofit association of GPS users and providers who work with new technologies that are practical for precision agriculture.
Steve Raska, who is a director of PARA, said that so far he doesn't need to use GPS for weed control.
"We've had such good results spot spraying, I'm still inclined to keep doing things that way for a while," said Raska. Spot-spraying is "common sense" and doesn't require GPS, though the technology can help by recording where spot applications have been made. Raska has built a double-boom truck sprayer so he can turn on a herbicide spray when he approaches a patch of weeds. Raska said he "hated spraying a part of the field that didn't need it."
Raska contracts his harvest, but even though he doesn't own a combine, until recently he did own two GPS-based yield monitors. He sold them because the group he contracts with now has their own yield monitors.
GPS is "another utility," he added. "It's the same as power and lights and gas. If you can go out in the field and know exactly where you are standing compared to last season's wild oats, there is value in that."
Even if you don't keep detailed yield records, there's immense value in watching the yield monitor without collecting the data, said Raska. He said it makes him ask questions like, "Why is the yield going up or down at that place." He added that he is confused about why people would spend $150,000 for a combine but think $3,000 is too much for a yield monitor.
Raska started using GPS by building yield maps, then added maps of spot herbicide applications. Now after four years, he's starting to work on site-specific fertilizer application on one field.
"You can't try to do everything when you begin. Just pick a place to start," he advised.
Owning GPS equipment is not the only way of using GPS, DeImna Heiken, manager of Triangle Agricultural Services of Fort Benton told the group.
She described the circumstances in which her company can, and can't, save producers money using GPS to guide wild oat control.
Most of the savings in controlling weeds comes from reducing chemical use, said Heiken.
Because of that, the greatest savings come with moderate weed infestations. In very light weed infestations, a producer may be better off avoiding herbicides altogether and simply pulling the weeds, she said. In heavy infestations, there isn't much chemical that can be saved, because a land owner ends up spraying most of the field anyway.
In moderate weed infestations, however, Heiken said producers can save $5-8 per acre in weed control by hiring the work out to a GPS firm like hers. She will come in and map the field's weeds, then arrange for GPS-guided herbicide application on only the weedy sites. Even though the work is hired out, it costs less than the chemicals a producer would use when spraying an entire field.
Wild oat map
volunteered
by Chuck Merja
at the GPS Field Day.
MSU researchers told the group that GPS information is revealing new questions to ask about weed control.
Bruce Maxwell, an MSU weeds researcher, said a study showed that crop density was low in wild oat areas, reducing the benefits of weed control on some sites.
"There may be another problem we have to find," said Maxwell.
To find out more about PARA, you can call (406) 994-6034, mail the organization at P.O. Box 5326, Bozeman, Montana 59717 or visit its web site at: http://www.montana.edu/places/para/index.html
Or you can contact Carl Mattson, PARA president (406) 292-3623; Mike Choriki, PARA vice president, (406) 259-5779, mdchoriki@aol.com, or Bruce Wright, PARA secretary-treasurer at Osmose@aol.com
Send questions or comments to Carol Flaherty, MSU Communications Services, Bozeman, MT 59717 or to Jerry Nielsen, Dan Long and Flaherty with this link to all three: carolf@montana.edu.
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