Soil Surveys and Precision Agriculture

Winter meeting have begun and we have been busy with them.  Two weeks ago at the 2nd annual AgData Conference in Iowa City we heard two presentations about the shortcomings using soil surveys to define management zones for precision agriculture.  Tom McGraw, consulting soil scientist brought up the issue in his presentation on the Flaw of averages.  Afterward, I had a discussion with him about the topic.  His comment was that the USDA Soil Survey is the best in the world, but it is not good enough in many cases, to make site specific management decisions.  The Veris tool is a popular way to define management zones based on Electrical conductivity and soil color.  I have seen the Veris work very well and I have seen it not work well. 

Shannon Gomes, like me an old USDA soil scientist made a similar presentation later on.  Gomes is using lots of deep soil borings and an EM meter to define ones.  Gomes says that rather than try to use all the standard soil features to define ones, we can narrow it down to a few such as topsoil texture, color and depth, subsoil texture and dept, available water holding capacity,  and cation exchange capacity.  His methodology sounded kind of expensive, but considering that the work should last, until further refinement is necessary, perhaps it is not too bad.  Gomes did mention that he is looking over all at the five factors of soil formation.  They are:

1. Parent Material
2. Biota (including native vegetation)
3. Topography
4. Climate
5. Time

We try to refine the soil survey in by using GPS to define the boundaries between soils that have similar management considerations based on the five factors of soil formation.  We sometimes end up with rather large ones that contain similar soils,  The large zones are broken down further to end up with 10 acre or smaller zones.  Our process is not expensive, but require us to be o n the ground, and it requires a trained eye.  The photograph below shows zone boundaries as I have defined them in Pike County.  The purple lines are the Soil Survey lines.  You can see that we are gaining signifigant refinement with a relatively simple process. 

Pike County Soil Survey vs GPS defined zones. 

John Deere Data Management

One of the discussion items at the John Deere Media Day was their unveiling of their data collaboration effort.  They are trying to make their data management tools available across many platforms.  This seems to be a switch from APEX which seemed to make collaboration nearly impossible, but I can't say because i have not tried it out.  You can see that Fieldview is involved in the John Deere effort, but they are also trying to come up with their own system.  Putting all your data in one place is a big step, however, at least one participant expressed concern about cloud data being hacked.

Review of Dell Venue 11 Tablet

This spring I bought a Dell Venue 11 to replace my Ipad as a field computer.  I chose the Dell for a number of reasons.  Price was a consideration, but so was the fact that it was a windows computer and there is a hard case (Gumdrop) available for it.  I wrote early about it, but found I needed to delete that blog because issues I raised were later clarified. 

My Archer had decided it did not want to start.  I have had it since 2008 and a 7 year old computer is bound to quit working sooner or later.  I have also been having touch screen issues on my IPAD, so I thought it was time to upgrade at least one field computer.  It seems I have tried and reviewed a lot of different platforms for field work and of course I still have much of that equipment. Last year I upgraded to a Surface Pro 2.  It worked well enough that I decided that a windows tablet would be in order.

I know some consultants who are using Dell tablets to run Farmworks Mobile in the field.  I have used Global Mapper on my Toughbook and on my Surface Pro 2.  I have 2 issues with the Surface Pro 2.  One is price and the other is there is no ruggedized case.  I looked at the Dell tablets and they came equipped with Windows 8.1 and some of them have ruggedized gumdrop cases.  The Venue 11 looked like it would meet all my needs, so I got out the credit card and paid up.  I bought this computer strictly for field use and intended to only load up Global Mapper to use as my mapping software..

When I got the computer, my setup was simple.  I connected to my account and all my apps were transferred over.  I down loaded the latest version of Global Mapper.  When I tested Global Mapper, I found that the right click function does not work with Global Mapper.  To right click on a tablet, you hold the spot for 2 seconds and the appropriate menu pops up.  I called Dell immediately because the right click feature works on my Surface Pro 2.  Dell tech support got into my computer and checked it out.  Since the technician was using a mouse, Global Mapper was fully functional.  He promised to have an experienced technician look at it and get back to me the next day.

The next day, I did get a call as promised, but all they did was confirm my issues and promised another call a day later.  The technician that called back asked if I had contacted Global Mapper, which I had, but I told him that since it worked on the Surface Pro 2 with Windows 8.1, I thought it was their problem.  He asked if I bought it from their app store.  I said it was not available on their app store. He said they only back applications from their app store.  That answer was not very satisfactory to me.  If I want a computer that only runs proprietary stuff, I could buy another IPAD.  I really want the Windows versatility.

I decided to see if my GPS receiver would work, so I hooked up my Garmin Glo.  It paired easily and when I displayed the maps on Global Mapper the GPS function worked.  Global Mapper worked fine ln the Dell with anything I could do with a tap on the screen.  Just the right click won't work with my finger or a stylus.

I need to tell you up front that I have been a fan of Global Mapper since I first purchased it I think in 2007.  They have always been very responsive to issues and have even added features at my request.  Their support has been phenomenal.  I recently upgraded to version 16 and had an issue with using some black and white aerials that I really like.  The problem was corrected in less than 48 hours. Global Mapper's response was less than satisfying as well because they said that they do not support Global Mapper as a mobile app even though I have been using it as such on my Surface Pro 2 for a year. They did agree that it sounds like a Dell issue and not really a problem with their product.

Global Mapper came up with a solution a few days later.  After further checking on the Surface Pro 2 I found that the touch issue was also an issue on it.  It seems that the reason that Touch Mouse Pointer was invented was that Windows 8.1 had issues with the touch screen on certain apps.  It worked well enough that I downloaded it for my Surface Pro 2 as well.  

After solving the touch screen issue, I tested the Dell Venue 11 in the field.  I found that it shut itself down for no particular good reason.  I called Dell support again and they tried to update to the latest operating system. I tested it again and it still shut off.  They had me remove and replace the battery.  No fix with that either.  At this point I was wishing I could send it back for a refund, but I was past 30 days.   Eventually I convinced them I should send it in.  They messed with the operating system, said it was OK and sent it back.  When I had time to reload apps and test to again a couple of weeks later, It quit again rather quickly.  I could always restart it, but that was not acceptable.  Dell support sent me a memory stick that I was supposed to use to re-install the operating system myself.  Tue stick did not work. When I next called Dell support, they said perhaps it was the motherboard.  I sent it in again.  When I got it back it still shut itself off.  I really did not have time to mess with it, so it waited until August.  

In August I called again.  Dell support had me do some do some diagnostics and then told me to send it in again.  When I did, I also badmouthed them on twitter.  It seemed to take about a week to get it back.  With no place to test it, it sat there until fall sampling season started.  They said they had replaced the battery.  

I started the fall sampling season with the Dell.  I was not optimistic, but low an behold it worked.  The second day it was still going.  By setting the screen to light blue, and darkening the lines, visibility is pretty good.  I have to shade it in bright sunlight.  The computer is set to go to standby after 15 minutes.  This preserves the battery a bit.  f I give the start button a quick push it comes back on without logging in.  On standby over 15 minutes I have to use my password.  Battery life is good.  I worked from 9 AM till 5 PM in Schuyler County one day and had plenty of battery.  

I used the dell to record tracks that I use as boundaries between zones.  The tracks can then be exported to a shape file.  I am using One Drive to stove the shape files.  This means when I get home I can draw final maps at my desk without transferring files.  I also you One Drive to move files between Computers.  This setup works great. I do have issues with One Drive at times because it is slow to move large numbers of files.  That is why I try to keep files up to date on each computer individually. The computer seems to be more stable if I lock the screen.  I keep it in horizontal mode  because of the mount I have.  I called Ram-mounts to get them to sell me a mount that would work.  The one they sold me is OK, but not exactly right.  If I had to do that over again I would get a universal mount.  Also, I used a sma;l ball that I had.  I ended up getting larger ball because it was easier to tighten down.  

Once Dell finally solved the problem, I would have to say that the tablet lives up to my expectations.  I am not sure when I will buy another tablet, but it will be a Windows tablet for sure.  I am hesitant to say it will be a Dell because of the ordeal with support.  

Amazing Row Shutoffs

I sampled the extremely irregularly shaped field on Thursday.  The row shutoffs on the planter were amazing.  I did not find any overlap anywhere in the field.  The aerial photo of the field is below so you can see the shape.  

Modern Technology

Last week I had the opportunity to help a fellow consultant with his sampling in the "real" southern Illinois.  He emailed me a shapefile of the fields he wanted sampled several days before.  I converted it to a Google Earth format and zoomed in as close as possible.  It was close enough to see towns and have a relative idea where things were.

I left home very early in the morning.   My friend led me close to the first field I needed to work on and I used GPS to make sure I was there.  I continued to sample, stopping  a total of 7 times.  The whole time, I used the GPS and the Google Earth map to navigate.  It was amazing that I was able to find and sample all the fields.  Without GPS, we might have spent hours just on directions.

Is there a safe way to share data?

Is there a safe way to share data?  I don't know, but I heard a presentation from Farmer's Business Network today. The idea is very compelling.   The network can help you get more information out of your data.  It can also help you get access to other people's data.  The good news is that the actual location of your fields is never revealed.  The network was developed by farmers, and of course clever computer geeks.

The network allows for benchmarking or comparing your operation to others.  The also offer variety performance information tied to soil types.  You can upload data from previous years as well as current data.  Help is available to get data uploaded.  The first year cost is $500.

They are also making satellite imagery and a weather station at discounted rates.  I can understand anyone being leery about data sharing, but if you are interested in doing this, you might want to check it out.

Where are We Going with Precision Agriculture

Sorry, it has been a few days since I posted.  It is hard to have something to say every day.

Today, we had our annual meeting for our midwest consultants group.  We discussed the business aspects of what we do.  We also discussed what various big companies are doing with data management and decision making tools.  One of the things we covered was the flaws in what is being done.  I will not go into who is doing what well and not so well, but the discussion made me realize that we have a lot to learn. 

We started off with guidance and steering systems.  These systems worked better than most people imagined.  From there we went into yield mapping, variable rate fertilizer, and variable rate lime.  The precision fertilizer idea seems to be working out ok, but I have reservations about basing it on grid sampling.  I have written several times about that issue.  People also seem to want to use USDA soil survey maps for precision implementation, but I have reservations about that too. 

Then there is the idea of variable rate pesticides.  Only treat the corner of the field with the problem.  I worry that because if the problem is present in one part of the field it is likely in the whole field to some degree. 

What about variable rate nitrogen.  It seems logical, but just how do we implement that is up for grabs.  Do we use soil based modeling?  Do we use sensors?  Should it be yield based?  Can we forecast the weather well enough?  Can we collect weather data accurately enough?

Variable rate seeding seems like a no brainer, but our varieties respond to different conditions differently.  Weather comes into play as well.  Also, the various soils are good under different conditions.  If you can tell me the three month weather forecast accurately at planting time, I can do a really good planting prescription. 

Then comes the question of whether you should share your data and if you do, who should you share it with? 

We have come a long way, but we have a ling way to go.  Looking back on 10 years in the consulting business, I would not have guessed about where we are now.  I suspect in another 10 years, precision agriculture will look much different than it does now.  The consulting business is an exciting place to be.

Site Specific Management

I debated on writing anything on this topic today, but decided that a summary of my day was in order.  Today I attended the 360 Yield Center Yield Summit in Washington, IL.  Greg Sauder made some compelling presentations on variable rate seeding and Nitrogen management.  He used the day to highlight what his new company is doing and how to fine tune the technical aspects of your farming operation.  Many of his suggestions revolve around his Yield Commander program.  He also discussed residue management and his new snapping rollers for your corn head.  He also discussed two sprayer products, Y-drop for nitrogen application and undercover for fungicide/insecticide application.  His products are thoroughly tested and all of them have merits.  You have to figure out if and how the products fit into your operation.  The pitfall I see in the site specific management is that you need good data to input in order to get good data out of the system.   I could go into much more detail, but I would probably prefer to answer questions about specific products by email. 

Barriers to Adoption of Precision Ag

I have been following a discussion on Linkin about barriers to adopting precision agriculture.  First let me say that precision ag has been around since the beginning of farming.  Farmers have always known that some soils are more productive than others.  As scale of farming got bigger, that fact was ignored.  Now we have the ability to treat unique areas in unique ways using electronic guidance systems.  So why isn't everyone using modern precision techniques.  I am sure there are lots of reasons, but the group seemed to think the following are barriers:

• Customer support
• Ease of use
• Cost
• Cross compatibility issues
• Economic gain not  apparent
• Lack of knowledge about what is needed to adopt
• Lack of good advice

Career Opportunities in Precision Agriculture

One of the complaints about precision agriculture is that customer support can be a bit difficult to get.  It seems that many equipment dealers do not know how their products work with other products. Bright people looking for opportunity could find it  in precision agriculture.  Using precision products to minimize inputs becomes even more important as crop prices drop.  Ag Leader and other manufacturers are making attempts to provide better education in precision agriculture.  Check out Pages 8-11 in Ag Leader Insights. 

Sharing Data with Your Seed Company

Several of the seed companies have started collecting yield, soil, and other data from farmers in an effort to improve production.  There are many pros and cons and we have discussed them on this blog.  Another good discussion was lead by John McGuire a consultant in Ohio who was writing for Farm Futures Magazine.  Today it was called to my attention that our local NPR radio station had put together a good piece on the topic.  Follow the link.  I thought it was well done both on the air and online. 

Surface Pro 2 Review

I recently purchased a Microsoft Surface Pro 2 to replace my Panasonic Toughbook.  The Toughbook gave excellent service, but with Microsoft no longer supporting Windows XP, it had become a virus magnet.

The Surface Pro 2 is loaded with Microsoft's Office 365 which seems like a bargain compared to Microsoft Office of the past.  I also have loaded Global Mapper on it.  Global Mapper works fine.  I had trouble understanding how the pairing with my Garmin Glo Receiver worked, so pulled my hair  out over it.  Once our computer guy solved that, I am able to use it in the field, but not on the 4 wheeler yet.

It comes with a stylus instead of a mouse.  You can also use fingers. I do find being able to touch the screen with my finger can be useful.  I have the bluetooth mouse that I used on the toughbook and despite the good performance of the stylus, I still find cursor control when drawing maps is better with the mouse.  I also bought the solid keyboard to go with it.  The keyboard is a  necessity in my mind although the on screen keyboard is available and I use it some.  Since the solid keyboard has no moving parts, dirt should not be a problem.  It has one USB port, so be prepared for lots of wireless operation.  I have 2 wireless printers, so that is not a problem.  The screen is small, so a good pair of reading glasses is a good thing for an old man like me. 

Windows 8.1 has a much different feel than any other version of windows, but once you get used to it, it is not so bad.

I am disappointed that there is not a ruggedized box for it.  It would be great if Otterbox came out with something.  There is a Rammount.  I want to run it on the four wheeler for sampling, without the keyboard of course.  It looks like I might need to make my own box. 

Setting it up has been a chore to me, but luckily we have a new guy on board who is very helpful with technology.  Over all, I am very happy with the purchase.  I would give it four stars out of five.

Farming in the Sunday Paper

I like to recognize when the popular press does piece on agriculture. When it is badly done, I say so.  The  St.Louis Post-Dispatch did a rather long article today on precision agriculture in the business section. I thought it was well done.  This is how the public learns about farming.  We need to know what is being said about us.

Precision Ag Terminology

There are so many terms in precision ag that are acronyms, that it is sometimes intimidating to someone try to decide what their needs are.  There are so many acronyms that it almost looks like government bureaucrats came up with this stuff.  Well maybe they did come up with some of it. Ag Leader  put together this brief article , Making Sense of Precision Ag's Alphabet Soup to help you out.  I could not do better myself so just click on the link. 

Getting Tired of Winter? Is your Planter Ready?

Planting season could start in 60 days or so.  Are you ready?  We have the ability to place crop protectants and seed with great accuracy, but are we doing that?  Planting is especially critical when it comes to corn.  The more evenly space we are within rows, the better off we are.  We want even spacing no matter what the row width.  We also want uniform planting depth so that the crop will all emerge at the same time.  I have seen some research that says if all plants emerge within 72 hours, it is close enough.  I would say the closer we get to all corn out of the ground within 24 hours, the better off we are.  Precision Planting offers their top ten tips for making sure your planter is ready. 

Nitrogen Sensors Revisited

Bob Bottens made a presentation last week on being more effective with fertility in No-Till Corn.  His presentation was the most disappointing one I attended.  The quality of the presentation was fine, the disappointment was in his findings.  You may recall that I reported on research out of the University of Missouri by Peter Scharf.  Dr. Scharf had very positive results with GreenSeeker technology.  Bottens also researched the GreenSeeker and found some disappointing quirks.  He found that the amount of nitrogen metered out depended on which direction he was traveling in the field. He shared his monitor data to show what was happening.  Because the GreenSeeker measures the light reflected off the leaf, the amount of green reflected depends on which direction the light is coming from.  Good photographers know this.  He found the same at night depending on what lighting he was using.  He did not talk about how often or when he calibrated.  Scharf did tell us that frequent calibration is needed.

Scharf's results were very positive.  It could be that the good results outweigh the shortcomings.  I expect that Trimble is working on the GreenSeeker to correct this issues, and I expect that they can be overcome.  It is just something to keep in mind if you are using the technology.  Botten's information also emphasized the need for frequent calibration. 

Ipad Update

I bought my IPAD2 just over a year ago on Thanksgiving with the intention of using it to display my maps in the field for sampling purposes.  You can see below that it made it through the spring and fall season no worse for the wear.  The Otterbox seems tough as nails.  The Ram Mount works great.  You can see my zones on the display.  On the lower left, the little black thing is a Garmin Glo receiver.  The receiver is necessary because I did not purchase an Ipad with a data card.  The Garmin Glo is hooked up by Bluetooth and works with any Ipad, even the original.  It will also work on a laptop.  If you have a WIFI only Ipad, you need an IOS compatible GPS receiver.  Not all work on IOS.

Battery Life is about 6 1/2 hours and I only ran out of battery once on the last sample of the day one day.  If I am loading on the truck and moving, I put the Ipad on standby which seems to get me just about as much battery life as I need.  

If I had it to do over, I would by a newer model Ipad with a data card.  Advantages of the newer models are:

• Retina Display
• Better Camera
• No External Receiver needed. 
• Also, If you purchase a data plan, you get aerial photos any time you are within range of an internet signal. 

Another way to deal with the internet signal would be to get a WIFI hotspot or use your phone as a hotspot.  I am not sure how long the phone battery would last.  

Ipad2 WIFI

Precision Farming and Data Privacy

Who gets to see my precision farming data?  If you are collecting precision farming data, who gets to look at it?  If you are using a product that uses "cloud storage"  your information may be available to those who have sold you the applications you are using.  Be sure to check it out.  Farm Bureau Resolutions Committee is looking at precision farming and privacy issues.  If you are a Farm Bureau member, perhaps you should weigh in on the issue.  A recent request to EPA for data on individual livestock farmers is one of the issues that prompted a need to look at the issue.

Check out what John McGuire had to say on the subject in February in his Farm Futures Blog. 

Using my Ipad Soil Sampling

I used my IPAD as my primary guidance tool in the field this spring.  It has worked better than anything else I have ever used.  I am using Ipad2 WIFI.  It does not have a data card, so it requires an external Bluetooth GPS.  I am using a Garmin Glo.  The app I am using is GISRoam.  At start up I sometimes have trouble with GISRoam recognizing the GPS on start up.  In other words, the cursor is not on the screen.   I sometime have to reboot two or three times.  I think it is a start up sequence problem, but once it is going it stays going. Battery life is 6 to 7 hours.  That is about all I can work anyway.  If you want to conserve battery you can put it on standby between stops.  Screen visibility is not great with the sun at your back, but you can darken lines and usually see it OK. I can visualize farmers using this setup to keep records on maps.  I have set up two customers already.

I recommend buying a model with a data card.  I think the newer models have better visibility too. 

Durability is good with the Otterbox.  I used it for an hour today in a light rain with no problem.  It also meets the test of time as I have sampled more than ever before.  Over all I rate it a 7 out of 10.  Nothing else I have gets higher than a 5.  There are flaws in all of them.  My previous blog had a rundown. 

Still Sampling Corn

We still have corn ground to sample, but most of it is not as big below.  I walked that 100 acre field.  Some of the corn was neck high, but the stand was very uneven because of wetness.  The good news is that this field was past the brittle stage so it was easy to walk through.  We try to sample corn within 2 or 3 weeks of planting but sometimes we miss some and get a good cardio workout.  The interesting part of sampling this was I used my Droid to keep track of where my zone boundaries were.  I used the Locus Free app and had to convert files to gpx format but it worked very well and you can't beat it for light weight.