Joel Gruver WIU- Agriculture

j-gruver@wiu.edu (309) 298 1215

Precision Organics Opportunities for improved efficiency and

effectiveness of field operations

WIU/Allison Farm Field Day

I am not an ag engineer or a techie

PRECISION

Currently only available upon request Will soon be downloadable

from our website

http://www.wiu.edu/cbt/agriculture/farms/organic/

High tech precision & old school attention to detail

Some larger-scale organic grain farmers like Lynn

Brakke are using a lot of precision technology

In 2012, I witnessed a new level of attention to detail

Sweeps were adjusted many times

throughout the day to achieve desired soil

flow into the row

105 F in the shade :-<

http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Organic%20weed%20control_aug02.pdf

Excellent article by Mary and Klaas Martens

Dad… just think what we can do

with RTK guidance on this farm!

Attention to detail is key to success in all types of farming

It takes a high level of skill and will to be a successful organic

farmer!

How many of you can plant a straight row?

Whatever skill level you bring to the table can be augmented by GPS guidance technology

Farmers like Mike Findlay are using RTK guidance on both their planter and cultivating

tractors but planting with guidance makes cultivating

without guidance much easier

Blind cultivation is also enhanced by guidance

Ridge-till - the original guidance and controlled traffic system

http://www.slideshare.net/jbgruver/ridgetill-succesful-farming-jan-1986

AgriCanada

Without restricted

traffic, most field

surfaces receive

traffic each year

Most of the power required for tillage is associated with undoing wheel traffic

RTK-guidance/auto-steer makes

controlled traffic much easier

www.mitchellfarm.com

Strip intercropping: 2010: 230 bu/ac

Jacob Bolson and Roger Knutson

http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/precision-ag/farming-edge-strip-intercropping- edges-capture-more-light-reward-higher-yields

www.cedarvalleyinnovation.com

More light = More yield

1. Enhanced guidance and connectivity,

implements guiding tractors

and not the other way around

2. Autonomous machines? Eventually

3. Smarter telemetrics

4. Better sensors

5. Improve diesel fuel economy

6. Emission regs drive change

7. Small is big

8. Going electric

8 ways that your equipment may get smarter

http://www.hoosieragtoday.com/index.php/2012/03/04/the-end-of-the-chemical-era/

Big equipment companies are starting to design new cultivation tools for

controlling herbicide resistant weeds

A few companies even specialize in precision

cultivation

“Flexibility to satisfy all your hoe requirements”

The Tillet Weeder uses computer technology and a spinning blade to remove weeds. Note the disc-shaped cultivation blade with a notched cut-out to

allow the blade to spin around transplanted cabbage.

Garford dealer – Canadian company that sells into the Upper Midwest

http://bluerivert.com/

start up company – no commercial products yet

BRTs vision for the future

The founding team is two brothers, one a large-scale dairyman from NY State and the

other an engineer and environmental scientist based in Minnesota. We are working closely

with a robotics team that has deep experience engineering high-quality products for

agriculture and other markets. start up company no commercial products yet

Robotic weeding 1 row at a time?????

Precise banding will probably be needed for ROI

What is PRECISION COVER CROPPING???

1) Planting of cover crops with a precision planter

2) strategic placement of cover crop rows in relation to other cover cover rows and/or the following cash

crop rows (often using GPS guidance)

3) Strategic placement of cover crops in specific fields or parts of fields

4) Selection and management of cover crops to

achieve specific objectives

Precision planting

http://www.extension.org/pages/64400/radishes-a-new-cover-crop-for-organic-farming-systems

September 2008

Attempt #2

Radish planted on 30” rows using small milo plates in mid-August 2010

Attempt #3

Cover crop system Relative

corn yield

Volunteer oats 79%

Radishes planted on 30” 99%

Radishes drilled on 7.5” 91%

Corn following cover crop experiment (2011)

Corn planted directly over radish rows

May 2012

Radish planted on 30” rows with RTK guidance on August 29th right before Hurricane Isaac rolled in

4 days later

7 days after planting

10 days after planting

~ 1 month later

Why are the inter-rows so clean?

We had just cultivated the radishes!

+20 bu/a corn in plots w/ fall cultivation vs.

no cultivation of radish in 2012

~ 2 weeks later

December 2012

We are planning to plant corn directly over the radish rows in 2013

Precision planted radishes w/ peas from 5 ft of row

Precision radishes w/o peas

Radishes with peas were ~20% larger

Crimson clover

Green lentils

Fava beans

We are using small plots to identify cover crops that

play well together

Chick peas

Sunflower

Rapeseed

Oats

Phacelia

Do you want both species to

winter kill?

Planted with a drill in late September 2012

Radish

Cereal Rye

Radish Radish

Cereal Rye

Precision planting may allow you to plant your cover crops later

Little radishes can have

long roots!

Would you be comfortable planting a field in this

condition?

Planting right on top of ridged

radishes

Last fall we set up a 6 row bar with Yetter Mavericks

We plan to freshen rows before planting as needed

Why is there rapeseed on the edge of this bean field?

We ran rapeseed (2 lbs/a) through insecticide boxes

while planting these soybeans

40 lbs of cereal rye planted directly over soybean rows in 2011

The cereal rye and rapeseed both died when the crop canopied. No significant

effect on yield, some in-row weed suppression in 2011

Insecticide boxes do a good job of metering small seeds

+20 lbs N/a

A little extra N can make a big difference

Triple S mix Sunflowers, Soybeans & Sunnhemp

What do you think is in this CC

cocktail?

You won’t really know what is in a mix unless you design it.

Aerial seeded annual ryegrass in April 2012

10’ Howard Rotavator tilling ~ 3” deep with C blades

Annual ryegrass after chisel plowing

Chiseling before rotavating worked best!

Planting into poorly digested red clover residues

25-50% stand loss Near perfect stands in all other corn

plots on the farm this past spring

Organic No-till?

Rodale roller

Cultimulcher

Much less weed seed

germination

…but few options for

weed termination

Early July 2009

August 2009

Early November 2009

Plot yields ranged from 51.6 to 58.6 bu/ac

No significant differences between systems

November 2010

Plot yields ranged from 42-52 bu/ac

Significant foxtail pressure but almost no broadleaf weeds

November 2011

The NT bean plots yielded ~10 bu more than the best

tillage system plots

April 2012

May 10 2012

Double drilled with 4” offset

Mid June

All of July :-<

NT bean yields ranged from ~ 30 to ~ 60 bu/a

60 b/a in wet hole

30-40 b/a in well drained areas

Our cleanest and best yielding beans in 2012 were conventional-till but we have not been able to achieve

this level of weed control every year.

Where are the soybeans??

Traditional organic weed management often comes up short during wet years

A strong stand of cereal rye was incorporated ~ 2 weeks before these soybeans were planted

Cover Crops

Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)

CCs affect many agronomic factors simultaneously

Feed livestock

Control erosion

? ?

Increase management

Host pests

Become a weed

Prevent soil drying

Dry out soil excessively

Interfere w/ equipment

performance Suppress crop

growth

Tie up N

Add cost

Cover Crops

Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)

Not all effects are positive

Greater precision in farming practices increases the likelihood of

intended outcomes

More positive and fewer negative effects

This is what we were hoping for in the field where we ended up planting our

precision radish experiment in fall 2012!

This is what we may end up with :-<