Transcript What - Precision Agriculture, SOIL4213, Oklahoma State University.

Blake Flurry
What is Precision Farming?
Precision farming is a farming
management concept based on
observing and responding to intrafield variations. Today, precision
agriculture is about whole farm
management with the goal of
optimizing returns on inputs while
preserving resources. Today
precision farming relies on new
technologies like satellite imagery,
information technology, and
geospatial tools. It is also aided by
farmers’ ability to locate their
precise position in a field using
satellite positioning system like the
GPS or other GNSS.
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Why Is Precision Important?
It’s expected that the world’s population will reach 9.8 billion people, which is
34 percent higher than today’s population. Much of this growth will happen in
developing countries like Brazil, which has the largest area in the world with
the most arable land for agriculture. In order to keep up with rising
populations and income growth, global food production must increase by 70
percent in order to be able to feed the world. This is where precision
agriculture comes in.
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Why is Precision Important?
Precision agriculture technologies are becoming
more and more essential to farming each year.
As the world’s population increases each year
the amount of agriculture land used for food
production decreases per person. For Example:
In 1967 there were 4.2 acres of cropland/person,
while in 2007, just 1.4 acres of cropland/person
were available. By the year 2030 its is projected
that there will be less than half an acre per
person in the world. This means that producer’s
will have to use precision technologies to
produce enough food for the world on the acres
that are still in production then.

Why Is Precision Important?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates there are 2.1 million farms in the United States,
using 941 million acres of land, with production worth $200 billion a year. American farmers
annually spend $23 billion for fertilizer, chemicals and seeds and $9 billion for fuel and
energy costs. With all of the costs that producers incur today many of them are relying on
precision ag technologies to help them be more precise with their inputs and in return cut
their costs and ultimately increase their yields and profit margins.
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What can precision
farming do for you?
•Improve Crop Yield.
•Provide information to make better
management decisions.
•Reduce chemical and fertilizer costs
through more efficient application.
•Provide more accurate farm records.
•Increase profit margin.
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•Reduce pollution.

What Can Precision Farming Do For You?
The top benefits growers listed from their use of precision agriculture
technology were:
1.) the ability to apply chemicals and fertilizer where needed.
2.) greater profitability due to lower input costs.
3.) identification of poor producing areas of their fields.
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Payback of Using Precision Ag:
85% of corn growers, 88 %of cotton growers and 100 % of soybean
growers indicated their operation has been more profitable using
precision agriculture technology.
The average input savings per acre for these producers that
are using precision ag technologies with inputs including
seed, fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and time
and labor were $19 per acre for corn, $18.50 per acre for
soybeans and up to $39 per acre for cotton.
 Payback

of Using Precision Ag:
Doug Martin has been using strip tillage and the Trimble GIS
system on his planter on his central Illinois farm since 2009 and has
found that using this precision technology has saved him an
average of:
Eliminated 2-3 tillage applications a year

1500 hours of labor a year
3.5 gallons per acre of over application of fertilizers a year

$19,000 in fuel cost per year
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Payback of Using
Precision Ag:
The NRCS performed an
experiment using a simple
guidance system on a spray
rig used on a 1,000 acre farm
with a continuous corn crop
and found that the guidance
system reduced overlap from
24 in to 2 in across the field
which saved the farmer
$13,000 in over applications
and fuel costs.
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Payback of Using Precision
Ag:
Growers using precision ag
implements on their operation
reported an average annual saving
of 15% per year on seed, fertilizer
and chemical inputs. With this
money these producers are saving,
they are able to pay off their
investments quicker. Many of the
larger producers are reporting
paying off their precision ag
investments within the first year
while the smaller producers report
paying their investments off in as
little 2-3 years.
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55% of farmers said that cost is their biggest concern
when it comes to investing in precision ag technology.
Investment
Payback Period
Light bar guidance on a
tractor used for tillage
and fertilizer application
300 Acres
Universal autosteer on a
tractor used for tillage
and fertilizer application
400-500 Acres
Integrated autosteer on a
tractor used for tillage,
fertilizer application and
planting
900 Acres
Seed-row shutoff clutches
1500 Acres
 The Future of Precision Ag:
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A 1998 survey of over
10,000 American
farmers revealed that:
70% were not aware of
precision ag technologies
2% were aware but were not
adopters
Less than 5% had adopted
some aspect of precision ag

The Future of Precision Ag:
Today it is estimated that 58% of U.S. producers are using some form of precision
ag technology on their operation. It is also projected that 87% of the producers that
are not using precision technology today will implement some form of precision
technology into their operation within the next 10 years. This leaves only 5.5% of
the U.S. producers that will still not be using any form of precision technology by
the year 2023.

The Future of Precision Ag:
These are the results of a manufacturing survey that was
conducted by Ag Professional Magazine in order to find out how many
producer’s were implementing new precision ag technologies into their
operation .
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vey_Chart3_0313.jpg
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rvey_Chart3_0313.jpg

The Future of Precision Ag:
This is a graph of the projected
adoption trend of precision ag
technologies in developing
countries like Brazil, Mexico, and India
in the next 37 years. This graph shows
that precision technologies are
expanding across the globe at a very
fast rate but also shows that precision
ag is here to stay.
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Conclusion:
Precision farming has changed the face of production agriculture and has
proven that it is here to stay for many years to come. It has taken the farming
industry and turned it into a technical savvy and data cluttered community.
However precision farming is essential to the future of humanity because as
the world’s population continues to increase and the amount of acres under
production decreases each year precision technologies act as an equalizer,
accounting for the lost acres of farmland by increasing yields and lowering
the costs of inputs on the lands that are still under production.