Overview | In Focus | Funding | Partners | Events | Results/Impacts | Resources | Contacts

Overview

U.S. producers face many national and global changes as they strive to maintain profitability and financial viability. Flat prices for timber and many farm commodities, increasing production costs, global competition, and attention to public goods have forced producers to measure, monitor, analyze, and micromanage all aspects of their operations. Precision farming practices, such as site-specific applications of fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, and herbicides in agricultural crops and improved timber and non-timber management and utilization in forests, can reduce costs while minimizing environmental and ecological impacts. Similarly, properly timed and detailed control of animal care and feeding can minimize expenses and maximize animal growth and vitality. This CSREES program emphasizes the use of data and emerging technologies to synthesize and deliver decision tools that improve profitability to all agricultural and forestry enterprises, regardless of size or ownership.

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In Focus

• Precise monitoring and control of animals' conditions and needs can improve animal health and welfare, growth and development, reproduction, and products.
• Precision forestry applies a variety of tools to improve forest operations and management.
• Adoption of precision farming technologies has been slow.
• Site-specific crop management is the management of agricultural crops at a spatial scale smaller than the whole field.

Partnerships

• CSREES sits on the Regional Committee on Site-Specific Management (NCR-180), which addresses spatial and temporal variability in crop production.
• Early in 2003, a CSREES partnership with NASA enabled joint agency funding of three new geospatial extension projects, competitively awarded.
• While not unique, a multi-organizational partnership involving CSREES promotes the concepts of global positioning systems and geographic information systems.


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Events

• American Society of Agronomy/Crop Science Society of America/Soil Science Society of America annual meeting, Seattle, WA, October 31-November 4, 2004.
• European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Uppsala, Sweden, June 9-12, 2005.
• American Society of Agricultural Engineers Annual International Meeting, Tampa, Florida, July 17-20, 2005.

Selected Results and Impacts

• CSREES Science & Education Impact reports highlight 62 precision agriculture projects for 2002.
• CSREES Science & Education Impact reports highlight 68 precision agriculture projects for 2003.
• CSREES Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) funds small businesses for several research projects on precision farming.


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Resources

• Precision Forestry Cooperative, University of Washington, College of Forest Resources. Forest production, management, and manufacturing research and much more.
• Precision Farming Links, Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, Iowa State University. Precision agriculture tools, mapping software, and more.
• "Sensors in Agriculture," From the Ground Up Agronomy News, Cooperative Extension, Colorado State University. A primer on sensors for precision agriculture.


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Contacts

Daniel Schmoldt

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