Current GPS and other Precision Agriculture Adoption in Agriculture

1. Current GPS and other Precision Agriculture Adoption in Agriculture By Beth Crumpler

2. Where GPS and PA Stands • See what need there is for GPS and other PA education • Find out who needs to be reached • Reveal how beneficial GPS use can be • Reveal why farmers decide to use precision agriculture • What farmers are using precision agriculture for the most

3. Surveys • Value-added Crop, GPS Technology and Consultant Survey: Summary of a 1998 Survey to Illinois Farmers • University of Illinois- Jonathan M. Norvell and Dale H. Lattz • Adoption of GPS technology 1998 • 3000 farmers with 23% response=691 responses

4. Respondants • 34% from 1-499 acres • 25% from 500-999 acres • 24% from 1000-1499 acres • 17% from 1500+ acres

5. Results • Over all farms • 19.5% used yield monitors • 33.2% used soil testing • 21.1% used variable rate fertilizer application • 4.6% used variable rate nitrogen application • 21.2% used variable rate limestone application • 2.5% used variable rate pesticide application • 2.1% used variable seeding rates

6. Results continued

7. Additional Findings • 8.2% of all of the farmers surveyed planned to begin using yield monitors in the next 2 years • 10.8% in the next 3 years • 28.3% of all were undecided • 33.3% said they didn’t plan on ever using GPS (60.6% of these were 1-499 acres)

8. Surveys (continued) • Farm Management Newsletter, 2000 by Joe Parcell and Ray Massey • Use and Perceptions of Precision Agriculture Technologies by Professional Chemical Services • Ag Crop Management Conference sponsored by the University of Missouri

9. Respondants • Professional chemical appplicators, managers, consultants, and seed and chemical dealers • 75 surveys, 22% of attendees

10. Use

11. Offering PA Services

12. Surveys (continued) • Adoption and Use of Precision Farming Technologies: A Survey of Central Ohio Precision Farmers • Michael Arnholt, Marvin T. Batte, and Steven Prochaska • Survey conducted March 2001

13. Respondants • 82 out of 156 growers responded 65 out of the 82 were still farming and completed the questionaire • Average size of the farms 747 acres

14. Results • 12% of the farmers had adopted GPS receivers • 27.5% used combine yield monitors • 84.6% used georeferenced grid or zone soil sampling • 73.3% used VRT of fertilizers or lime

15. View of Use Results

16. Motivation Results

17. Benefits Results

18. Changing Management Results

19. Final Survey Summary of Preciaion Farming Practices and Perceptions of Mississippi Cotton Producers Steven W. Martin and Fred Cooke, Jr. 2001 Southern Precision Farming Survey 244 surveys with 62 adopters 182 nonadopters

20. Benefits Results

21. Adoption Results

22. Use Results

23. Yield Changes

24. Farm Dealer Importance

25. Crop Consultant Importance

26. Extension Educator Importance

27. Conclusions • There is much need for GPS education based on 28.3% of farmers in Illinois undecided on GPS use and large amount of service providers undecided. • Smaller farmers need to be reached and service providers. • Farmers seem to be mostly satisfied with their current GPS systems.

28. Conclusions (continued) Farmers decide to use GPS because of • Increased profitability • On farm experimentation • Improved information regarding within field variability to support decisions • Environmental compliance • Risk reduction potential

29. Conclusions (continued) What farmers are using precision agriculture for is precise knowledge of soil pH and soil nutrition across soil grids or zones What practice changed the most as a result of using precision agriculture is fertility practices

30. Suggestions There seems to be a lot of farmers yet to be reached on the use of GPS. Extension educators can play a role in helping farmers be reassured of the use of GPS tools. Help farmers decide if precision agriculture use would be profitable for their farm