On September 10th about 160 people gathered in a field on the east side of Guelph to explore the processes behind making management zones and thus be able to use site specific management to optimize crop production across a field.
The FarmSmart Organizing Committee had announced ZoneSmart in July during FarmSmart Expo at the UG Elora Research Station. It was suggested that this important emerging topic needed a dedicated day to thoroughly cover its many components thoroughly. The whole concept of management zones and site specific management is still pretty new to a lot of people. While it's been reported a great deal, the actual on the ground experience with it in Ontario has been minimal. The idea behind ZoneSmart was to spend a "hands on day" in the field getting to know the various components that can be used to make high resolution, stable management zones.
The point of management zones is that every field has some amount of variability across its landscape. The amount varies because of a lot of factors; soil type, elevation, slope shape, soil properties (pH, OM, CEC, N, P, K, micros, texture, etc), crop rotation, past management etc. The broad and dynamic process of creating management zones can best illustrated with the following information.
Making Management Zones
Soil Landscape
What you see?
- knolls
- Depressions/Wet Spots
- Long or Short Slopes
- Level Field
How you see? (Technologies)
- RTK Elevation
- Satellite/UAV/Ortho Imagery
- Arial and Ground Based Plant and Soil Sensors
Soil Properties
What you measure?
- Soil Nutrients
- Soil pH
- Soil Organic Matter
- Soil Texture and Type
- CEC
- Electrical Conductivity
How you measure? (Technologies)
- Soil Sampling
- Soil Sensors
- Lab Analysis
Crop Yield
What you achieved?
- Segmented into High, Low and Average Performance Areas
- Optimization of Yield Response to Spatially Applied Crops Inputs
How you achieved? (Technologies)
- Using GPS Enabled Calibrated Yield Monitors to Measure Performance Spatially Across a Field
Integrated Analysis
- Integration of Yield, Landscape, Soil, Remote Sensing, Maps/Data and Grower Knowledge using GIS/mapping tools
Management Zones - Agronomy Decision Making - Crop Input Prescription Maps and Validation
While the above appears quite complex, it's important to understand that finding your way to the Management Zone definition end point doesn't mean that you have to do every aspect of this approach. The purpose of the day was to explore the various options. Many factors cause the variability that can be exploited with management zones, and the tools needed to define and partition that variability can relate to some or all of the components of the pillars shown above. The information also points out that there are a number of technologies, from basic to very complex, that can be used to gather the "data" used in the management zone making process.
In the morning, ZoneSmart explored the main pillars of data that can be utilized including Yield, Elevation and Soil Properties. Participants received a comprehensive workbook that duplicated the many posters used to explain the key points at each stop (available at: bitly.com/FSZoneSmart15Workbook). These pillars were discussed through rotation of small groups to the various stations where our assembled speakers, including academic, extension, industry and farmer experts in Precision Agriculture, discussed the topics and answered questions. While the pillars were explained separately at each station, what was made clear to all was the importance of integration of the various layers of data.
Figure 2 - Yield Station with Dr. Mike Duncan, Niagara College and Dan Breckon of Woodrill Farms exploring the theory and practice of working with multi-year yield data.
The event participants learned new terms like "terrain analysis", "Kernalling", Predictive Digital Soil Mapping" among others. The series of posters presented at each station walked participants through the steps of data gathering, cleaning, managing and processing that ultimately lead to the end product, a Management Zone Map. Keep in mind that although this map can be printed like any traditional map, its real strength is that it is a digital map. The value of this is that it can have various "prescriptions" for nutrients, seed population, seed variety, among other inputs attached to the various zones within the map. This prescription map file can then be uploaded into the controller of suitably outfitted equipment and using GPS/GIS technology, know exactly where it is in the field and what amount of a type of input should be applied to each zone. The operator has to do very little except monitor that the equipment is being guided by the prescription maps and operating efficiently.
Figure 3 - Soils Station. Brett Schuyler from Norfolk explains how he is using Predictive Digital Soil Maps in the management of his diverse field and horticultural crop operation.
Over lunch, Doug Aspinall (OMAFRA) spoke on the Integrated Analysis Process that brings together the various data layers to create the digital Management Zone Map. Still in its infancy, Doug uses a series of commercial and free software to process the data to come up with the management zones. The workflow to process the data at this time remains relatively complex.
There also was an industry panel who showcased work with producers and demonstrated some of the software tools available to help farmers manage the reams of data that comes with precision ag (Figure 4). There are various software tools available for managing and working with the various layers of data generated. These individuals and others are available to assist producers as they pursue adoption of this exciting technology.
The afternoon was spent back in the field exploring the trade show, featuring many of the companies and technologies available in Ontario to make Precision Ag work. We also took participants out to the field to show how all the hard work of data collection and processing explored in the morning could be applied to map unique zones across a field landscape, so that various inputs could be optimized by the varying yield potential, elevation and soil properties distributed across the landscape.
Figure 4 - Best Practices in Data Management Session with Industry Experts.
For more in-depth reading on this topic, follow the Precision Ag series that has been running in the GFO Grain Producer Magazine over the last few months (http://gfo.ca/Research/Understanding-Precision-Ag ). Previous articles can be found at links on left side of main page.
FarmSmart would like to thank our host, Woodrill Farms, for all the work they put in to make this day possible. We greatly appreciate the contribution by our speakers including:
Yield: Mike Duncan, Niagara College and Dan Breckon, Woodrill Farms
Elevation: Stewart Sweeney, OMAFRA and Ryan Marshall, Milton
Soils: Doug Aspinall, OMAFRA and Brett Schuyler, Schuyler Farms Norfolk
Remote and Proixmal Sensing: Nicole Rabe, OMAFRA, Slava Adamchuck, McGill University and Paul Raymer, Practical Precision
Best Practices in Data Management: Karon Cowan, AgTech GIS, Embro; Mike Wilson, Thompsons, Blenheim, Jason Van Maanen, Veritis, Chatham and Greg Kitching, Premier Equipment, Elmira.
The efforts of the following organizations and companies who helped to gather data layers for this event including Woodrill Farms, OMAFRA, University of Guelph, McGill University, Nithfield Advanced Agronomy, Premier Equipment, Practical Precision and Ag Business and Crop Inc is greatly appreciated.
The event was not possible without the generous contributions of our sponsors who participated in our trade show in what was a new and yet to be proven event. Your support was critical to the event and we thank you. Finally thanks to the team from Farms.com who, as our media sponsor, helped us get the word out and attract a very enthusiastic and hungry-for-information crowd from across Ontario. Hopefully we will see this event repeated again in 2016 and we look forward to seeing you then. In the meantime mark your calendars for this winters FarmSmart events including YieldSmart and FarmSmart Ag Conference planned for January 22-23.
Figure 5 - Doug Aspinall of OMAFRA and Dan Breckon of Woodrill Farms explain how all the data layers collected from this field result in a Management Zone Map that allows inputs to be spatially managed across the diverse landscape of this 60 ac field.
Source: OMAFRA