'Precision agriculture' cuts costs, pollution

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

New technology is making it possible for farmers to cut their expenses and reduce water pollution, saving themselves money and avoiding regulatory headaches in the future, a new federal agronomist in Bozeman says.

The concept is called "precision agriculture," and it's been around for years.

But it's never caught on in a big way in Montana's ag community.

Aziz Rahman, a Ph.D. agronomist who joined the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Bozeman in August, said he's hoping to ignite more interest.

When growing season comes around, Rahman plans to host workshops and demonstration projects designed show farmers the benefits space-age technology can provide.

He's got some of his colleagues convinced.

"It's a way to maximize economic production and conservation in the same project," said Matt Drechsel, Gallatin County conservationist for NRCS. "It's kind of the future of agriculture that we're looking at right now."

PA is not a product as much as it is a process, one that involves satellite imagery and global positioning systems, along with more traditional tools like yield monitors and soil maps.

It takes some extra work, education and money, but Rahman maintains it pays off, in part because the "gizmos" are becoming more effective.

"You can increase profits and become better stewards of the land," said Rahman, who taught for seven years at the University of Minnesota-Crookston, and has worked on ag programs from Somalia to South America.

Most farmers understand that yields can vary in a given field. Different parts of a 100-acre parcel produce differently.

PA uses technology, some of it developed by NASA, to divide that hundred acres into dozens of little squares. Yield monitors, which are devices attached to combines, take precise measurements of crops as they're being harvested, as often as every two seconds.

All the combined information -- soil type, moisture, slope, yield -- is fed into a computer, which produces a map that shows exactly how much fertilizer and water to apply to which part of the grid.

Most fields are a "mosaic" of soil types, elevations and soil chemistry, Rahman said.

Traditionally, a farmer would apply the same rate of fertilizer to an entire field. That can mean some places get more than they need, while others get less. That harms productivity and leads to pollution of ground water and streams, which leads to problems with regulators and public perception.

With PA, once the field is mapped, GPS devices attached to fertilizer spreaders can automatically apply exactly what is needed, where it is needed. Moisture sensors in a field can adjust the flow from different heads on a sprinkler pivot.

However, not all the equipment works as promised, cautioned Jim Helfrich, of Technological Systems, Inc. in Sun River.

He said he used to develop and sell PA equipment, but once the big farm equipment companies got interested, he couldn't compete.

There also has been a certain amount of hucksterism by salesmen, he added.

"There's been so much misrepresentation it's caused a tremendous amount of confusion and a lot of skepticism," Helfrich said.

And he cautioned that PA "requires a total commitment. You have to apply all the sciences."

Good managers can make the system pay, but "if they're not good managers, it's a coffee-shop tool," he said.

Dennis Loreth, area conservationist for the 14 counties in southwest Montana, agreed that he's likely to meet skepticism among farmers, many of whom have seen government promises and programs come and go.

But he noted that "no-till" agriculture, which means less plowing and more soil conservation, met a lot of skepticism at first, too, but is now a standard practice.

Because it requires strict record keeping, PA could also help farmers aiming for organic, natural or "sustainable" labels for their products and the higher prices those products bring, Loreth said.

And when farming is profitable, it's easier to resist pressure from developers.

Plus, fertilizer-related water pollution is a growing concern around the country. In the Chesapeake Bay region, for instance, fertilizer applications are tightly regulated.

Montana recently agreed to implement a program that will monitor all the state's streams over the next several years and focus on reducing "non-point source" pollution. That type of pollution often comes from agriculture.

And avoiding pollution can mean avoiding problems down the road.

The PA equipment can get expensive, but federal programs are available that would finance a large part of those costs. People using PA techniques can get extra points when applying for competitive grants for conservation programs.

With an expert like Rahman now on board, farmers should expect to be hearing more and more about PA.

"We are going to go to the producers," said Drechsel, noting that the world keeps producing more people while the number of acres being farmed continues to shrink.

"The demand (for food) is not going down," he said. "Just the available land."

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