Technology tornadoThe PPI/FAR conference on Site specific crop and soil management, held in Urbana, Illinois, USA, in August 1997, showed just how far precision farming has progressed in recent years.
The technology to record data continuously, i.e. sensing yield and quality whilst harvesting cereal crops, and to undertake discrete point sampling, is now affordable to many more farmers, and the returns in higher yields and less fertilizer inputs are substantial. Remote sensing, and the use of mapped data analysis and spatial modelling with GIS to evaluate crop requirements, are becoming increasingly valuable tools for the farmer interested in precision farming for both economic and environmental reasons.
One speaker, obviously impressed by the proceedings of the conference and the company exhibits in the congress lobby, said, "You are hit with a tornado of new concepts, temporarily hallucinate, then come back to yourself a short time later wondering what on earth all those crazy things meant." We know what he meant, but feel sure that some, at least, of those 'crazy things' are here to stay. And, in time, this type of technology should help the cause of balanced fertilizer use.