The Red River Valley Research Corridor has scheduled the third annual Precision
Agriculture Summit at the Farmers Union Conference Center in Jamestown on Jan. 20-21,
2014.
The Precision Agriculture Summit is organized by the Red River Valley Research Corridor,
North Dakota Farmers Union, Lake Region State College's Dakota Precision Ag
Center and North Dakota State University's Department of Agricultural and
Biosystems Engineering.
John Nowatzki, NDSU Extension Service agricultural machine systems specialist, is
collaborating with others to plan the summit and will be moderating crop precision
technology sessions.
"The summit is intended to be an opportunity for sharing precision
agriculture research, technology and needs among farmers, industry, consultants
and university personnel," Nowatzki says. "The 2014 summit agenda
includes concurrent crop and livestock precision technology tracks. Parts of
the agenda are arranged for both tracks to come together for presentations
applying to all areas of precision agriculture."
The main agenda focuses on new trends in precision agriculture technology, such
as Google Glass, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and the economics of precision
agriculture. Presenters from Boeing Corporation and Trimble Navigation will discuss
their work with unmanned aircraft systems in agriculture.
Topics and presenters include:
* Google Glass precision agricultural applications - Jeff Caldwell, Agriculture.com
and Successful Farming magazine multimedia editor, and Bruce Rasa, Inventive
Branding managing consultant
* Macro and micro economics of current precision agriculture technologies - Craig
Smith, Fort Hayes State University, and David Roberts, NDSU assistant professor
* UAS applications in crop and livestock production - Kevin Price, Kansas State
University
* North Dakota UAS roadmap to establish a test site for the integration of unmanned
systems into the national airspace - Bob Becklund, Northern Plains Unmanned
Systems Authority executive director
* Overview of available UAS equipment and services - Ryan Jensen, HoneyComb
UAS, and Mitchel Fiene, DMZ Aerial
* Available cameras and sensor technologies for use on UAS - David Dvorak,
Field of View
* Moderator for the livestock precision agriculture track agenda - J.W Schroeder,
NDSU Extension diary specialist
* Michigan animal tracking system - Daniel Buskirk, Michigan State University beef
cattle nutrition specialist
* Use of electronic animal sensors for making comparisons of animal lying, temperature
and rumination and the use of 3D cameras to measure feed intake and animal body
conditions -Amanda Sterrett, University of entucky graduate research assistant
* Current technology in cattle genetics - Lauren Hanna, NDSU Animal Sciences assistant
professor
* Cattle reproduction technologies - Carl Dahlen, NDSU Extension beef cattle specialist
* Automated milking and feeding systems for cattle - James Salfer, University
of Minnesota Extension educator
* Dealing with soil variability - Dave Franzen, NDSU Extension Service soil science
specialist
* Accounting for soil salinity in zone management - Abbey Wick, NDSU Extension soil
health specialist and assistant professor
* Optical reflectance sensing of soil variability - Ken Sudduth, U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service
* Current status and future trends in precision pesticide applications - Erdal Ozkan,
Ohio State University Extension
Speakers from commercial companies will discuss current services for making detailed
crop prescription maps and precision sprayer technology. The agenda includes
presenters from Monsanto, WinField Solutions, Pioneer, Hagie, Titan Machinery
and John Deere.
Sreekala Bajwa, NDSU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department chair, will
conclude the summit with a presentation titled "A Systems Approach to Precision
Ag in North Dakota Today and Tomorrow."
For more information or to register, visit the Red River Valley Research Corridor
website at http://theresearchcorridor.com/precisionagsummit2014
or contact Ryan Aasheim at (701) 499-6994 or email ryan@theresearchcorridor.com.
