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May 30, 2002

COLLEGE STATION -- Agriculture students at Texas A&M University are taking precision agriculture from the classroom to the field.

Using John Deere's SeedStar System, students are getting a hands-on look at variable rate technology -- a practice that involves varying seeding rates throughout a field.

"What I want them to understand is the operations of the technology and to evaluate the performance of the variable rate seeding system," said Dr. Steve Searcy, an agricultural engineering researcher with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. In addition, Searcy teaches a precision agriculture course for both undergraduate and graduate students.

During a recent field exercise, students participated in measuring and flagging rows of corn. They also documented seeding rates and entered the data into a computer spreadsheet.

"Variable rate technologies, or site specific management ... some would call this precision agriculture," Searcy said. "The idea here is to not treat a field as a single homogenous unit, but as an area that may have several different unique soil and topography combinations. And it should be managed optimally in several different ways."

Searcy said through the use of a Global Positioning System receiver and controllers on agricultural implements, "we have the ability to make changes as we move across the field in conjunction with the position of the machine, and a seeding map that could tell us the desired application rate."

Variable seeding rate technology has yet to catch on by the masses in farming operations in Texas, but different forms of precision agriculture are being accepted by producers.

"In Texas, there are relatively few people using variable rate technology or changing the rate of inputs," Searcy said. "In this state, we're still more at the stage of people understanding the level of variability that exists (on crop land).

"The ag economy over the past several years has not been good and people, as a result, don't feel good about venturing out into something new. However, you do see an increase in the number of producers that are yield mapping, that is placing GPS systems on their harvesting equipment with grain and cotton to evaluate how the yield changes. I think that's really a good starting point."

Once producers begin to measure the range of yield variability does exist in a field, Searcy said, more producers will begin to use variable rate technology.

"Certainly the idea is higher profits for agricultural producers," he said.

The John Deere equipment used for the field exercise was provided in cooperation with Texas A&M's dealer management program, which assists in preparing students wanting to become dealer-owners after graduation. The equipment is also used for research activities at the university's Intensive Management Precision Agriculture Conservation Tillage center.

As for his students, Searcy said, the experience is getting them better prepared once they establish an agricultural career.

"What we're trying to do here in this class is expose the students to these tools so that when they get out either in agriculture or agribusiness, they will better understand the technologies, and be able to make themselves or the farmer more profitable."