|
|
This
In 1900, peanut farmers plodding in mules’ tracks had
a good idea
what a particular spot of ground needed. In 2000, riding
monstrous machines with computers and satellite receivers,
they’ll know that spot’s needs even better.
“As the scale of agricultural machinery grew in the 20th
century,
our farmers lost the ability to address the specific needs of
areas within fields,” said University of Georgia scientist George
Vellidis. “This system gives it back.”
Vellidis,
an associate professor of biological and agricultural
engineering with the UGA
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is among
the scientists
who developed a peanut yield-monitoring system.
Precision picker
mechanism
The system should be in use next season. It uses small
computers and load cells
to weigh the picking basket and Global Positioning System
receivers and special
software to map fields.
The yield monitor relies on GPS to precisely fix a starting
position. Every second the harvester moves across the field, load
cells under each corner of the picker basket send weight data to
the computer.
The computer records the harvest and GPS position data
together.
It knows, for instance, there were 2,000 pounds of peanuts in the
basket at a precise spot and 2,500 pounds 10 feet later.
With that data, farmers can use spreadsheet software to map
yields, diseases,
profits or fertility anywhere in their fields.
Idea borrowed from
Midwest, refined
for Georgia fields
In fall 1994, an engineering team at the CAES Coastal Plain
Experiment Station first tried to weigh peanuts as the mechanical
combine picked them. They tried unsuccessfully to adapt equipment
already in use in Midwestern grain fields.
“That was really a concept year,” Vellidis said. “We put
together
some load cells and data-recording equipment just a week or two
before harvest started. We were looking, at that point, to see if
the idea was even worth pursuing for peanuts.”
It has been.
Accuracy within 1
percent
The biggest problem the engineers overcame was recording
accurate weight data
from a 17,000-pound mechanical combine being pulled by a
tractor over rough
fields.
They solved it with software that takes raw data from the load
cells and filters out the machine vibration, electronic noise and
travel roughness to record only the usable, accurate, weight
data.
“This system is accurate to within 1 percent over an entire
field,” Vellidis said. “That rivals or surpasses the most
accurate systems available for other crops.”
Some farmers rely on the system’s precision to learn where
their
fields are profitable and where they may be better off not
planting. Others use it to compare management practices.
The
system enables farmers to manage land for peak profits. It
tells them where
they need pesticides or fertilizers, so they don’t have to
just blanket the
field. In that way, the plan helps protect the environment,
too.
Potential realized
in four years
Many people quickly saw the system’s potential for Georgia and
Southeastern peanut farmers. The Georgia Peanut Commission and
Georgia Research Alliance provided funding. Albany Scale and
Kelley Manufacturing of Tifton gave equipment and technical
support.
With that help, the engineers took the project from a concept
to a field-tested
unit in just four years.
In the next two years, eight Georgia farmers and researchers
at
Auburn and Texas A&M used the yield monitors and suggested
refinements. During the testing, they mapped more than 1,800
acres of peanut fields.
The UGA scientists who developed and refined the peanut yield
monitor applied for a U.S. patent in 1998. They expect it to be
granted in early 2000.
The system attracted the WAG Corporation of Tupelo, Miss. In
1999, UGA signed a licensing agreement with WAG, which plans to
have the system on the market for the 2000 harvest season.
“We partnered with growers and the industry to develop the
product and expect it to be commercially available soon,”
Vellidis said. “We’ve met the need of our constituents.”
