WASHINGTON, April 13, 2016 - Farmers
looking to add some high-tech to their operations might be able to do so with a
device they already have in their pockets.
A crop production professor at
Kansas State University says there are more than 100 apps on the market that
growers can use to maximize the utility of fertilizers and herbicides, track
nutrient runoff, predict crop yields and even identify weeds and other pests.
“These (apps) are very useful in
terms of making decisions” on the farm, Ignacio Ciampitti said in an exclusive
interview with Agri-Pulse. They not
only allow farmers to easily reference and analyze the information they
generate during day-to-day farming activities, but they also give growers
access to crowd-sourced data on soils, pests, weather and more.
Ciampitti, who has worked for the
last three years identifying and classifying farm apps, said the following top
his list for functionality:
·
The
International Plant Nutrition Institute’s (IPNI) Crop
Nutrient Deficiency Photo Library
app. Currently for use with Apple products, this app allows growers to
selectively search through a wide range of nutrient deficiency symptoms in 14
crops, including alfalfa, cotton, corn, rice, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane and
wheat. Photos, along with text and diagrams, help farmers take a specific
symptom and determine its underlying cause. For instance, the yellowing of leaf
tips on corn could indicate a nitrogen deficiency, according to the app’s
diagnostics (see screenshot at right).
·
Ag
PhD’s Planting Population app. Both Android and iPhone
compatible, this app can determine the optimal in-row spacing between seeds
based on row width and planting population. It can also determine stand count
after crop emergence by counting the number of plants in a specific row. Ag PhD
also offers the Harvest Loss Calculator app, which calculates crop loss,
and the Soil Test
app, which maps soil-testing results and informs fertilizer application.
·
Oklahoma
State University’s Canopeo app. Both Android and iPhone
compatible, this app claims to make monitoring crop growth, managing grazing
and quantifying drought, hail, freeze and pest damage a snap. First, the user
takes a photo of the ground and the app determines the percent canopy cover.
Then, the farmer can compare readings over time, plotting changes in canopy
density and height and changing management practices as necessary to produce
desired results.
· University of Missouri’s Weed
ID app. This
Android and iPhone compatible application holds a digital library full of weed
species with a search function that allows users to identify just about any
nuisance plant.
·
Kansas
State University’s SoyYieldCalc app. This Android application
estimates soybean yields (in bushels per acre) based on four measurements –
plants per acre, pods per plant, seeds per pod and seed size – all calculated
using equations that take the grunt work out of counting rows. Ciampitti said
Kansas State is also in the final stages of releasing another app for Android
and iPhone that could estimate sorghum yields based on cellphone photos of grain
heads.
After compiling an exhaustive
list of farm apps (here
is the first installment of that list), Ciampitti and his team have picked up
on what makes the best apps, …well…, the best.
Generally speaking, the most
widely used apps are those that work “intuitively,” Ciampitti said. Most apps
don’t come with a user guide, or only have a short two-minute tutorial, so it’s
critical that they are easy to understand. It’s also important that they can
communicate with other applications, like a weather app for instance, and
cooperate with user-friendly websites that make app-generated data easy to
access, he said.
Some of the best apps have GPS
capabilities, as well, Ciampitti explained. With GPS, farmers can recall
precise data points from years prior on which to base management decisions.
Apps equipped with GPS typically require the user to input less information for
the same, or more data output, and can send out instant notifications and alerts
to users, too.
Some producers, however, worry
that GPS-capable apps generate big data at the expense of data privacy and
security. Ciampitti said he understood their concerns, but maintained that “the
benefits (of the apps) outweigh” the often negligible risks.
By far the biggest barrier to app
usage in rural American is Internet connection, he said. The farm apps that
require it “are more dynamic,” while those that don’t “need to be updated” more
often, he said. Without adequate Wi-Fi it’s also difficult to upload data from,
and download data to, an app, diminishing its usability.
#30
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