Crossing That Narrow Country Bridge Into the 21st Century

1
Crossing That Narrow Country Bridge Into the 21st
Century

• R.L. (Bob) NielsenAgronomy Dept., Purdue
  UniversityWest Lafayette, IN 47907-1150ph.
  [phone]Internet rnielsen_at_purdue.edu

2
Whats on the other side of that bridge?

• Cyberspace ag. information
• GPS, GIS, SSF, PF, BS
• Designer genes
• Corn may not be just corn anymore

3
Cyberspace Ag. Information
4
Cyberspace Includes...

• Primarily the Internet
• World Wide Web, Gophers, Email, News Groups, List
  Servers
• CD-ROM Programs
• Purdues Corn Growth Development CD
• Satellite delivery
• Good for remote areas

5
Advantages of Cyberspace...

• Open 24 hours per day
• Good for users
• Good for developers
• Content can be revised easily
• Encourages timely updates
• What I see in the field today can be on the Web
  tonight, including digital images
• Timely information is appealing to users

6
Advantages of Cyberspace...

• Not limited to own information
• Links to other folks Web sites greatly broadens
  scope of information available to clientele from
  single site
• Encourages collaboration among individuals within
  and among institutions
• Discourages duplication of efforts in neighboring
  institutions

7
Advantages of Cyberspace...

• Opportunity for use of multimedia
• High resolution, color images easily incorporated
  into Web documents
• Sound, video, and animation somewhat limited
  today by
• Skills of developer in many situations
• Low speed modem connections of users computers
• Browser limitations (esp. old versions)

8
Advantages of Cyberspace...

• Multimedia enhances ability to tell a more
  complete story
• Diagnostic images of diseases or insects
• Planter calibration videos
• Crop growth development images and video
• Experts voice leading you through a tutorial on
  interpreting site-specific data

9
Advantages of Cyberspace...

• Email offers opportunity to easily
• Communicate one-on-one between user expert
• Share timely information to specific lists of
  Email users
• County Extension Educators
• Farmers
• Industry contacts

10
Disadvantages of Cyberspace...

• Clienteles capabilities
• Local Internet Service Provider availability
• Speed of modem connections
• Quality of local phone lines
• Power of computer itself
• Not as instantaneous as DTN and other satellite
  delivery systems
• Time to dialup connect can be nuisance

11
Disadvantages of Cyberspace...

• Separating junk from fact on the Web is not
  always easy for layperson
• Some advocate need for peer reviews similar to
  refereed journals
• Snake oil products questionable advice are
  already on the Web
• My responsibility as an Extension Specialist
  includes sorting out the junk from the valuable
  in reviewing Web sites for my clientele

12
The Best Corn Site on the Web!
www.agry.purdue.edu/agronomy/ext/corn
13
GPS, GIS, SSF, PF, BS

• GPS Global Positioning Systems
• GIS Geographic Information Systems
• SSF Site-Specific Farming
• PF Precision Farming
• BS _________

14
Precision Farming Excitement!

• Color maps are fun to look at!
• Yield monitors are fun to look at!
• Hi-tech wizardry is fun to buy and vendors love
  to sell it to you!
• Landlords are impressed!
• Finally, maybe we can finally identify and
  correct those problem areas in our fields once
  and for all!

15
Precision Farming Tools

• The tools to manage cropland on a site-specific
  basis are here or are being developed rapidly
• Yield monitors
• Grid soil sampling
• Variable rate applicators seeders
• Portable GPS data recorders
• Software to massage the data

16
Precision Farming Reality

• Crop yields are influenced by vast array of yield
  limiting factors (YLF)
• Some influence yield directly
• Some interact with others to influence yield
• Some occur every year, others do not
• Some influence different crops differently
• Weather interacts with most of them

17
Which YLF Are Most Important?
Last year?
This field?
Next year?
That field?
18
Perennial Yield Limiting Factors

• The causes of some yield limiting factors occur
  every year
• Soil fertility or pH patterns
• Soil drainage patterns
• Patterns of perennial weed growth
• These can be identified or attacked with
  site-specific technology

19
Sporadic Yield Limiting Factors

• Other yield limiting factors occur sporadically
  over the years...
• Diseases insects, even fertility problems are
  greatly dependent on weather
• Site-specific technology can help identify these
  problems when they occur, but not necessarily
  prevent their reoccurrence

20
Identifying YLFs Is Difficult

• Requires season-long monitoring
• For precision farming, will require monitoring
  on site-specific basis
• Requires good note-taking skills
• You think youve got reams of data from the yield
  monitor now? Wait until you receive the data
  from season-long site-specific crop monitoring!

21
Identifying YLFs Is Difficult

• Requires good agronomic skills
• Esp. crop diagnostic skills
• Ability to integrate layers of agronomic
  information and relate to yield
• Beware the hazards of correlations!
• That patch of foxtail sure cut yields.
• My best yields were in an area with twice the
  recommended soil K levels.

22
An Example of theHazards of Correlations

• Every single person who ate asparagus prior to
  1865 is now dead, therefore..
• Eating asparagus can be hazardous to your health!

23
That patch of foxtail sure cut yields.

• Maybe that area of the field was also a low spot
  that ponded last spring, killed off some of the
  soybean stand, and the foxtail took advantage of
  the extra sunlight.
• So, stand loss rather than foxtail could have
  been the real culprit.

24
My best yields were in an area with twice the
recommended soil K levels.

• Occurred during 1995 drought. Best yielding area
  was also low, poorly drained area of field
• So, maybe the yield response was more due to soil
  moisture availability differences than to soil
  potassium levels?

25
My Advice?

• Hire a good agronomist to be your Sherlock
  Holmes!
• Youll need the season-long expertise to help
  with the Precision Farming puzzle

26
Precision Farming Challenge

• It may be that well only be able to fine-tune
  our crop production to a limited extent with
  site-specific technology
• Identify and correct obvious yield limiting
  factors such as soil fertility, pH, drainage
• Identify and attack certain yield limiting
  factors on the go during the season
• e.g., developing pest or disease problems

27
Precision Farming Challenge

• But, we may be limited when trying to
  site-specifically manage those yield limiting
  factors that interact heavily with seasonal
  weather patterns
• At least, until we can better predict next years
  weather!

28
Designer GenesThe Promise of Biotech
29
The Promise of Biotech

• Biotechnology allows seed companies...
• To speed up hybrid development by decreasing the
  number of generations required to incorporate
  improved traits,
• To incorporate traits from other species that
  have hitherto been unavailable to plant breeders,
  and
• To charge more for seed!

30
Biotech Products

• Current crops
• Bt corn (ECB)
• Bt cotton
• Liberty tolerant corn
• Poast tolerant corn
• Roundup tolerant soybean corn
• STS tolerant soybean

• On the horizon
• Bt corn (CRW)
• Way down the road
• Drought resistance
• Nitrogen fixation
• Disease resistance
• Antibiotics/vaccines
• Yield itself

31
Biotech Is Just A Tool

• Hybrid improvement also requires genetic and
  physiological research in order to identify
  desirable traits and the gene(s) that code for
  their expression
• Biotech products to date are primarily single
  gene traits
• Multiple gene traits are more difficult to work
  with, yet account for many important crop traits

32
Evaluating Biotech Varieties

• Evaluate biotech varieties like you would any
  other normal variety
• Yield potential compared to other elites
• Consider yield drag or yield lag effects
• Characteristics desirable for your farm
• Frequency of payback for improved trait
• e.g., How many years in ten do European corn
  borers cause economic yield loss in your farming
  operation?

33
Corn May Not Be Just Corn On The Other Side of
That Bridge!
34
Some Folks Say...

• Within a few years, there wont be such a thing
  as no. 2 yellow dent corn anymore!

35
Some Folks Say...

• No. 2 yellow dent corn no more!
• Corn with value-added characteristics will be
  grown for specific niche markets that differ
  greatly from the traditional 4-legged ones of the
  past.

36
Some Folks Say...

• No. 2 yellow dent corn no more!
• Specific niche markets for corn.
• Farmers will profit greatly from the production
  of value-added identity-preserved (I-P) crops.

37
What Are I-P Crops?

• Any crop marketed for...
• Specific end uses based on a particular variety
  or set of genetic traits, and for
• Which a premium is paid above the price for the
  crop as a raw commodity.
• I-P crops are not new...

38
I-P Crops Are Not New!

• Seed corn, soybean, wheat, oats, etc.
• Popcorn
• Sweetcorn
• Waxy starch corn
• High lysine corn
• White corn

• High amylose starch corn
• High oil corn
• High protein soybean for tofu
• Low-saturated-fat soybean

39
Characteristics of I-P Crop Production

• Specific crop varieties often required.
• Bred for specific genetic traits.
• Ah.....the potential for biotechnology!
• Sex with adjacent fields often prohibited.
• Cross-pollination often contaminates grain with
  undesirable genes that dilute the desired trait.

40
Characteristics of I-P Crop Production

• Specific crop varieties sometimes required.
• Specific inputs (or lack thereof) are sometimes
  required.
• For example, organic production practices for
  food grade grain may be required.

41
Characteristics of I-P Crop Production

• Specific crop varieties sometimes required.
• Specific inputs (or lack thereof) are sometimes
  required.
• Seed must be harvested and stored separately from
  that of other fields.
• To avoid contamination with other varieties.
• All the way from field to market.

42
Characteristics of I-P Crop Production

• Specific crop varieties sometimes required.
• Specific inputs (or lack thereof) are sometimes
  required.
• Seed must be harvested and stored separately from
  that of other fields.
• Grower contracts usually advisable.
• Protects from the uncertainty of spot markets.

43
Advantages of I-P Crops...

• Allow growers to benefit economically from added
  value of crops.
• Through market premiums for the grain.
• Through guaranteed markets for the grain.
• Possibly by participating in ownership of I-P
  ventures?

44
Advantages of I-P Crops...

• Allow growers to benefit economically from added
  value of crops.
• Allow seed researchers to recapture costs of new
  genetic technology.
• Through higher seed prices.
• Through partnerships with other industries.

45
Advantages of I-P Crops...

• Allow growers to benefit economically from added
  value of crops.
• Allow seed researchers to recapture costs of new
  genetic technology.
• Allow end-users to create even greater
  value-added outputs more efficiently.
• Grain with high levels of desired constituents.
• Grain with improved milling characteristics.

46
Disadvantages of I-P Crops...

• Genetic baggage sometimes restricts yield or
  other agronomic characteristics.
• Yield drag
• Sometimes, bad genes come along for the ride
  with the targeted genes.
• Yield lag
• Sometimes new traits are not yet incorporated
  into elite hybrids.

47
Disadvantages of I-P Crops...

• Genetic baggage
• Value-added characteristics sometimes influenced
  by Mother Nature or production practices.
• Protein content
• Oil content

48
Disadvantages of I-P Crops...

• Genetic baggage
• Influence of Mother Nature
• Niche markets can fill or expire quickly.
• How many acres of baby corn does it take to
  saturate the salad bar market?
• Some I-P ventures will fluctuate greatly from
  year to year.
• Some I-P ventures will fail.

49
Disadvantages of I-P Crops...

• Genetic baggage
• Influence of Mother Nature
• Niche markets can fill quickly.
• Harvest handling requires extra TLC
• Quality of product more important

50
Disadvantages of I-P Crops...

• Genetic baggage
• Influence of Mother Nature
• Niche markets can fill quickly.
• Harvest handling requires extra TLC
• Local infrastructure (elevators) often not
  adequate for large-scale I-P crop production.
• Isolation to maintain identity and purity will
  likely be on-farm.

51
Potential for Indiana Agriculture

• Plain old no. 2 yellow dent corn will continue
  to be grown into the near future.
• Its dirt cheap price is attractive to industry.
• A lot of plain old cows pigs still exist.
• Intl grain trade will likely still demand it.

52
Potential for Indiana Agriculture

• No. 2 yellow dent corn will still be grown.
• I-P crop technology will require aggressive
  entrepreneuring.
• For universities and industry in developing the
  new end-uses and new markets.
• For local infrastructure in gearing up to handle
  the isolation and TLC requirements of I-P.
• For farmers in seeking out I-P opportunities.

53
Potential for Indiana Agriculture

• Nonetheless, I-P crop production WILL become more
  prevalent in Indiana.
• Grain composition traits useful for specific
  industrial uses.
• Grain quality traits for improving animal feed
  use efficiency, both on-farm and off.
• Farmer cooperatives contracting directly with
  end-users to provide plain old grain, but with
  guarantee of quality or variety.

54
As you cross that bridge, remember this...

• Farming is a kind of continual miracle wrought
  by the hand of God.
• -- Benjamin Franklin