Papers presented at Second Int'l Conf. on Geospatial Info. in Ag. and For.,
Jan.10-12, 2000, FL
TOOLS
FOR DELIVERING WIDE-AREA INTEGRATED
CROP MANAGEMENT (ICM) ON SMALL NEW JERSEY FARMS
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Project Coordinator: David Lee, Salem County Agricultural
Agent
For large farms
and fields in the Midwest and Western United States, precision agriculture
tools based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information
Systems (GIS), and Remote Sensing (RS) are used successfully to guides
and manage large farming operations. GPS-led site-specific field
management coupled with color and color-infrared aerial photography and
satellite imagery can optimize chemical inputs to fields, improve yields,
identify crop stress and weed infestations, and improve environmental quality
by decreasing nutrient run-off into watersheds. Over the past two
years, Rutgers Cooperative Extension has begun to test whether site-specific
precision agriculture tools work accurately and economically on the small
farms and fields common to New Jersey growers. Recently purchased,
relatively low cost/high technology tools include 1) a Trimble AgGPS Model
122 differential GPS unit for field mapping, site-specific sampling, and
navigation, 2) an agricultural digital camera (DYCAM, Inc.) for analysis
of crop stress, 3) a 35 mm camera for identifying crop stress, 4) a video
mapping system (VMS 200) compatible with the AgGPS 122 unit for monitoring
land management and crop stress over large areas. These tools are
being used in projects ranging from crop and nutrient to watershed
management. The use of these technologies appear to lead to improved
crop health and economic savings to growers, as well as to an enhanced
knowledge base, leading to improvements in farm decision-making.
For large farms
and fields in the Midwest and Western United States, precision agriculture
tools based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information
Systems (GIS), and Remote Sensing (RS) are used successfully to guides
and manage large farming operations. GPS-led site-specific field
management coupled with color and color-infrared aerial photography and
satellite imagery can optimize chemical inputs to fields, improve yields,
identify crop stress and weed infestations, and improve environmental quality
by decreasing nutrient run-off into watersheds. Over the past two
years, Rutgers Cooperative Extension has begun to test whether site-specific
precision agriculture tools work accurately and economically on the small
farms and fields common to New Jersey growers. Recently purchased,
relatively low cost/high technology tools include 1) a Trimble AgGPS Model
122 differential GPS unit for field mapping, site-specific sampling, and
navigation, 2) an agricultural digital camera (DYCAM, Inc.) for analysis
of crop stress, 3) a 35 mm camera for identifying crop stress, 4) a video
mapping system (VMS 200) compatible with the AgGPS 122 unit for monitoring
land management and crop stress over large areas. These tools are
being used in projects ranging from crop and nutrient to watershed
management. The use of these technologies appear to lead to improved
crop health and economic savings to growers, as well as to an enhanced
knowledge base, leading to improvements in farm decision-making.
