05/01/08 Getting the Message

Getting the Message. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. I hesitate to say this but one day, crops may grow themselves. Technology is playing a larger and larger role in agriculture and indeed may lead to crops that virtually grow on their own. One aspect of that is the ability for ag producers to now monitor the amount of water plants are getting and it has even gotten to the point where you can receive an email or text message that says&water me. MAHAN: The main thing that we've been working on is the area of irrigation scheduling and is really quite important but it's an area that's really generally been quite complicated and somewhat expensive from a producer point of view for a long time. And what we've been working on and trying to take advantages of some new developments in computer and wireless technology. James Mahan, a plant physiologist with the USDA/ARS says that the technology is here. MAHAN: What we've done is taken advantage of a wireless technology that has allowed us to sort of free our instrumentation from wires and power cords and that sort of thing and spread it throughout the field where it is useful for a producer. They are using a type of battery-operated infrared thermometers in the field to determine water content. MAHAN: And then use that same sort of wireless technology to collect the information in the field and transmit it to the grower and provide very simple access to that via very simple web tools or the cellular technology with text messaging to provide the producer with sort of moment in time irrigation status and the ability to respond to it remotely. Basically you get a call that says, hey, we're thirsty and you turn on the faucet. The technology can be used with most commodities and is especially useful when it comes to conservation of water. MAHAN: In a lot of the world and in particular our part of the U.S., full irrigation is really a thing of the past. We're moving rapidly because of declining water resources into an environment where we will not able to apply sufficient irrigation to be up on the maximal part of the yield curve but rather are going to have to be able to make decisions that will use less water but will produce less yield. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.