UGA Adds Precision Ag Specialist

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

The University of Georgia has added a new precision agriculture specialist to the team. Dr. Simer Virk was hired as an Assistant Professor in Precision Agriculture on UGA’s Tifton campus in the Department of Crop and Soil Science. He looks forward to learning alongside farmers in this new role to further advance ag technology.

Virk… “The areas especially are dry and liquid fertilizer equipment, machinery and technology. Especially the variable rate technology for fertilizer application. Then the spraying technology control systems and nozzles; looking at the sprayer, boom performance, different types of nozzles in real field conditions. And then I've also been working a lot with the drones the last three or four years. So doing a lot of remote sensing data collection and how we can use some of that in-season data to make better crop management decisions.”

Dr. Virk says he’s most excited to get out in the field with farmers and extension agents to better understand their challenges, and how technology can help.

Virk… “Listening to the growers, you know, how they've been farming for so long or what have they adopted? What don't excite them, what they don't like about technology, all of that is just very exciting.”

Dr. Virk is eager to expand precision agriculture not only in row crops, but in specialty crops as well.