08/16/06 On combine protein sensors Part I

Farm and Ranch August 16, 2006 Dan Long has been doing research with on the combine protein sensors for several years and the USDA-ARS agronomist at the Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center says three units now on the market are operational. Long: "We've conducted a series of tests on each of these over the last three years or so. And we are seeing reasonably good performance on the combine in the field with hard red spring wheat, winter wheat, up in Montana and with soft white winter wheat here in Oregon. We are measuring anywhere between point five percent to about point seven percent precision on each of these sensors." Which Long says is good enough for mapping purposes in trying to characterize the protein variation across a field. Long: "We think we have the technology now to apply the information into things like nitrogen management because combined with a yield map, a protein map can be very useful in helping us forecasting the amount of nitrogen removed by the crop. All that information can be mapped out across the field and used for applying spatially variable applications of nitrogen." These on-the-go protein sensors are expensive, up to 15-thousand dollars a unit, but Long has some ideas on how government conservation programs could help cover some of that cost. That story tomorrow. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.