PA044/A/07 Greenmount Students Try Their Hand At Precision Farming

Studying for a higher education qualification in agriculture at Greenmount goes beyond the classroom.

Students on the BSc Agriculture Technology and the HND Agriculture courses can select an option from Dairying, Beef and Sheep or Crop Husbandry within a unique Enterprise Management module. Those choosing the CROPS option get ‘hands-on’ practical and management experience in the day-to-day running of a crop enterprise on the Campus farm.

Students are closely involved in a number of projects throughout the year, to learn basic crop husbandry skills and introduce them to new technology that is being used by arable farmers in Northern Ireland and throughout the arable world.  

This year, one of the projects is to sow and manage a field of winter wheat on the Campus farm so that the optimum yield and profit are obtained.  This involves using precision farming techniques based on Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology to map soil and plant characteristics, to enable a more efficient use of inputs, like seed, fertiliser and sprays.

With the help of Greenmount Crops Technologists, students have been trying out this relatively new technology to examine the correlation between yield of winter wheat and soil characteristics such as soil conductivity, clay content, compaction and drainage. The information gathered allowed them to produce a map showing the soil variation across the field, which they subsequently used to manage the crop more effectively

The students were able to produce, using GPS, a soil nutrient map for pH, phosphorus, potash, magnesium and sulphur. This allowed lime and fertilizer to be variably applied, resulting in significant financial savings.

Students used a scanner and GPS pack attached to a quad bike to produce a map of vegetative cover in the crop.  This allowed them to correlate plant cover with tiller counts in different parts of the field, which aids the more efficient use of nitrogen, applied as a top dressing.

Kyle Johnston, Armagh, a student on the Degree in Agricultural Technology course, says: ”With the increasing use of new technology in farming, it is essential to keep abreast of these developments, as I embark on a career in the agricultural industry.”

For further information on higher education courses offered at Greenmount, freephone Greenmount Campus on 0800 0284291, contact Dr David Patterson on 028 9442 6652 or visit the website www.greenmount.ac.uk

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