According to a UK-based research project, there is a strong economic incentive to invest in precision farming techniques and a technology such as Fieldstar® – even if only on a limited basis. Compared to the estimated cost of equipping a farm for precision farming (anywhere between 2 and 18 GBP/ha (0.4 and 7.2 USD/acre) and expenses incurred for data collection and treatment (about GBP 7/ha (USD 4.2/acre)), the project reports considerable annual savings – for example up to GBP 22/ha (USD 13.2/acre) on nitrogen, GBP 18/ha (USD 10.8/acre) on herbicides and GBP 20/ha (USD 12/acre) on fungicides.

The five-year research project looking at precision farming of cereal crops was carried out as a joint project between Cranfield University at Silsoe and Arable Research Centres, both in the UK, and headed by Professor Richard Godwin. The project was funded by UK-based Home-Grown Cereal Authority (HGCA) with AGCO as one of the key sponsors. The idea was to study why crop yields vary and to develop ways of working with precision farming tools for wheat crops through variable nitrogen inputs.

Besides the obvious economic benefits of precision farming, the project also highlighted additional benefits, such as correction of waterlogging, which they estimated amounted to GBP 185/ha (USD 110.8/acre), and balancing uneven of nitrogen application, whose worth they estimated at GBP 65/ha (USD 38.8/acre). The project also revealed environmental benefits. In one field, for instance, leachable nitrogen was reduced by one third.

If you would like to read the full report please click the link below and follow the links below:

www.hgca.com - Publications – Research – Project Reports and Research Reviews: Report 267