Project SENSE

Mr. Brian Krienke and Ms. Laura Thompson Author

01/07/2016 Added

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Project SENSE presented by Mr. Brian Krienke and Ms. Laura Thompson

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[00:00:00.770]Hello, as Richard said, I'm Brian Kreinke.
[00:00:03.371]I'm a Extension Educator housed in the Agronomy
[00:00:06.431]and Horticulture Department.
[00:00:08.131]And with me is Laura Thompson.
[00:00:10.310]She's an Extension Educator based at the ARDC.
[00:00:13.450]She's part of the southeast district.
[00:00:15.150]I'm glad we get to follow Roger
[00:00:17.550]and a lot of other colleagues,
[00:00:18.870]and that they're setting the stage of
[00:00:20.730]this is really team-based work.
[00:00:23.770]And I'm very, very happy and joyed
[00:00:27.690]to be a part of this project,
[00:00:28.990]because it is an integral effort
[00:00:30.530]between the scientist, the local cooperators,
[00:00:34.010]the local county educators, on and on and on.
[00:00:37.150]The collaborations grow from there.
[00:00:41.710]For our project, Project SENSE, which stands for
[00:00:45.390]Sensors Use for the Efficient Nitrogen Use
[00:00:49.370]and Stewardship of the Environment.
[00:00:52.091]Am I, okay I'll use the mic, I guess.
[00:00:54.890]When you do Extension talks,
[00:00:55.910]you get used to just being very vocal
[00:00:58.350]and not having to rely on a microphone,
[00:00:59.910]so, I'll do this.
[00:01:01.670]But, I wanna highlight that this is a big team,
[00:01:04.750]and these are only the names that we're listing here
[00:01:06.690]as part of the core group of the project.
[00:01:10.250]But we could talk about local consultants,
[00:01:12.810]cooperators, the technician John Parrish is an undergrad
[00:01:18.010]in the Agronomy department.
[00:01:19.430]He's been an absolute godsend in abilities
[00:01:22.750]to get to the field, get this done,
[00:01:24.970]get all the information back to us,
[00:01:26.690]so that we can start processing it,
[00:01:28.270]and do our job with Extension,
[00:01:30.250]which is extending the research to the grower.
[00:01:36.851]All right, so a little bit about the objective
[00:01:38.430]of the project.
[00:01:40.031]As Brian mentioned, it's Project SENSE,
[00:01:42.650]and that stands for Sensors for Efficient Nitrogen Use
[00:01:45.250]and Stewardship of the Environment.
[00:01:47.510]So, our goal, really, is to improve nitrogen use efficiency,
[00:01:51.251]and ultimately to be able to reduce
[00:01:52.890]nitrate loss to groundwater.
[00:01:54.770]And the means by which we're attempting to do that
[00:01:58.150]is through using these crop canopy sensor technology
[00:02:01.711]for in-season nitrogen management.
[00:02:04.091]So, first, to start things off,
[00:02:06.910]we'd like to show a video, about five minutes,
[00:02:09.630]that will hopefully pretty concisely give you an idea
[00:02:12.430]of what the project is, how it works,
[00:02:14.690]who's involved, and kind of allow you to visualize
[00:02:17.230]what's actually going on,
[00:02:18.410]instead of us just trying to describe everything.
[00:02:22.990](upbeat piano music)
[00:02:26.790]A team of researchers at UNL
[00:02:28.450]is bringing an innovative technology to Nebraska farms.
[00:02:32.310]And along with it, the potential to increase
[00:02:34.630]farmer profitability, and reduce environmental impacts.
[00:02:38.850]Richard Ferguson, a UNL soil fertility specialist,
[00:02:41.790]heads up the effort, known as Project SENSE,
[00:02:44.871]Sensors for Efficient Nitrogen Use
[00:02:47.390]and Stewardship of the Environment
[00:02:49.750]Well, the primary goal of Project SENSE
[00:02:51.370]is to encourage farmers to use in-season application
[00:02:55.150]of nitrogen fertilizer.
[00:02:57.070]We think for Nebraska conditions,
[00:02:59.670]our weather and our soils,
[00:03:01.271]that that's the practice that we'd really like to see
[00:03:04.251]grow in adoption.
[00:03:05.750]Farmers in Nebraska use fertilizers increasingly efficiently
[00:03:10.170]over the last 30 years or so.
[00:03:12.251]But there's some evidence that that gain in efficiency
[00:03:15.210]may be starting to plateau a little bit.
[00:03:18.090]And so, we're thinking that perhaps new practices
[00:03:20.831]and new approaches to how we use fertilizer
[00:03:22.770]might be needed.
[00:03:24.470]In-season application, for Nebraska,
[00:03:26.970]really helps us to use fertilizer more efficiently
[00:03:29.610]and to gain profit, and to help protect water quality
[00:03:33.270]at the same time.
[00:03:34.510]So, how to these crop canopy sensors work?
[00:03:37.270]Crop canopy sensors are positioned over the corn row.
[00:03:40.550]The sensors emit modulated light onto the crop canopy.
[00:03:44.770]Photo detectors on the bottom of the sensor
[00:03:46.870]measure the light that is reflected by a leaf.
[00:03:50.350]Specific wavelengths of light are measured.
[00:03:52.810]In this case, red, red edge and near infrared light.
[00:03:57.630]The wavelength information is recorded
[00:03:59.910]by the crop canopy sensor.
[00:04:01.970]This information is then combined to form an index.
[00:04:05.730]In this case, the Normalized Difference Red Edge Index,
[00:04:09.250]or NDRE.
[00:04:12.010]The NDRE Index has been correlated
[00:04:14.390]to a specific property of the crop.
[00:04:16.670]In this case, nitrogen status.
[00:04:19.070]That index is then transformed via algorithms
[00:04:22.270]into a recommended rate of additional N fertilizer
[00:04:25.151]to be applied.
[00:04:27.270]Sensors mounted on an applicator boom
[00:04:29.350]can measure the nitrogen status in real time
[00:04:32.171]as the applicator moves through the field,
[00:04:34.651]while the applicator can apply the needed nitrogen
[00:04:37.010]in real time.
[00:04:39.290]17 field sites were selected in 2015.
[00:04:42.691]These sites are located
[00:04:43.910]within five natural resource districts, or NRD's,
[00:04:47.431]where groundwater nitrate measurements
[00:04:49.491]are at critical levels.
[00:04:51.130]Lower Platte North, Upper Big Blue,
[00:04:53.590]Little Blue, Central Platte, and Lower Loup.
[00:04:57.630]Project SENSE is a three-year project
[00:05:00.110]and will work with 20 field sites per year.
[00:05:03.210]The project is conducted through the Nebraska
[00:05:05.910]On-Farm Research Network,
[00:05:07.670]which works with Nebraska's producers
[00:05:09.630]to help them conduct their own research
[00:05:11.530]to answer production-related questions
[00:05:13.371]for their farming operations.
[00:05:15.350]In this case, growers are comparing
[00:05:17.070]their nitrogen management to nitrogen rates
[00:05:19.710]directed by the crop canopy sensors.
[00:05:22.790]The work of applying nitrogen is shared
[00:05:24.890]between the producer and Nebraska Extension.
[00:05:27.691]The producer applies their nitrogen rate
[00:05:29.970]to portions of the field.
[00:05:31.911]It also applies a base rate to the sensor-managed strips
[00:05:34.970]early on in the growing season.
[00:05:37.250]Then, the Nebraska Extension team
[00:05:38.790]takes a high-clearance applicator to the field
[00:05:41.050]at the proper time in the growing season,
[00:05:43.330]when the corn crop is between V10 and VT
[00:05:46.710]and applies hydrous nitrogen based on real-time readings
[00:05:50.151]by the crop canopy sensors.
[00:05:52.430]Participants this year were enthused
[00:05:54.070]about the opportunity to be involved
[00:05:55.930]in this innovative project.
[00:05:57.910]I've seen this technology around now
[00:06:02.210]for probably ten years,
[00:06:03.680]and have been waiting for something like this to come.
[00:06:06.011]I thought this was the opportunity to see it
[00:06:08.450]on my farm, and we'll see how it works for me.
[00:06:11.250]Probably the biggest shock was how the sensors
[00:06:13.950]read what our naked eye can't even imagine.
[00:06:17.650]The variability of what the machine did
[00:06:20.470]when we were going through the field
[00:06:22.770]has just been mind-boggling,
[00:06:24.410]so I'm anxious to tie that with yield map results
[00:06:27.791]and look at that with grid sample
[00:06:29.411]and everything else.
[00:06:30.490]Well, what we've learned is variability of the soil
[00:06:34.350]really shows up.
[00:06:36.531]But the recommendations come back about the same
[00:06:39.770]over the soil.
[00:06:41.570]I think the new technology is going to advance
[00:06:44.270]and improve, and I think it's something
[00:06:45.990]that producers, especially in areas where soils are fragile
[00:06:50.770]and the possibility of losing nitrogen,
[00:06:55.610]leaching away, we need to look at this technology,
[00:06:58.730]and hopefully use that to improve our operations
[00:07:02.330]and be able to stabilize the nitrogen,
[00:07:05.911]and have it there when we need it.
[00:07:07.970]I think it's a very good option for them
[00:07:09.690]to look at research because when we go out in the field
[00:07:13.370]and we talk to farmers, they'll say,
[00:07:14.790]"Boy, I wish I knew if this would be a beneficial item."
[00:07:18.250]And so, if they can do some research on the farm,
[00:07:20.930]and let somebody set it up for them correctly,
[00:07:24.070]because sometimes it's a challenge for a farmer to know how.
[00:07:29.711]Yield and profitability results
[00:07:31.131]from Project SENSE will be shared each year
[00:07:33.490]at the annual results update meeting
[00:07:35.530]of the Nebraska On-Farm Research Network.
[00:07:38.790]For more information about Project SENSE,
[00:07:41.410]visit the Nebraska On-Farm Research Network
[00:07:43.771]online at cropwatch.unl.edu/farmresearch.
[00:07:49.670]Project SENSE is sponsored by Nebraska Extension,
[00:07:52.530]and is made possible through funding
[00:07:54.170]from the Nebraska Corn Board,
[00:07:55.990]the USDA, and five Nebraska NRD's,
[00:07:59.310]The Central Platte NRD,
[00:08:01.071]Little Blue NRD, Lower Loup NRD,
[00:08:04.190]Lower Platte North NRD,
[00:08:06.310]and Upper Big Blue NRD.
[00:08:15.131]All right, so hopefully that gives you
[00:08:16.330]kind of an idea of the overview of how the project works,
[00:08:19.490]as well as seeing all the different players
[00:08:21.510]that are involved, from the different sponsors
[00:08:24.090]to the farmers, to co-ops and the Extension team,
[00:08:27.790]and John doing a lot of the application
[00:08:30.670]to make this happen.
[00:08:32.650]So, we wanted to share a little bit
[00:08:34.070]of our preliminary results with you
[00:08:35.930]from this first year.
[00:08:37.471]This is for those 17 sites that we have this year.
[00:08:40.790]Across the bottom of this graph,
[00:08:42.330]you'll see the different NRD's that we worked with,
[00:08:46.890]and then a grower and a sensor nitrogen rate.
[00:08:50.950]So, the bottom gray portion of those bars
[00:08:52.750]is the base nitrogen rate,
[00:08:54.630]and then the colored top portion of the bars
[00:08:57.090]is the in-season nitrogen rate
[00:08:59.390]as applied by either the grower in blue,
[00:09:02.651]or the Project SENSE sensor rate in red.
[00:09:06.570]So, as you can see, a lot of the growers
[00:09:08.750]that we worked with were using an in-season
[00:09:11.130]nitrogen application.
[00:09:13.370]Almost all of them did have some in-season application,
[00:09:16.950]as well as you can see a pretty consistent trend
[00:09:19.530]that their application in total was higher
[00:09:22.690]than the Project SENSE nitrogen application.
[00:09:26.630]Across all those sites for this first year,
[00:09:31.610]comparing the grower rate versus the sensor rate,
[00:09:33.991]the average nitrogen savings was 27%.
[00:09:37.230]So, quite a bit of difference in nitrogen
[00:09:39.910]being applied there.
[00:09:41.830]So, now we're just starting to get in
[00:09:43.050]some of the yield results,
[00:09:44.550]and that'll really be the interesting part,
[00:09:46.990]to see how this nitrogen saving impacts the yields.
[00:09:50.930]And so, with that, we do have one site
[00:09:52.650]that we've processed and wanna share,
[00:09:54.330]just an initial look at that.
[00:09:57.100]Yeah, we wanna give you a sense, no pun intended,
[00:10:00.350]of kinda, sorry,
[00:10:03.330]of how we approach the problem.
[00:10:06.251]How do we try to work with the grower,
[00:10:08.490]what do we present to them,
[00:10:10.310]because this is about adoption of a technology.
[00:10:13.950]And so, a lot of those testimonials you heard
[00:10:16.570]from the growers were about
[00:10:18.371]do they trust it or not.
[00:10:19.811]It's not doing what they would think it would be doing,
[00:10:22.590]based on looking at the crop.
[00:10:24.570]And so, a lot of this is, yes, data-driven.
[00:10:27.910]And I failed to mention at the beginning,
[00:10:29.450]this is research that's been done 20 years
[00:10:32.410]in this department, across campus,
[00:10:35.190]in other departments.
[00:10:36.590]That is fundamental to getting to the point
[00:10:39.400]where it's ripe enough
[00:10:40.450]to now extend to the growers.
[00:10:42.030]And so, the growers do want data,
[00:10:44.531]but they also wanna understand
[00:10:45.770]what's inside this black box.
[00:10:48.610]They wanna make sure they can understand it,
[00:10:50.310]they can work with it.
[00:10:51.890]And it gives us a great opportunity, then,
[00:10:54.110]to sit down and develop further relationships
[00:10:56.330]with the growers.
[00:10:57.870]And then we can start talking about other concepts,
[00:11:00.350]and we can start talking about science literacy.
[00:11:02.390]And we can direct them to projects from Roger Elmore,
[00:11:05.830]or the other different, you know,
[00:11:07.210]just think of everything you do.
[00:11:09.030]It gives us an opening to talk to the grower
[00:11:11.510]and teach them science and work with them.
[00:11:14.690]And so, this is from one site.
[00:11:17.130]This is from the video you saw with the sprayer boom
[00:11:20.031]going through the field.
[00:11:21.131]This is that site.
[00:11:22.590]And you have the sensor treatment,
[00:11:24.591]which is the pink, and the blue,
[00:11:26.370]which is the grower's treatment.
[00:11:28.110]The bar chart is yield.
[00:11:30.490]There is no significant difference in yield,
[00:11:33.131]but there are significant differences
[00:11:35.330]in the amount of nitrogen that was applied.
[00:11:37.790]And since we're working with American growers,
[00:11:40.151]we're talking about pounds per acre applied.
[00:11:43.470]We saved over 65 pounds per acre of applied nitrogen,
[00:11:47.370]which is about $42 an acre in savings to the grower.
[00:11:51.350]And if you would put that to the field,
[00:11:52.911]that's 5500 roughly dollars
[00:11:56.600]for this one field one year.
[00:11:59.720]But I wanna stress,
[00:12:00.840]it's not just about reducing nitrogen rates.
[00:12:03.420]It's, if we would simply have to scale back
[00:12:06.041]on nitrogen rate, then what are these sensors needed for?
[00:12:09.500]Well, that's where the education takes place.
[00:12:12.921]And that's where we get to sit down
[00:12:14.200]and talk about the spatial variability
[00:12:16.160]and all of these other concepts
[00:12:17.841]that have been researched in our department
[00:12:19.661]and across campus.
[00:12:21.280]And we get to start to show them
[00:12:23.921]how this just simply wouldn't be possible
[00:12:25.840]by choosing one lower rate.
[00:12:28.180]It's the concepts of spatial variability,
[00:12:30.300]remote sensing, and agronomy, all kinda intertwined.
[00:12:34.901]And this has just been,
[00:12:37.120]don't worry about what's going on with the chart.
[00:12:39.760]This is just what we show them.
[00:12:41.341]It's been well-received, which is a way to visualize
[00:12:45.440]what cannot be visualized with your eyes,
[00:12:48.660]if that makes sense the way I said that.
[00:12:50.880]It breaks down that black box.
[00:12:53.540]We gain trust from the growers when they see
[00:12:56.730]and understand the concept,
[00:12:58.500]and this is one way of doing that,
[00:13:00.060]which is showing how things are varying on the go,
[00:13:03.060]how variability is different,
[00:13:04.961]and how it will be different every single year.
[00:13:07.300]So, we think this is excellent tool, excellent project.
[00:13:12.320]As you heard in the video,
[00:13:13.490]we've got 17 growers this year.
[00:13:16.010]We're gonna get 20 next year,
[00:13:17.290]and then 20 in the last, the third year of the study,
[00:13:20.550]and bring this together in On-Farm Research Network,
[00:13:23.130]which is a wonderful tool,
[00:13:25.151]of which Laura is a coordinator of,
[00:13:27.110]so with that,
[00:13:30.800]do you have any questions?
[00:13:32.840]Thank you for your time.
[00:13:34.220](applause)
[00:13:40.660]A single quick question.
[00:13:42.700]I see Steve, go ahead.
[00:13:45.421](speaker off camera and microphone)
[00:13:52.600]Yes, so Steve's question was do different hybrids,
[00:13:57.060]because they visually look different,
[00:13:59.021]do they affect how the sensor interacts
[00:14:00.920]and correspondingly, the nitrogen rate applied.
[00:14:03.901]Absolutely they do.
[00:14:05.440]We calibrate, though, to each hybrid.
[00:14:08.860]Through the research we've looked at,
[00:14:12.230]because of where we are on the nitrogen response curve,
[00:14:15.531]even different hybrids respond similarly to this method.
[00:14:20.991]I wanna add one more thing,
[00:14:22.612]because this is kind of a passion,
[00:14:23.851]is reducing the groundwater nitrate,
[00:14:25.971]and the stewardship, and all that.
[00:14:27.711]This is one tool.
[00:14:29.051]And we stress that with growers.
[00:14:30.271]This is not the cure-all end-all to nitrogen management,
[00:14:33.872]but it represents a multi-faceted approach.
[00:14:37.991]And this is one tool that you can use.
[00:14:40.371]It's a window into their operation,
[00:14:42.391]a window into those relationshipS we can work,
[00:14:44.431]which is what makes Extension so beautiful.
[00:14:46.731]So, thank you.

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