326 Understanding Yield Variability Across Spatial and Temporal Scales

Oral Session
Special Sessions Two major challenges face precision agriculture today. The first challenge is that adoption of precision agriculture is slower than anticipated in spite of the proliferation of technology on the farm. Adoption lags in part because precision agriculture technologies produced large amounts of data but little of the information needed to support farm management decisions that increased their farming operation. A reason given by top farmers is that they do not understand the yield variability they have observed within their fields over more than a decade of yield monitoring and are uncertain how to manage it for improved crop yield and quality even though they apply inputs site-specifically. The second challenge for precision agriculture emerges from a credible notion that precision agriculture will be needed to achieve solutions to the global challenges of feeding the growing world population in a sustainable way in the face of depleting land, soil, water, and input resources and in response to climate change. Life science companies like Monsanto and Pioneer suggest much of that yield increase will come from improved crop varieties through breeding and genetics but that precision agriculture will be required to maximize seed potential in diverse environments found within fields. Precision agriculture must provide the knowledge and capability of varying crop variety and plant population through variable seeding rate and row spacing and match fertilizer, water, and crop protection inputs to that environment in verifiable sustainable and traceable ways.

Cosponsor(s):

Agronomic Production Systems, Biometry and Statistical Computing, Soil Fertility & Plant Nutrition
Precision Agriculture Systems Community, Spatial Statistics Application Community
Wednesday, October 24, 2012: 8:10 AM-12:05 PM
Duke Energy Convention Center, Room 263, Level 2

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Organizer:
David Clay
Presiders:
Jose A. Hernandez and Francis Pierce
8:10 AM
Introduction to Yield Variability.
Francis Pierce, Washington State University
8:15 AM
Yield Variability On the Farm: What We Don't Understand.
Harold Birch, Family Farm Group, Executive Vice President and Founder
8:45 AM
Opportunities for Managing the within Field Gxe Interaction.
Frederick E. Below Jr., University of Illinois; Jason Haegele, University of Illinois Department of Crop Sciences
9:15 AM
New Tools to Manage Crop Stresses and Optimize Corn Yields On Each Acre.
John Shanahan, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
9:45 AM
Managing Stress-Monsanto.
Ravi Sripada, Monsanto Company - USA
10:15 AM
10:30 AM
11:00 AM
Statistical and Economic Approaches for Understanding Yield.
Terry Griffin, Vice President - Applied Economics at Cresco Ag, LLC
11:30 AM
The European Perspective On Understanding Yield Variation.
Josse De Baerdemaeker, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
12:00 PM
Closing Thoughts - Overview of Next Session.
David Clay, South Dakota State University
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