AgronomyEquipment and Technology Showcase

Equipment and Technology Showcase

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Wireless Monitoring

Weather Innovations Inc. is offering growers a new tool for the summer of 2012—a wireless sensor interface designed to monitor conditions within a field while connecting to the main weather station. The interface will allow growers to monitor soil moisture, temperature, relative humidity and rainfall in multiple areas of a field.

“We’ve been operating wireless weather stations for years, so the weather part isn’t a real innovation, but what the wireless sensor interface does is get that short-range part, the microclimate within the field,” says Andy Nadler, agricultural meteorologist and Western Canada operations manager for WIN.

The wireless sensor interface is designed to increase growers’ monitoring capabilities by offering another layer of information which affects pest management. “Moisture and temperature vary quite a lot within the field based on the crop, how vigorous it is, shelter belts, where the pivot is, those types of things. Usually there are locations in the field that have higher or lower disease pressure.

Adcon Telementry wireless dataloggers monitor real-time soil moisture. Photo courtesy of Andy Nadler.
Adcon Telementry wireless dataloggers monitor real-time soil moisture. Photo courtesy of Andy Nadler.

“[The wireless sensor interface] gets a closer look at the field, gives growers in-depth information about the field and [its] variability,” Nadler explains.

In North America, the company operates monitoring networks in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Michigan, and the wireless sensor interface can only be used within existing weather stations. According to its mission statement, WIN aims to become the continent’s premier agri-environmental service provider by 2015.

For more information, visit weatherinnovations.com.

Optic Monitoring

 

The Farm Office, a Trimble reseller, is now offering potato growers another tool for effective monitoring in GreenSeeker, an optic sensor that measures plant health through two spectrums of light—red LED light and near-infrared light. “The sensor has optics built into it to measure how much red LED light gets absorbed [by the plant],” explains Paul Raymer, precision agriculture specialist with The Farm Office. “On the near-infrared side, scientists have found that the healthier the plant, the more it will reflect the near-infrared light. A healthy plant will absorb more red LED and will reflect back more near-infrared.”

The sensor generates a detailed plant vigour map. Photo Courtesy of Paul Raymer.
The sensor generates a detailed plant vigour map. Photo Courtesy of Paul Raymer.

The sensor has a strong application for pest management, says Raymer. “The sensor essentially assigns a number to the health of the plant—so if we have pests on a plant affecting its photosynthetic rate and health, that will drive that number,” he says.
The sensor is mounted on a sprayer boom with a GPS receiver, and as the boom makes passes over a field, it collects data and generates a map of “vigour variability” within that field. The sensors can “read” the field 100 times per second, while the GPS receiver creates a reading between one to five times per second. Packaged together, says Raymer, the information provides a detailed plant vigour map.

For more information, contact Paul Raymer at 519-655-3555 or visit thefarmoffice.ca.

Hilling Technology

Atom-Jet Agriculture has introduced a new line of carbide power hiller tines.

“As more producers move to power hilling, they are finding it is commonplace to wear out original hard-surfaced tines in a very short period of time,” says Bob Cotton, vice-president of sales and marketing for Atom-Jet. “Replacing tines can be expensive, and during that time the quality of hilling can be compromised. Carbide tines will last, saving you time and money.”

The Atom-Jet research and development team has been developing power hiller tines over the past two years as a result of grower interest in hiller tines with higher wearability and extended use.

Carbide hiller tines offer higher wearability. Photo courtesy of Atom-Jet.
Carbide hiller tines offer higher wearability. Photo courtesy of Atom-Jet.

Atom-Jet, which has been in the seeding opener business for over 20 years, was the first company to institute the use of carbide on seeding tools. Since then, the company has continually invested in the development of carbide composition make-up and brazing technology. According to Cotton, they are excited to bring this technology and knowledge to the potato industry.

The patent-pending tines have been developed for popular brands such as Struik and Baselier, and Atom-Jet continues to work with producers for the development of tines specific to their own brands of power hillers. “Atom-Jet Agriculture is well known for assisting producers to find solutions to problems that increase their productivity and profitability,” says Cotton. “There is no doubt that growers will find considerable value in the new carbide tines.”

For more information, visit atomjet.com.

Disease Control

Jet Harvest Solutions, based in Longwood, Fla., has just received Canadian registration for Bio-Save, its post-harvest biological fungicide decay control product. A freeze-dried, wettable powder fungicide which is applied on the packing line as a dip or a spray, Bio-Save controls fusarium dry rot and silver scurf decay on white potatoes in storage.

“Bio-Save is used solely as a post-harvest application for the control of wound pathogens that occur during the harvest,” says Lucie Grant, president of Jet Harvest. “The mode of action for Bio-Save is called competitive inhibition. This means that when the active ingredient, Pseudomonas syringae, is applied at a high level, it grows in the wound site and out-competes the pathogen organism at storage temperatures for nutrition, therefore starving the pathogen out of the possibilities of propagating into a disease that will rot the fruit or vegetable.”

Bio-Save applied at end of conveyor. Photo courtesy of Bill Grant.
Bio-Save applied at end of conveyor. Photo courtesy of Bill Grant.

According to Grant, the product can be a valuable part of a grower’s IPM toolbox, given increasing resistance to chemical fungicides. “Because of Bio-Save’s mode of action, competitive inhibition, there is a reduced risk of developing pathogen resistance,” she says. “Therefore, Bio-Save can be a long-term sustainable product.”

Bio-Save has been successfully used in the United States since 1998; its introduction to the Canadian market will provide growers with a valuable option for controlling disease in storage. Jet Harvest also recently received approval for the use of Bio-Save 10 LP to treat sweet potatoes, which is relevant for potato processors beginning to process that vegetable.

“We appreciate all of the support and efforts from our research partners throughout Canada that assisted us with the completion of the Bio-Save registration,” says Grant.

For more information, visit jetharvest.com.

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