Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20
Outputs Target Audience:The target audience is farmers, commodity groups, crop consultants, scientists and students that adopt precision agriculture technologies to improve crop management, but also small farmers that can benefit from publicly available remote sensing products to improve crop yield. With an extensive on-farm data collection due to the nature of precision ag research in which spatial variability is needed, direct contact with farmers, consultants, employees, and commodity groups was essential to run the project. Efforts to deliver science-based knowledge included formal classroom instruction teaching AGRO4002 - Precision Agriculture and AGRO4002 - Data-driven Farming (planned for Fall 2021), Servers for cloud computing and coordination of the Digital Ag Program at LSU. Changes/Problems:Unfortunately, due to Covid19 imposing limitations on travel by our staff we could not expand the procedure for our county agents to help with drone and soil mapping. Instead we decided to run two large trials in one reference farm and contracted a third-party drone service to fly in other fields What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During this period, with the funding provided by LSU we created a Digital Agriculture Laboratory with powerful servers to perform cloud computing and storage of remote sensing products and precision ag vector data. The servers are mainly being used to train students in this area of expertise now generically called Digital Agriculture. We created the first annual Conference to be held by the Louisiana State University AgCenter with the objective of promoting the practical use of precision agriculture approaches. The main point of this event is to have a theme with a keynote speaker and interactions with farmers, consultants, and commodity groups. In this meeting, interactions with Extension agents and users of commercial platforms were stressed. This next year the training for extension agents and consultants on specific topics will be again promoted as was requested in the first meeting. Parallel meetings were performed mentioning the support from NIFA and other budget sources. The main ideas in this Hatch project are being carried out using several different sources of financial support, providing an opportunity to train students at all levels. A couple of interns and students graduated or are in training (2018 - Roberto Moreira; 2020 - Issa Flores, 2020 - Alex Munoz; Ongoing: Murilo Martins, Felippe Karp, Fagner Rontani, Phillip Lanza). A couple of them were awarded financial support from companies and during the first virtual ASA-CSSA-SSSA meeting in 2020 one student was awarded 3rd place in Graduate Student Competition. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated by field days, data collection in farmers' fields, planning meetings with consultants, farmers and companies to make the project operational and cost effective. Scientific papers and meetings such as ASA-CCSA-SSSA, Beltwide Cotton Conferences; Brazilian Cotton Congress, etc. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For the next reporting period the focus will be scientific publications and a strong target to the non-scientific community, such as extension circulars. A web and searchable platform such as the one run by University of Nebraska- Lincoln is being developed to enable producers to retrieve what is being done by the LSU Precision Ag Team and the idea is to have a platform for research and extension tied together to make more efficient the data and information transfer. Use of videos, graphs and other digital forms will be improved to expand extension efforts. Adjustments must be made to automate data collection on farm and extension personnel must be engaged and trained to absorb this new wave of Digital Agriculture techniques. As the Chair of the Precision Agriculture Systems Community in ASA-CSSA-SSA I will enhance and promote symposium and workshops with all these topics on the Agronomy meetings in 2021 to be held on Salt Lake City - Utah.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
(i) A standard spatial design was developed and adopted to capture not only traditional treatment responses using a Latin square design from a field experiment, but also spatial data. Treatments were arranged spatially in such a way that the range of the semivariogram or the distance over which auto spatial correlation exists can adequately model the interpolated map surface and the physical separation of different treatments in the farmer's fields to allow a kriging interpolation to generate a raster map for each treatment response. Preliminary results showed that the design was appropriate to run on-farm PA experiments but a minimum of 17 acres is needed per treatment to be able to interpolate using kriging and produce a reliable map. We could determine the optimum plot size based on the characteristics of farm equipment errors. For example: The smallest plot for on farm trials should be at least three passes of the planter by 45 m long and 2 passes of the N fertilizer applicator by 45 m. Plot size smaller than this result in excessive experimental error due to operational issues during planting and 45m is the minimum distance that grain or cotton yield monitors can give a precise estimation of crop yield, since speed of harvest, grain elevator flow, and grain moisture directly affect the impact plate sensor, leading to inaccuracies. The best way to generate reliable data is to harvest at a fixed speed, with no variation in grain moisture, with constant flow of then grain elevator with constant flow. However, these conditions are very hard to keep constant during harvesting. Making plots longer is the only way to decrease coefficient of variation at the plot level. In plots in the LSU On Farm Network, the minimum plot size is 48 x 48m, and this plot size is used by the majority of farmers in our network in Louisiana. The smallest plot that can be used is the width of farm machinery implement. Smaller plots than this can introduce considerable errors in average yield per plot and fertilizer and seed rate to keep an optimum range when variable rate equipment is used to implement the experiment. Regarding experimental design the most significant aspect found was that the spatial location of plots is very critical and influence results more than the treatment itself. So, our semivariogram analysis using each treatment separately in very large fields showed that the plot size cannot be increased too much because of loss of model fitting and a nugget effect can compromise treatment interpolation as discussed before. On the other hand, if plots are smaller than 48 m the errors due to limitations in farm machinery introduce errors that surpass treatment effects. These findings are being analyzed to be published in a peer reviewed journal and they will benefit several initiatives that are starting in this area, perhaps being a benchmark on how the plots should be planned to match practical operational issues in on farm experimentation. (ii) To accomplish this second objective several drone flights using multispectral cameras and soil mapping using sensors were performed in the same locations in which LSU core block variety trials have beenconducted since the late 1990's. For the sake of this project we are adding LIDAR elevation DEM and NDVI before flowering using drones in the same trials that are already conducted by LSU. In 2019 we found that yield data is not the only parameter that should be used to rank a variety on a farm, since the plant and soil spatial variability can introduce a bias in the average of long strips harvested with a certain variety/hybrid. Variations of more than 30% of coefficient of variation were observed in yield monitor data inside the same strip. Part of this variance is explained using raw yield data without filtering for errors inherent from yield mapping systems and the other part is due to the plant and soil variability. Varieties that are more flexible, yielding well regardless of spatial variability along the strip (that usually is long and crosses the field from side to side) were found. Varieties were also found for which yields decreased or increased considerably in different soil types with high organic matter or concave areas even on leveled fields. In 2020 we decided to incorporate SSURGO soil type data with drone flight as a proxy for soil sensor mapping on LSU core blocks trials to be able to cover more trials. The results are promising for those farmers that have variable rate equipment and for those that want to select the right variety for a certain soil type that is predominant based on the spatial variability encountered in their fields. Similar results across years using different varieties were found. Even using larger fields, spatial variation in soil fertility where the trials were located had less effect on yield than the inherent yield for each variety, except for parts of the field where irrigation issues, nematodes and other crop establishment issues were present. The correlations between NDRE (NIR and Red Edge band) and yield were smaller than in 2019, showing that even with spatial variability in physical properties such as texture, 2 soiltypes and elevation were smaller compared to the field in 2019. There was an indication that variability in soil fertility is an important spatial aspect to be considered in a high-resolution experiment. Using SSURGO and Sentinel imagery only does not have ability to capture this small-scale spatial variability for variety selection purpose. This effort is being heavily funded by the Louisiana Soybean and Small Grains Research Board showing that there is a great demand by our producers in the state. The 2020 dataset is still under analysis to compose a large database on cloud to run machine learning algorithms. Benchmarks with Texas A&M Agrilife group led by Dr. Juan Landivar and Dr. Murilo Maeda are being initiated to increase the collaboration in this area of variety research, drone imagery and modeling.(iii) An experiment was conducted in 2018 and repeated in 2019 and 2020. Several sensors were used, such as Holland Scientific Phenom, Rapid Scan, Talon 1 and Raptor 2, the latter of which is the only active sensor made commercially to be mounted in drones to collect active sensor data. The biggest difference from our remote sensing program compared to others is that most drones collect passive data that requires sunlight and images have to be calibrated for time of the day, cloudiness, and radiometric and atmospheric issues. Our group was reported by Dr. Kyle Holland and Dr. James Scheper's as the first group to collect data and perform variable rate N fertilization in cotton using a Raptor 2 drone-based active sensor. Lately this initiative is being funded by the Patrick Taylor Foundation with a project called "Implementation / Demonstration of Best Management Practices on Model Farms in Louisiana"; Louisiana Rice Research Board and Soybean and Small Grains Research Board. These 3 years we had collaborations with different departments, research stations and several faculty from LSU (Dr. Dustin Harrell, Dr. Brenda Tubana, Dr. Stephen Harrison, Dr. Syam Dodla, Dr. Randy Price; Dr. Thanos Gentimis) and from abroad (Dr. Carlos Silva Junior, Dr. Christian Bredemeyer; Dr. Ziany Brandao). For 2021, this effort will be transferred to a reference farmer that conducts on farm trials every year using precision agriculture equipment for implementation to capture natural spatial variability at a larger scale not encompassed inside the field sizes normally used at LSU Experimental Stations.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
SHIRATSUCHI, L.S.; BRIANTE, P.; BRANDAO, Z.; BULLOCK, D.; SILVA JUNIOR, C.; RAMOS JUNIOR, E. On-Farm Precision Experimentation with Cotton to Generate Algorithms for Site-Specific Management of Nitrogen Fertilizers and Plant Growth Regulators Based on Airborne Imagery. ASA-CSSA Oral presentation.2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
TREVISAN, R.G.; BARBOSA, A.O.G.; SHIRATSUCHI, L.S.; MARTIN, N.F. Cotton yield monitor values drift over time. Beltwide Cotton Conferences. 2019
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
SHIRATSUCHI, L.S.; BRANDAO, Z.N.; SILVA JUNIOR, C.A.; KARP, F.; MARTINS, M.S.; GENTIMIS, E. Spatial Nitrogen (N) Rich Strip Approach to Evaluate the N Demand for Cotton Based on Satellite Remote Sensing. ASA, CSSA. 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
BULLOCK, D.S.; BOERNGEN, M.; TAO, H; LUCK, J.; MAXWELL, B; SHIRATSUCHI, L.S.; MARTIN, N.F. Changing Agronomic Research through on-Farm Precision Experimentation. ASA, CSSA, 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
MARTINS, M.S.; KARP, F.; SHIRATSUCHI, L.S.; DODLA, S.K.; FROMME, D.; PADGETT, G.B. Comparison on Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and Active Crop Canopy Sensor Derived Vegetative Indices to Estimate Rice Grain Yield Potential. ASA, CSSA, 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
SHIRATSUCHI, L.S.; BRANDAO, Z.N.; RAMOS JUNIOR, E.U.; MAEDA, M. On farm precision experimentation with cotton. Beltwide Cotton Conferences. 2020
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
SHIRATSUCHI, L.S. On farm precision experimentation to support variable rate technology. LSU Digital Agriculture Conference 2020
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
SHIRATSUCHI, L.S. Precision Agriculture Update (On farm data). Louisiana Consultant Association Meeting (LACA 2020).
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
LANZA, P.; MARTINS, M.; KARP, F.; PRICE, R.; SILVA JUNIOR, C.; SHIRATSUCHI, L.S. A programmatic framework to evaluate crop yield response by soil characteristics in on farm precision experiments. ASA, CSSA, SSSA 2020
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
MAEDA, M.; LANDIVAR, J.; CHANG, A.; JUNG, J.; OH, S.; ASHAPURE, A.; BHANDARI, M.; DUBE, N. SHIRATSUCHI, L.S. Cotton variety performance, how can we measure it? ASA, CSSA, SSSA 2020
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
RONTANI, F.; KARP, F.; MARTINS, M.; LANZA, P.; SILVA JUNIOR, C.; MAEDA, M.; SHIRATSUCHI, L.S. Drone-based vegetation indices evaluation for variety differentiation. ASA, CSSA, SSSA 2020
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
KARP, F.; HARRELL, D.; GENTIMIS, T.; MARTINS, M.; LANZA, P.; CARRIERE, M.; SILVA JUIOR, C.; SHIRATSUCHI, L.S. Yield map prediction for rice in Louisiana using machine learning. 2020
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
SHIRATSUCHI, L.S. Use of free elevation data for precision agriculture applications. LA Crops, 2020.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
TREVISAN, R.G.; SHIRATSUCHI, L.S.; BULLOCK, D.S.; MARTIN, N.F. Improving Yield Mapping Accuracy Using Remote Sensing. Preprints (doi: 10.20944/preprints 201901.0287.v1), 2019.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
SILVA JUNIOR, C. A.; TEODORO, L. P. R. ; TEODORO, P. E. ; BAIO, F. H. R. ; PANTALEAO, A. A. ; CAPRISTO-SILVA, G. F. ; FACCO, C. U. ; OLIVEIRA-JUNIOR, J. F. ; SHIRATSUCHI, L. S. ; SKRIPACHEV, V. ; LIMA, M. G. ; NANNI, M. R. . Simulating multispectral MSI band sets (Sentinel-2) from hyperspectral observations via spectroradiometer for identifying soybean cultivars. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, p. 100328, 2020.
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