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Technology Down on the Farm - The 'Crackless Egg' and the 'Nitrogen Calculator' -
New tools to help you sharpen your operation
by TREENA HEINFarmers who are looking to reduce or eliminate inherent losses in their operations, trim unnecessary expenses or gain extra farm income need look no further than some new technologies available in Ontario, which are aimed at helping them do just that.
Take the benefits Chris Monden is reaping from wireless sensor technology. Monden raises over 61, 000 layers, and every egg he produces counts. That's why Monden calls the Crackless Egg "a great investment for a farmer."
Monden has been using the Crackless Egg at Unicorn Farms, his chicken layer and pullet operation in Dutton, near London, for about a year and a half and is one of the first to use it Ontario. Simply put, the Crackless Egg, a technology created by Sensor Wireless Inc. of Charlottetown, PEI, mimics a real egg in shape, size and weight as it travels from the chicken to tray, ready for shipping.
The Crackless Egg transmits real-time (immediate) sensor data on a given factor, such as impact, which farmers can use to decrease the chance of real eggs cracking.
More specifically, the Egg wirelessly transmits data on the level of impact it senses (as it moves along conveyor belts and elevators) to the farmer's Palm Handheld PC device. The Handheld displays a graph indicating every instance that the Egg receives an impact jar above a certain threshold versus time. "I then make adjustments by adding foam for cushioning or slowing transfers," says Monden The data can later be downloaded from the Handheld to a computer for permanent record keeping.
In Monden's operation, the Egg picks up on impacts at three main potential problem points along conveyors and elevators before moving into the packing machine, where it assesses four more transfers before the eggs are placed into shipping trays. "You can't always see these points," he notes, "or you can see these points, but can't always tell what the stresses are."
Monden say he will achieve payback for his Crackless Egg, handheld device and software - about $4,000 - in under five years. He notes that on average, at the end of each flock's production, his egg losses because of cracks range from 3.2 to five per cent, and adjustments he is able to make based on Crackless Egg feedback allow him to improve that by a minimum of 0.25 per cent every flock.
"That's very significant," he says. "It's the difference between having a good flock and a very good flock... It gives a little more control over what happens in your barn."
In addition, Monden says the Egg will become more important as his equipment ages, since this tends to contribute to egg breakage. "That, to me," he says, "is where it really will make the difference." Using the Egg is also critical in minimizing impact each time he gets the conveyors and elevators running again as he sets up for each new flock: "I run it through as a set-up precaution and then use it two to three times per run." Overall, he sums up the Egg as "a great investment because it goes on forever."
David McNally, agricultural product specialist for Sensor Wireless, says that the company has about 20 customers so far within the Ontario agricultural market. In addition to Crackless Eggs, these customers are using Smart Spuds and other sensor devices - shaped like apples, for example - designed to help reduce bruising. Sensor Wireless also offers models which detect pressure and temperature changes.
Additionally, the company is working on new systems, which will provide remote tracking and condition checking of grains and cereals in storage and remote tracking of temperatures in livestock housing and transportation. Sensor Wireless also provides sensor technology for the assembly line and transportation of goods, both inside and outside Canada, for companies such as Campbell's Soup, McCain Foods and Coors.
Optimizing corn yields
Doug Patterson, who grows corn, edible beans and wheat near St. Marys, believes the Ontario agriculture ministry's "Ontario Nitrogen Calculator" (available at www.gocorn.net) may help many farmers whom he thinks are at risk for using too much nitrogen on their corn this coming season.
Greg Stewart, the ministry's corn industry program lead, says the Calculator, first available in 2006, provides farmers with guidelines on how much nitrogen to use based on analysis of more than 600 site-years of corn yield measurements in response to rates of applied nitrogen. "It is a larger dataset than anywhere else in the [Ontario] Corn Belt," Stewart notes.
While he can't say exactly how many farmers used the software in 2006, Stewart says that, judging by the responses he received at 11 presentations he gave on the Calculator in January, usage is significant.
The Calculator is site-specific, and incorporates data on yield, soil texture, previous crop, heat units and timing. Stewart says it is also based on a price ratio between estimated corn profits and nitrogen costs for the current year. "The idea of adjusting for price ratio is particularly interesting for 2007," he notes, "because corn prices are expected to stay high and farmers don't want to short their crop" by not applying enough nitrogen.
Stewart notes that nitrogen prices this year are not much different than a year ago but, by that time, had risen to a historically high level due to increased gas prices and fertilizer demand.
Although Patterson had a positive experience with the Calculator last year, he advises users to do a test plot to gain confidence. He says farmers should compare yields achieved with the Calculator recommendations to those with the N application they would have used otherwise. Last year, Patterson and Stewart did a test plot and found that applying more nitrogen than the Calculator recommended (although his own N value and the Calculator's were close) did not provide anywhere near enough yield benefit to justify the cost of the extra nitrogen.
Also available in 2007 for the first time are several weather-based monitoring and modelling technologies from Weather Innovations Incorporated (WIN) based in Chatham. WIN is a newly formed company originally developed at the Ridgetown Campus of the University of Guelph under the project name "Ontario Weather Network." WIN's systems help individual farmers and commodity groups make better decisions in areas such as disease and insect control, frost mitigation, soil moisture management and harvest timing.
Business Manager Ian Nichols says most of the company's focus is targeted at meeting the specific needs of producer board memberships such as those of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers, Grape Growers of Ontario and the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board (OWPMB). The systems selected by each board provide various types of information on-line, which can be accessed by individual producers to determine their particular risks and make better decisions.
Mapping fusarium
For example, the OWPMB contributed research funding over several years for the development of DONcast, a web-based public mapping system which predicts fusarium presence using weather monitoring and weather forecasts.
OWPMB research manager Crosby Devitt says: "It's a good indicator of whether to spray. It's another piece of information to use to make a decision." Devitt notes that the system's only problem is that weather forecasts are not always completely accurate.
Nichols says that WIN uses weather information from a variety of sources to provide the best forecast available. He adds that because weather forecasts for a particular geographical area are not always perfect, wheat farmers wanting a more accurate Fusarium and spraying prediction can purchase a subscription to the detailed version of DONcast, which costs $100 a season for up to three different wheat fields. This service is more accurate because it uses data on farm location, previous crops, tillage and variety of wheat, all factors which affect the disease threshold.
In terms of costs for other programs, Nichols says that the higher the number of producers who access a particular application, the lower the cost because the expense of the monitoring technology and the information gathering for it is shared among more users. He says that this doesn't necessarily mean that there have to be more farmers growing the same crop in a given area for the price to decrease as some services are independent of crop type.
Nichols says that on larger projects run on a commodity basis, program costs can even get down to the $3 per acre range. "When the cost of material and application for a fungicide application ranges between $15 and $20 per acre, one less trip with the sprayer has more than a five to one payback," he notes. "However, the proper timing is the important thing to focus on because, in some situations, the recommended fungicide interval may increase and unprotected crops are a far bigger risk than the cost of a couple of extra spray applications."
WIN also offers a system where wireless multi-depth soil sensors are placed in irrigated crops such as tomatoes and potatoes, providing farmers with real-time graphed data on soil moisture and fertilizer movement. Farmers can also use the wireless technology to monitor water consumption at their irrigation pump. "It makes reporting water usage and irrigation compliance much easier," says Nichols.
He understands that 2007 will be the first year in which the Ministry of the Environment will require farmers who take water from irrigation sources to report on their usage by year's end.
WIN also piloted a real-time grain bin aeration system in fall 2006. The system uses weather parameters, including relative humidity, which is combined with information on the type, volume and moisture of grain in the bin to turn on fans only when needed, eliminating unnecessary energy consumption. Nichols says this will be available in fall 2007 and the price will be determined then. BF
Biodigesters come of age in Ontario
Don Hilborn, agricultural by-product management specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, says 2007 marks the year in which bio-digesters will begin to be widespread in Ontario.
He notes that, in addition to the three which have been running for some time in North Bay, Thunder Bay and Renfrew, three more are currently under construction or finished, and a further three are in the final design stage. Hilborn says that, while it's hard to estimate how many digesters will eventually be constructed throughout the province, "Germany has 4,000, so we could have 500 to 1,000 here."
The number of digesters will now begin gaining ground significantly, predicts Hilborn, because private interests, government and individuals in the province have spent years examining the various aspects involved. "We have the basics rolling," he says. "We are now at the stage where the details are being worked out."
A significant detail was put in place in late November 2006, when the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) released its "Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program Contract and Option Agreement," available to anyone generating renewable energy.
Other details yet to be ironed out include electrical hook-ups to the grid and, probably most significant of all, the chanelling of food sector resources (mostly fats and oils from restaurants) into bio-digesters.
Doug Carruthers, president of Organic Resource Management Inc., an Ontario company which collects and manages high energy byproducts (fats and oils) from 6,000 Ontario food sector clients, says this practice will make the crucial difference for farmers in providing adequate cost return and on-going income from digesters, because off-farm resources boost electrical output considerably.
Carruthers adds that, by about March 2007, public consultation should be complete on the proposed regulations, known as the "On-Farm Mixed Anaerobic Digestion System Design and Operations Manual." In the past, the only option available to stream food sector resources into a digester has been to obtain a "Certificate of Approval" from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. This process, says Carruthers, has taken 19 months so far for the digester owned by the Klaesi families near Renfrew, but was almost complete at time of printing.
George Heinzle, a dairy farmer in St. Eugene, is waiting for final approval from the OPA to begin operation of his newly constructed digester. The delay centres around the unit's electrical switching equipment, which comes into use at times of power outage. "We don't know how long this is going to take," Heinzle says. "Our engineers are talking to their [OPA's] engineers to find a solution. The switching equipment they want is too expensive."
He says his unit is ready to power about 30 homes plus the farm itself, using manure from the farm's 260 cattle (130 milkers). But, he adds, "we would like to add [off-farm] bio-products so we can produce enough electricity for over 100 homes."
In order to make things easy for farmers, Powerbase Automation Systems Inc. of Carleton Place has developed a fully automated, containerized heat and power system designed specifically for small and mid-scale dairy, hog and cash-crop farming operations - the only company so far in Ontario to have done so. The technology generates electricity and thermal energy from manure, off-farm waste material and oilseed crops, regardless of whether or not they meet grading standards.
"Factory-manufactured and shipped to site, these units eliminate costly engineering and 'build-on-site' labour, helping to reduce cost, improve reliability and create an income stream from waste agricultural materials," says Bill Kemp, Powerbase's vice-president of engineering.
Kemp adds that since OPA's Standard Offer agreement was finalized and released in November - a document he helped formulate - more than 600 applications have been filed requesting licences to generate renewable energy, a huge number compared to less than 25 at the same time last year. BF
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