2014 Keynote Speakers (more details coming soon)

Dr. David Mulla, University of Minnesota 
Remote Sensing for Precision Agriculture

Dr. Mulla is a Professor and W.E. Larson Chair for Soil and Water Resources in the Department of Soil, Water and Climate at the University of Minnesota. As Director of the Precision Agriculture Center at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Mulla leads efforts to advance the science and practice of precision agriculture. He has been an associate editor for the Journal of Precision Agriculture since 1997; was elected a Fellow in SSSA and ASA in 1997 and 1999, respectively; and organized the 6th and 8th International Conferences on Precision Agriculture.

Dr. Mulla conducted the first ever variable rate field trials with nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer at the field scale, thereby for the first time establishing variable rate fertilizer management zones as technically feasible and economically profitable. He was the first scientist to apply geostatistics in Precision Agriculture to produce accurate maps on which variable rate application could be based. Mulla and his colleagues were the first scientists to apply remote sensing in Precision Agriculture for development of efficient soil sampling strategies. Broadly speaking, Mulla’s pioneering research on Precision Agriculture contributed significantly to its adoption in the US and around the world, fostering business opportunities, job growth and greater economic and environmental efficiency in agriculture.

Session Description: Interest is growing in the application of remote sensing for precision agriculture. This presentation will describe various platforms for remote sensing in precision agriculture, including satellites, airplanes, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground vehicles and hand held sensors. Remote sensing allows spatial and temporal patterns in soil, crop and pest characteristics to be assessed for timely management interventions. Specific wavelengths and combinations of bands have been developed to identify specific types of soil, crop or pest characteristics. Advances in remote sensing have dramatically increased spatial resolution and return frequency of imaging. Crop scouting can be enhanced and targeted using information from remote sensing, improving the possibility of real time precision management of soils, crops and pests.

Session Desciption: Small areas of fields can cause disproportionately large amounts of erosion and phosphorus pollution. These areas can be identified using high resolution digital elevation models and GIS based terrain analysis techniques. Conservation practices such as conservation tillage, riparian buffer strips and manure management practices can be tailored for these critical source areas. The basic tools used in GIS terrain analysis will be described. Examples will be provided showing how GIS terrain analysis can assist in improved precision conservation.

Further improvements in crop productivity and revenue may come from precision agriculture strategies that rely on modern information technologies to bring data from multiple sources to influence crop management decisions. Dr. Long is investigating the use of high resolution information from in-line spectroscopic sensors in the following three projectss: 1) Precision Nitrogen Management 2) Grain Segregation by Protein Concentration 3) Assessing Straw Yield in Dryland Wheat Fields.