Posted: August 9, 2006
Financial assistance helps with the early adoption of equipment upgrades.
Excerpted from The Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company Web site magazine, AEFP Journal.
Outfitting the tractor with a Global Positioning System (GPS) has helped Tony Pliva reduce herbicide and other inputs used on his Southern Alberta farm. By reducing the amount of overlap on each equipment pass, he estimates he's saving about 6.5 acres worth of inputs on each quarter section.
Although it varies with the crop, the Drumheller-area farmer says that translates into an overall input savings of between $5,000 and $10,000 per year.
"It's surprising when you make the comparison," says Pliva, who crops about 2,800 acres of grains and oilseeds. "Without the GPS, during field spraying, I was overlapping about 100 feet over a quarter section. And over the whole farm that adds up."
A quick calculation shows that a 100-foot spray overlap on a quarter section—a half mile-long field—equals about 6.5 acres and over 17 or 18 quarters, which totals about 112 acres of overlap. Although crop inputs will vary, if seed, fertilizer and chemical range between $50 and $100 per acre, that adds up to $5,000 to $10,000 per year.
The Outback GPS unit costs about $6,600. Considering the value it brings to his operation, Pliva estimates that the system will be paid off within a couple of years. "And reducing the inputs is also good for the environment," he says.
To further improve the returns, Pliva recovered 30 percent of the cost of the GPS unit through the National Farm Stewardship Program (NFSP). The program is designed to help producers implement environmental improvements on their farms. Funds, however, are only available to farmers and ranchers who complete an environmental farm plan or equivalent.
Along with the GPS that helps improve crop input efficiency, Pliva is also considering equipping the tractor with an autosteer system. With GPS he estimates he still overlaps about one foot on each pass. With autosteer, which precisely steers a tractor, self-propelled sprayer or combine according to GPS settings, the overlap could be reduced even further.
For more on this story, go to the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company Web site at www.albertaEFP.com.
For more information on the National Farm Stewardship Program, contact the program office toll-free at 1-800-667-8567 or visit the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Web site at www.agr.gc.ca where links to all provincial programs can be found.
Reprintable with credit. Available for reprint, with acknowledgement of The Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company.
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