The Plight of Pollinators - The University of Tennessee Institute of ...

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UT RESEARCHERSdevise new precision ag technology for row-crop producers22
Research associates Henry Moody, left, and JohnHancock measure the pulsed spray target accuracyfor each seed metered by a row-planter.The idea began with a question putto Tennessee cotton producers:What if they had a technology thatprecisely sprayed fungicide to seeds asthey were being planted?Ten producers, gathered in a conversationwith a UT biosystems engineer,said that was a technology they coulduse. Dr. John Wilkerson, an expert insensors and controls, ran with the idea.Now he and a small team of instituteresearchers have developed a new precisionagriculture technology that is beingdelivered to the marketplace, one thatwill improve the bottom line of cropproducers, both large and small.In fact, the new system, which is a specialized seedfurrow detector, is expected to cut their amountof fungicide used by 50 percent or more, dependingon seed spacing. That’s a lot of savings, andit’s good for the environment, too — a winningsolution for everyone. It’s also merited two patentsissued to Wilkerson and team members Dr. MelvinNewman and graduate students John Hancock andHenry Moody. But the real winners here are cropproducers.Using the detector, farmers will be able to ensurethat each seed going into their field is fully coatedwith fungicide without a drop being wasted. Even iftheir planter misses a seed or drops two at once, thelaser-driven applicator does not miss a beat.“We wanted a valve that would turn on and off fastenough to spray seeds falling at a 30th to 40th ofa second,” Wilkerson says. “We started thinking offuel injectors in a car going 60 miles an hour. That’sJohn Wilkersonabout the same rate producers are plantingseeds, at 6 to 7 miles per hour.”The technology, which is licensed throughthe UT Research Foundation, is essentiallyan algorithm that detects events anddetermines when the crop protectantapplication should be made. “The typicalapplication is where we detect seedsfalling from a seed metering unit, andwe apply a chemical band on the seedbefore it hits the ground, which is a 10thof a second,” Wilkerson says.The technology was developed on researchplots at the UT AgResearch andEducation Centers in Milan and Jackson,underscoring their importance to innovation in theinstitute’s land-grant research.“To me, it’s a big deal when you take a concept andit turns into intellectual property that someone iswilling to invest in for commercial purposes thatsolve problems for producers,” Wilkerson says.“This also shows the significance of the people weserve investing in the university. This project involveda fairly small amount of investment in a grantby producers to AgResearch, which we were able toleverage into a new precision ag technology.”The planter technology is expected to becomecommercially available in the near future. For moreinformation, contact John Wilkerson at 865-974-7266 or wilkerj@tennessee.edu. – Margot EmeryThis diagram shows how the new precision agtechnology applies in-furrow crop protectants asseeds fall from the planter into the furrow.23
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