Precision Agriculture in Vegetable Growing by Ed Windley, Kalbar growers group, Kengoon, Australia. Presented at the SPAA Symposium in August 2016.

1. PA in Vegetable growing -
Kalbar Growers Group
Our Journey so far…

2. Kengoon Farming
•200ha of mixed vegetable cropping
production on 120ha of land
•Carrots, Onions, Green Beans, Sweet Corn

3. Our path to PA…
2016
• Turning a grazing property to vegetables resulted in significant earthworks
2005

4. Our path to PA…
Continual adoption of new technologies:
•Controlled Traffic
•GPS guidance on all machines
•Cover cropping/Green manures
…….but we still had crop variability

5. Where Do We See Variation
•Uneven Tasseling of Corn
•Uneven Flowering of Green Beans
•Inconsistent carrot and onion sizing
What does this Variation Mean
•Uneven Maturity at Harvest
•Reduced Yields
•Reduced Margins

6. Solving the problem… Data collection

7. Green beans
EM Survey Greenseeker

8. Groundtruthing a carrot greenseeker image –
Soil and Leaf testing
Sample type Nutrient % Reduction
Plant Tissue Nitrogen (N) 30%
Potassium (K) 47%
Soil Test Nitrogen (N) 66%
Phosphorus
(P)
50%
Potassium (K) 40%

9. Greenseeker data Yield monitor data
Groundtruthing a carrot greenseeker image –
Yield monitor

10. Where is the variability coming from?
•Laser Levelling
•Soil Type Variations
•Poor irrigation uniformity
•Poor drainage

11. Where are we going with this?
•Despite limited yield information, there is
an abundance of other data options
•Several layers confirming trends/zones
 Quality VR Spreading Equipment
•Landaco Belt spreader
•Amazone prill spreader

12. Barley Greenseeker data VR Map Application map
Barley cover crop prior to sweet corn
Previous bean crop

13. But sometimes it doesn’t add up…
Cut/Fill map Onion Greenseeker image

14. Centre Pivot VRI
EM Survey Carrots currently in
NW Quarter
VRI plan for the
different soil types

15. Summary
• Challenges:
•determining value without yield monitoring
•complexity could be overwhelming
•Inexplicable data
•Is it worth it in horticulture?
•Absolutely yes.
•In an industry with tightly managed crop inputs, it
allows you to investigate and solve variability
which delivers increased returns.

16. Questions...Comments