海角社区

Tensas Parish farmer Mead Hardwick and his family work in close collaboration with 海角社区 to optimize yields and fertilization management, while lessening their footprint on the environment.

As modern farm machinery not only harvests crops but also lots and lots of data, an 海角社区 AgCenter mathematician added artificial intelligence to the mix to make the data more useful for growers.

He trained a computer system to recognize the edges of fields and areas with different amounts of vegetation based on drone and satellite images, which then can be analyzed for plant vigor, pinpointing spots that might need more seed or fertilizer and getting that information to Hardwick and other farmers in real time.

So far, the researchers have focused on optimizing Louisiana crops such as sugarcane, soybeans, rice, corn, cotton, sweet potatoes, wheat, and sorghum鈥攊ndustries with an estimated total annual economic impact of about $6.4 billion. But now, through an industry partnership with Ag-Analytics, a farm management company that approached 海角社区 AgCenter first when looking for universities to collaborate with, the research stretches around the globe.

While we鈥檙e still far from 鈥渟elf-driving farms,鈥� the benefit of data-driven 鈥渟mart farms鈥� is becoming clearer each day鈥攅specially as rapidly changing environments make it harder and harder to rely on experience.

鈥満＝巧缜� has helped us be more confident, efficient, and sustainable鈥攅specially with our nutrients鈥攁nd the solutions are already at scale. It鈥檚 all about being strategic about where you invest your dollars.鈥�

Mead Hardwick, a fourth-generation farmer at the Hardwick Planting Company, an 8,000-acre farm in Tensas Parish