In conjunction with Husker Harvest Days, the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society (NSAS) hosted an Organic Roundtable Discussion in Grand Island on September 11th, 2024, with a focus on technological innovations of interest to organic farming. A group of twenty met at Kinkaider Brewing Company to share insights while enjoying appetizers and refreshments. Many of the attendees stayed over two hours after the event technically ended to continue the great discussion!
An obvious topic of interest for any organic farmer is weed control. Attendees were fortunate to hear from two farmers who use flaming in their row crop operations, including James Huenefeld who builds flamers near Aurora. James has engineered and built a variety of flamers over the years and is currently working on designs to meet the challenges of uneven terrain. Traditionally, it has been taught that it is not feasible to flame soybeans due to their heat sensitivity. James explained that it is possible to successfully flame soybeans if you hit the fields when the soybean plants are small- ideally before the cotyledons split open. He emphasized that weeds generally need to be 2” or under for good control.
Another technological advance on the horizon is robotic weeders. A product called “Turtil” is already on the market for small gardens. It resembles a Roomba robotic vacuum but features a string trimmer. The solar-powered Turtil kills anything that passes under it, so it is necessary to protect desired seedlings with a barrier until they get large enough for the Turtil’s sensors to detect and move away from the plant. Larger versions of weeding robots using machine vision systems that can detect and avoid the desired crop without the need for barriers are being developed. Some feature mechanical weeding like the Turtil while others terminate weeds via lasers or precision chemical applications.
Interest in virtual fencing is also growing. Farmer Kyle Knopik brought a demo of the virtual fence collar he uses on his goats. It is solar-powered and an app is used to control the boundaries of the fence on a virtual map. Goats hear a succession of progressively loud beeps as a warning to turn back from the invisible boundary. If they keep heading in that direction they receive a shock. Kyle said that his goats learn the system quickly and assured everyone that the shock stops if they do leave the boundary, so they do not keep getting zapped if they are out of the virtual fence.
Recent UNL master’s graduate Kaitlyn Dozler explained her research on the use of virtual fence collars on cattle in the sandhills. Based on stress tests that included heart rate monitors, she found that the virtual fence systems did not seem to create long-term stress for the cows. The shocks administered are significantly lower than those from a typical electric fence. Kaitlyn and Kyle had an interesting conversation about the pros and cons of the various virtual fence systems on the market. Both are pleased with the systems and optimistic that they will take off, especially as the prices come down.
Other topics covered included subsurface irrigation and new testing methods for soil and plant health. Dave Vetter of The Grain Place talked about his experiences with subsoil irrigation for over 20 years. Unfortunately, he was penalized for being a tech pioneer due to poor installation by contractors, but James Huenefeld expressed being happy with his system and considers it to be less maintenance than pivots. It seems that packing down the earth well after installation prevents some chewing by voles. Organic farmer Riley Reinke spoke about the benefits of sap sampling versus traditional soil testing and the future of DNA testing in crop production. He noted that DNA tests are being developed that will help to identify both beneficial soil organisms and disease agents which may help farmers make planting and inoculation decisions in the future.
While the group showed much excitement about these innovations, concern was also raised about how the cost of technology may increase dominance by corporate farming entities that can afford high price tags. This is already the case with much large-scale equipment these days. While many of us would jump at the chance to have robots that perpetually pull bindweed, no amount of technology should replace having the future of agriculture in the hands of actual people who know and love the land!
Many thanks to the farmers and supporters who attended this gathering! We hope to make this an annual event, but in the meantime keep an eye out for other NSAS Roundtable discussions at locations around the state. This Roundtable was supported through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). TOPP is a program of the USDA Organic Transition Initiative and is administered by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP). www.organictransition.org
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