Artificial intelligence is welcome term in production agriculture

Artificial intelligence is a buzzword in many industries today and that includes agriculture.

In agriculture, opportunity abounds particularly when the public and private sectors collaborate.

Ignacio Ciampitti, a professor in the department of agronomy at Kansas State University, said for farmers it is a natural extension as they have worked with yield monitors for quite awhile and at harvest time they know what each field produces. As an agronomist he knows that preciseness at planting time can help a grower’s bottom line. K-State and other private sectors are working together to make that more of a reality using artificial intelligence.

“At the end of the day we want to be more efficient and farmers are making decisions every day—whether they are planting or harvesting,” Ciampitti said. “We want to help them to do that by using technology.”

One of the ways universities can help is to engage with industry companies and jointly test products and processes, Ciampitti said. Working with a collaboration process side by side makes sense to him.

To move innovation forward it takes collecting data and today’s farmers are gathering much data, but they often ask what can they can do with all that information, he said.

An example is a planter where sensors can be used as an entry point. One project Ciampitti referenced in the past year includes working with Hutchinson, Kansas-based ShieldAg Equipment. The above artwork design is by KSU’s Technology Development Institute.

Plot researchers know that weed and volunteer pressure, along with ground and residue conditions, do affect final yield, according to ShieldAg Equipment President Mike Bergmeier, but they need to understand more about why and when the factors start to change the yield potential of the crops. Artificial intelligence is being used to develop adaptive yield prediction models for plot research, he said. They can use predictive models to recommend genetics that survive and even thrive in the more sustainable planting environment.

They can use those results to feed a growing population while using less resources and reducing the carbon footprint and use of fossil fuels in production agriculture, he said.

Artificial intelligence will use information and images on pre-plant, seed placement and seed coverage conditions to start to correlate with emergence, weed and volunteer competition and ultimately yield data, Bergmeier said.

Artificial intelligence can gather information from past yield monitors, Ciampitti said, and then soil conditions and seeds can be added through programming to get a more precise planting.

“In any situation you have data for the past 10 years from one field, but you may have 100 different variables in that same field,” he said. “Each year can teach us something new. Many farmers remember many details, but it is difficult to recall all the details even in a section of a field.”

With the analytics they can use that data to make precise planting decisions and it is important because they may only have a couple of days to plant in ideal conditions while addressing other needs on a farm and ranch, he said.

Land-grant universities throughout the High Plains can help lead the way and Ciampitti has appreciated the leadership of K-State President Richard Linton and his administration. “We want to work with more companies in Kansas to find a way to build partnerships and work in collaboration. This is just getting started and we want to give back.”

Stacy Hutchinson, an associate dean and professor in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering at K-State, said the Institute for Digital Agriculture and Advance Analytics (ID3A) was identified as one of the K-State’s four economic prosperity pillars in the Economic Prosperity Plan that was released in December 2021. The university has put together an interdisciplinary group of faculty with expertise in agronomy, agricultural engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence, entomology and geospatial analysis to lead the effort.

“Other land-grant universities are developing technologies targeted toward the needs in their states,” Hutchinson said. “K-State has a unique role to play in this space because we have such a strong climate gradient in Kansas. This shift in water availability and large number of climate zones allows us to test and implement digital ag systems that can be useful well beyond the border of Kansas—giving us the ability to assist with global technologies and food security.”

Farmers and ranchers can benefit and it is a natural fit because agriculture is an important industry to the state’s economy, she said.

“Digital agriculture is the integration of digital technologies. The integration process includes, sensors, camera systems, data systems and analysis. These processes allow capture of data from the range of soil moisture to the crop condition at harvest, which can provide the farmer a thorough resource for decision making for their next steps in production management,” Hutchinson said. “Precision agricultural is part of digital agriculture, but digital agriculture is a much larger umbrella of technology integration into the decision process.”

Under the direction of Linton’s leadership, the Economic Prosperity Plan builds on activities with an eye to the future, she said. Having departments work together is crucial to the process, she said. This forward movement of initiatives such as ID3A is carried through K-State’s Next-Gen Strategic Plan. K-State is the nation’s first operational land-grant university and is embracing transformation as not just an idea but as an imperative.

“There are very few problems that can be solved by a single discipline—especially when looking at issues as complex as agriculture production,” Hutchinson said. “We appreciate the need for pulling experts from across campus to help create solutions. We have a starting team of faculty and experts from the colleges of agriculture, engineering, and arts and sciences. I fully expect as we move forward, we will be adding additional expertise from across campus.”

Private companies are essential partners, she said, because they have the responsibility to get the technology into the hands of farmers who can apply it in an efficient manner. K-State needs to develop and test new technologies and target secure global food systems. “In order to do that well we need to be working with partners from across the industry to ensure we are addressing the needs and transferring to them new technologies,” Hutchinson said.

Ciampitti said more excitement is on the horizon as K-State continues to grow its network of farmers, companies and Extension agents in each county.

Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].