The Rural Voice, 1997-02, Page 26IN MCC
MEMBERS: National Alliance Of Independent Crop Consultants
HURON
AgVise!
Mervyn J. Erb, ccA
Certified Crop Advisor
Brucefield, Ont.
NOM 1J0
(519) 233-7100
Andy Megens, P.Ag.
RR 7, St. Marys, Ont.
N4X 1C9
(519) 284-3199
and
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
CROP ADVISORY SERVICES
BRUCE
AgVises
Michael Hunter, CCA
Certified Crop Advisor
RR 4, Ripley, Ont.
NOG 2R0
(519) 395-0254
CROP
T
STRATEGIES
NatureGardTM hybrids give corn borers
two ways to go - both dead ends.
Either way, corn borers lose and you win. If they take a
bite of a NatureGardT" hybrid with enhanced natural or
native resistance, they stop feeding. H they choose a
NatureGard hybrid with Bt, or Mycogen's unique dual -
source hybrid with native and 8t genes in the same
plant, they also stop feeding - permanently.
Make your corn acres a dead end for corn borers.
See your Myogen Sales Rep or call:
1-800-Mycogen
Bringing You Agriculture's Future'
Mycogen
SEEDS
P.O. Box 1417, Chatham, ON N7M 5W8
1-800-MYCOGEN
(1-800-672.6436)
Solutions
mThe Seed'
22 THE RURAL VOICE
As I see it, precision agriculture
(PA) should not be promoted and
used as a sales tool, but as the most
powerful management tool agri-
culture has ever been exposed to. We
now have the ability to look at grain
production problems from the inside -
out and ask: Why does this area
produce more or less than that one?
If the problem is related to soil
fertility, it can be fixed easily,
quickly and economically. It is the
prediction of many knowledgeable
people however, that we will
ultimately find very few of our
production problems have anything to
do with fertility. That's why I don't
have a variable rate fertilizer spreader
in my back yard. Most of the answers
will be soil pH, soil physics (per cent
sand, silt and clay, soil texture, soil
structure, water holding capacity),
weather conditions, weed, disease
and insect pressure(s), and/or cultural
practices.
As we dig into the capabilities of
the better GIS software
packages, spatial modelling is
usually the next tool to use in
attempting to answer questions
related to the physical conditions
listed above. Spatial Modelling, the
one I'm waiting for, allows
visualization of where one particular
situation, or set of particular
circumstances, occurred. These and
many other systems too numerous to
mention will continue to create
endless amounts of relevant data
requiring processing synthesis — by a
human brain to be of value to
anyone.
We will use our experience, our
colleague networking and GIS, to
become "Ag Detectives", both you in
your profession and I in mine.
Networking will become nearly as
important as GIS because no one
farmer or advisory person or
organization can possibly maintain
the technical knowledge base my
clients will require.
This is where the cutting edge of
communication comes in. A fax
machine isn't really new like the
internet is, however they are both
powerful communication tools,
speeding the spread of the written and
spoken word. The latest info on
cropping this year isn't new varieties,
new herbicides (I do know a couple
of really hot new ones), new growth