Farm family sees data as vital commodity

By Jennifer M. Latzke

On the Brosch family farm, knowledge is a commodity as important as the cotton that is grown on its High Plains fields.

This is evident on the walls of the farm office, where Glen Brosch proudly displayed his children's diplomas from Texas Tech University. All four of the Brosch children, Christi, Deann, Steven and Kathleen, have earned or are still earning bachelor's degrees in agriculture from the university. And, Steven is currently working toward his master's degree in crop science.

But, those diplomas are more than just wall art for the Brosches. By using their Texas Tech University educations, the Brosch family is entering a new era of productivity and efficiency on the High Plains.

Researching the technology

The Brosches, who farm just outside of Slaton, Texas, sat at their respective desks in the farm office and discussed the work ahead of them. Family patriarch, Glen Brosch, and his son Steven, were waiting for soil conditions to dry up a bit before getting out and clearing cotton stalks from their fields. Just that week, a winter storm had brought much needed moisture to this area just south of Lubbock, Texas, and it was a nice dilemma to have in a time of drought.

But, just because they couldn't get into the field didn't mean their day was free. Instead, they were taking the time to crunch the data gathered through their precision farming tools all season long and making plans for next year's crop.

The Brosch family farms 6,000 acres of cotton, two-thirds of which is dryland acreage. They began using variable rate applications in 2002 to be more efficient in a dry climate.

"We did it because we wanted to cut costs and have better control of weeds," Glen Brosch said. "I'd been messing with flow meters since the 1970s." With son Steven at Texas Tech learning on the latest technology, and seeing its practicality, it didn't take much persuasion of the elder Brosch to research purchasing a system.

"We studied it on the Internet," he said. "We talked to companies and made the rounds at the farm shows and we saw that Trimble was way ahead of the game. They use a tower system, with no mobile base station and it had a better repeat accuracy."

The Brosches use a Trimble Autopilot on all of their equipment , from planting and spraying to harvesting. The Autopilot takes over the steering of the machine from the operator using satellite positioning.

The technology is relatively simple to understand. A satellite in space bounces a positioning signal down to an RTK tower on the Brosch farmstead. This tower adjusts the signal to sub-inch accuracy and then bounces the signal to the Autopilot in the equipment .

All the Brosches have to do to calibrate their Autopilot is set the equipment to use the longest row in the field as the A/B line. It can then calculate the row spacing and is able to be set to follow contours in the field as well as following pivot lines.

"It really helps if you know your land," Steven said. "We had to change the way we normally plant because we had to set it to the longest line in the field, rather than the shortest." The Brosches used an Amarillo, Texas, business, Southern Plains Precision Ag, to set up their equipment and for training.

"I would suggest going to the professionals," Glen said. "They came out and explained it to us."

Essentially, Glen said, the operators only handle the steering wheels of the equipment to turn at the end of a row. The technology reduces operator fatigue, and with the high rate of accuracy, the Brosches said they have been able to cut three trips of equipment across their cotton patches--a savings of about 7,000 gallons of diesel in a year.

Learning through doing

The Autopilot's in-field accuracy, the Brosches said, allow them to use variable rate application techniques on their cotton. For the past four years, the family has used VR technology to accurately and efficiently apply fertilizers and other chemicals to their cotton fields with great success.

But Steven, who is currently earning his master's degree in crop science, specifically precision agriculture, at Texas Tech, had an idea for his master's research project. What if he used his family's VR technology to decide the seeding rates on their cotton fields--seeding higher concentrations of plants in areas more likely to yield more cotton?

The first step in applying VR technology to their cotton seeding rates was finding their fields' baseline yield histories and soil electrical conductivity data, Steven said. SEC data shows the soil's ability to conduct electricity. Soil with higher concentrations of sandy silt-clay give off higher readings. Rather than finding this with dozens of soil samples per acre, a cart with GPS and electrodes that shoot currents into the ground is drug across the field and finds the same information in half the time and at less cost.

"We still have to run soil samples," Steven said. They just don't pull as many as they used to before the Veris information.

The Brosches found out what areas of their dryland fields had the greater chance to hold subsurface soil moisture by conducting SEC readings with a Veris Soil EC Mapping System they borrowed from the nearby U.S. Department of Agriculture office. From there, Steven created a prescription seeding map to match higher seeding populations to soil textures within the field.

"We knew there were spots in the field that we normally had better cotton yields," Steven said. "If we could increase the populations in the better areas and lower it in the worse places we could put the seed where it would have a better chance to grow."

Translating the data into decisions

So far, the Brosches were still crunching the numbers from their 2006 cotton yield data. But, the more historical data they can gather on their fields, the better off they will be when making management decisions in the future.

"We want to save trips across the field," Glen said. "We're not no-till farmers--we're more minimum-till. This area is sandy and you have to do some tillage."

Only time will tell for sure just how much more efficient the Brosches will be using precision technology, but already some benefits are starting to appear.

"We're still getting into the data," Steven said, "But we saved about 16 percent of our Treflan use this year using variable rate technology.

"With costs increasing, we have to be more efficient in everything we do," he added. "We just have to do more with less."

In their area, water is essential to a crop's success, Glen said. With this technology, they can better manage their dryland acreage to efficiently use their available water resources.

Getting into precision agriculture is a big decision for any farmer, and it was no different with the Brosches. But, after careful research, the family decided it could help their operation.

"I would suggest anyone starting out in it to begin with getting yield maps of their fields," Glen said. That way, they have a basic understanding of their fields and their crop output. From that foundation, farmers can decide what equipment and technology best suits their needs.

Afterall, the Brosches see knowledge as a powerful commodity to own when trying to make the family farm a success.

Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807, or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com.

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Date: 1/18/07

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