Carwood Farm and Harrisburg University have begun a new partnership intended to create a model that will support local farms with becoming financially sustainable while also encouraging farm practices that reduce and eventually eliminate contributions to climate change. It's about helping farmers to make data informed decisions.
I speak from experience when considering the challenges of managing soil and plant health on the scale of a 100+ acre farm. I don't have enough manure to cover all the fields on an annual basis, so I consider applications on fields which produced lower yields the year before or I consider crops planned for the following year that will require higher nutrients. Fertilizer amounts are often figured on an equation based on what the future crop normally requires with no accounting for what is already in the soil. Soil tests can be taken but they give you a moment in time snap shot and don't account for the ever changing nature of soil based on management, weather, precipitation and a host of other factors. In the end, I rarely know if I'm putting too much nutrient in one field or too little in another, until the outcomes of low yield, disease or pest infestations occur. By then it's often to late to save a crop or protect yields. This is a common reality amongst small farms.
Enter, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Geospatial Technology Program! They will be taking multiple soil tests throughout the year to provide a more continuous look at what is happening in the soil based on what we are growing and inputs we apply. They will provide assistance with interpreting the test results and what action should be taken. They will be doing drone flights throughout the year to provide multispectral imaging of plant health to let us know early on of potential problem spots in areas of the field that could potentially impact the entire field so we can take action early. They will provide data and analysis that I don't even understand yet, but will result in healthier plants, higher yields and a healthier farm.
Harrisburg University students will be soon coming to the farm to participate in the collection and analysis of this data to learn how to do it so one day this technology and data can be made available to farms in a scalable way at an affordable price for the farmers.
Carwood Farm is extremely excited to be a small part of developing these precision agriculture solutions to help small local farms prosper in an environmentally responsible way. Ideally this could be the start of a new industry within agriculture that improves how our food is grown and enhances the availability of locally produced food for all communities!
I speak from experience when considering the challenges of managing soil and plant health on the scale of a 100+ acre farm. I don't have enough manure to cover all the fields on an annual basis, so I consider applications on fields which produced lower yields the year before or I consider crops planned for the following year that will require higher nutrients. Fertilizer amounts are often figured on an equation based on what the future crop normally requires with no accounting for what is already in the soil. Soil tests can be taken but they give you a moment in time snap shot and don't account for the ever changing nature of soil based on management, weather, precipitation and a host of other factors. In the end, I rarely know if I'm putting too much nutrient in one field or too little in another, until the outcomes of low yield, disease or pest infestations occur. By then it's often to late to save a crop or protect yields. This is a common reality amongst small farms.
Enter, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Geospatial Technology Program! They will be taking multiple soil tests throughout the year to provide a more continuous look at what is happening in the soil based on what we are growing and inputs we apply. They will provide assistance with interpreting the test results and what action should be taken. They will be doing drone flights throughout the year to provide multispectral imaging of plant health to let us know early on of potential problem spots in areas of the field that could potentially impact the entire field so we can take action early. They will provide data and analysis that I don't even understand yet, but will result in healthier plants, higher yields and a healthier farm.
Harrisburg University students will be soon coming to the farm to participate in the collection and analysis of this data to learn how to do it so one day this technology and data can be made available to farms in a scalable way at an affordable price for the farmers.
Carwood Farm is extremely excited to be a small part of developing these precision agriculture solutions to help small local farms prosper in an environmentally responsible way. Ideally this could be the start of a new industry within agriculture that improves how our food is grown and enhances the availability of locally produced food for all communities!
Your Farmer,
Corey
Corey