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Tennesee Agriculture 2020

Tennessee’s agriculture industry sustains the life of the state, providing food, fuel and fiber for its citizens along with the rest of the world. The state is home to 68,050 farms encompassing 10.8 million acres, with average farm size ringing in at 160 acres.

The state’s top commodities include cattle and calves, broilers, cotton, hay, tobacco, wheat, fresh tomatoes, meat goats and many more. Those contributions may be apparent, but agriculture is also responsible for many more that aren’t as easily seen. For example, Tennessee agriculture and forestry provide more than 363,500 jobs for Tennesseans, boosting the economy with an annual impact of $71.4 billion. That’s 10.3% of the state’s workforce. Along with crops and commodities, the state’s agribusiness sector is booming, with brands such as Jack Daniel’s, Bush’s Beans and MoonPies calling Tennessee home. Tennessee agriculture also encompasses education, agritourism, technology, research, conservation practices and much, much more.

Park Your Plow: 5 Tips for the No-Till-Courious

                                                Posted by Elizabeth Creech, Natural Resources Conservation Service

Reduced erosion. Saved time and fuel. Improved nutrient cycling, soil moisture, and resiliency in the face of drought. You likely already know the potential benefits of no-till.No-till farmers grow crops with minimal disturbance to their fields and the organisms that call them home. This builds healthier soils while reducing money spent on fuel and labor – a win-win.With harvest season winding down, you’re no doubt making an important decision for your working land. Will you hook up the plow, or is this the year you’ll park it for good? If you’d like to try no-till, we wrote this for you.

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No-till minimizes soil disturbance while leaving valuable cover and reducing erosion. Photo Credit: Jason Johnson, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service

Use these 5 tips to go from no-till-curious to no-till farmer.

  1. Spread your residue during fall harvest.

Plowing isn’t the only way to prepare a field for next spring’s planting.Evenly distribute residue that will be left in the field while harvesting your cash crop to manage against erosion and allow for a uniform breakdown of nutrients and organic matter. Residue can provide a valuable base of cover for your ground over winter.

Don’t forget about cover crops.

 

Farmers traditionally till to break up soil and prepare seedbeds. Over time, tillage can degrade structure and create highly compacted soils that seemingly “need” to be tilled before spring planting.Plant cool-season cover crops to reduce compaction, build organic matter, and hold your soil in place. Make sure to pick a cover crop species or mix that compliments your cash crop.If you’re starting with a highly-compacted field, use cover crop species that are meant to break up compaction. Daikon radish is often one great option.

Choose equipment with your end-goal in mind.

 

Simple but critical: Plan before you buy.Will you plant next year’s cash crop into green cover, terminated cover, or fall residue? Will you drill or broadcast your seeds? Your operation may change over time, but establishing working goals now will keep you from buying equipment you don’t ultimately want.Some USDA service centers have no-till drills and other equipment you can rent for minimal fees to get started. All offices are staffed with experts who’d be happy to talk through your specific management goals.

Treat no-till adoption as a marathon, not a sprint. Track results along the way.

 

Building healthy, resilient soil takes time. Some farmers report yield increases after their first year of no-till, but that shouldn’t be your main goal. You can quantify several economic benefits of switching to no-till: fuel savings, time savings, eventual fertilizer reductions. By tracking these measures along with changes in yield, you’ll gain a truer sense of the impact of no-till across your operation.Have your soil tested at least once every four years and conduct your own informal assessments regularly.                      

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Take note of the life inside of your soil, and how it changes over time. Healthy soils are generally full of earthworms and other organisms. Photo Credit: Colette Kessler, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service

  1. Give us a visit. We’re here to help.

Stop by your local service center to learn more about integrating no-till and other conservation practices into your management plan. We’re here to help you reach conservation goals that support your farm’s production needs.

 

Visit your local USDA service center today to get started with a conservation plan for your working land. Photo Credit: Jason Johnson, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service

Farmers across the country have reduced erosion, held valuable nutrients in-field, saved money on fuel, and increased their soil’s resiliency by minimizing tillage.

Is this the year you’ll try no-till? If so, having a strong plan in place will help you leave your plow parked for good.

Elizabeth Creech is a public affairs specialist serving USDA's Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Risk Management Agency. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

 

 

 .How High-Tech Agriculture Increases Efficiency

Posted on Posted on July 19, 2018August 21, 2020 by Keri Ann Beazell
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In partnership with: Tennessee Department of Agriculture

From drones to GPS mapping to robotic milking to solar panels, Tennessee farms are a source of innovation. By embracing advanced technologies, farmers have benefitted from a boost to their bottom line while reducing waste, producing energy and protecting the environment.

Here are some of the newest technologies making a difference down on the farm.

Precision Ag: Rapid, Responsive and Accurate Data

A veteran-owned company in Alamo, Tenn., Farmspace Systems LLC is leading the 3-D agricultural production movement, following advancements in mechanization and biotechnology.

“The world needs a ‘third wave’ of increased agricultural productivity to feed and clothe two billion more people by 2050. This third wave will be based on precision agriculture,” says Lt. Gen. John Castellaw USMC (retired), president and CEO, Farmspace Systems.

With the advent of commercially available global positioning systems (GPS) in the 1990s to precisely guide farm equipment, today’s GPS- enabled unmanned aerial systems (UAS) can now determine the “what, when, where and how much” for a variety of inputs including seed, nutrients and pesticides.

“This brings the management level down from farm-wide to zones no larger than 2 to 5 acres with the promise of drilling down to much smaller areas,” Castellaw says. However, he estimates that only around 30 percent of those that could benefit are currently using drones in their farming operations.

Farmspace has partnered with Middle Tennessee State University’s Aviation Department on UAS research and development, as well as establishment of an FAA-approved R&D range in West Tennessee near Alamo.

Looking to the future, Castellaw anticipates that sales will increase as people become more familiar and comfortable with drone operations, similar to the trend in smartphone usage.

“A recent study projected that 80 percent of all UAS operations will eventually be in agriculture. This will be a significant amount of economic activity when the forecast total value of UAS operations is $82 billion by 2025,” he says.

Similarly, GeoAir, one of the 13 finalists in Launch Tennessee’s 36|86: Student Edition Pitch Competition and finalist in the American Farm Bureau’s Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge, is helping farmers with drone technology to identify mold in fields. Founded by recent MBA graduate Alex Adams from Bristol, Tenn., GeoAir takes airborne samples from the fields and then uses that data to create a heat map that illustrates mold hot spots.Thanks to drone technology, farmers can now precisely treat the problem areas, instead of the entire crop, effectively saving time and money.

Dairy Robotics: Milking Down to a Science

Sweetwater Valley Farm, home of award-winning cheese and named the 2012 Innovative Dairy Farm of the Year by the International Dairy Foods Association, is a must-visit for consumers curious about dairy farming technology.

As early as the 1990s, John Harrison was using technology to collect daily activity and milk weights. This system made it possible to better sort cows and aggregate accurate data for daily management and historical analysis. Sweetwater Valley also began using a feed tracker system, which allowed more effective measurement and distribution of feed ingredients.

However, the benefits of technology aren’t limited to just livestock. On the employee-management side, the farm has integrated an evaluation plan that scores each employee in various areas, which is then used for compensation and tracking personal growth.“Farms are also on the edge of being able to produce amazing amounts of energy,” Harrison adds. “We have always found ways of using byproducts, but now we are starting to direct it to the energy grid.” Through the use of anaerobic manure “digesters” (also called methane digesters), manure is being converted into methane for on- or off-farm use such as gas and electricity.

Overall, Harrison finds that the innovations that have most transformed the dairy industry today are robotics, GPS, apps and social media. Of course, simply the ability to collect, store and disseminate massive amounts of data has been paramount to agriculture, and will likely continue to push the industry to new heights.

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