High-tech farming becomes more mainstream around Valley

PALMER — Mat-Su Valley farmers are beginning to use state-of-the-art technology to get the most from their harvest.

Steve Brown, an agriculture and horticulture agent with University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, is working to bring precision agriculture to Alaska. Precision agriculture focuses on the use of technology, like global positioning systems, to enhance farming, Brown said. For example, farmers can use GPS to track where they spray fertilizer to ensure the proper amount of and optimum dispersal.

“It’s revolutionized farming,” he said of the technology. “Farming is now one of the most high-tech occupations I can think of.”

Although the technology isn’t used by many farmers in Alaska, growers in the Lower 48 have been using precision agriculture with great success.

“It’s become so efficient you can’t compete without it,” Brown said.

Bill Longbrake understands the usefulness of precision agriculture and is one of the pioneers of the technology in Alaska, Brown said. As owner of Country Garden Farms, Longbrake uses GPS to help direct his tractor as he sprays fertilizer and herbicide.

“Accuracy is a big factor,” said Longbrake about applying the chemicals.

The GPS system Longbrake uses notifies him if his tractor deviates from its programmed path, and he can make corrections with minimal disruption, he said. Longbrake’s system is as high tech as a lot of those used in Lower 48, and saves him time and money farming 350 acres of turf and hay. Instead of over- or under-spraying grass because of human error, Longbrake can rely on the accuracy of GPS. This means the correct chemicals are applied in the appropriate places and amounts.

“For what I’m doing, it pays for itself,” he said. “It was worth it.”

Precision agriculture isn’t limited to controlling the directional corrections of tractors, Longbrake said. Advanced systems allow farmers to track what they have done on each section of land.

“Over time you can find out what you’re doing right or what you’re doing wrong, and you can correct for that,” he said.

Minimizing the amount of fertilizers used in farming is an issue many farmers hope to address, and precision agriculture can help, Brown said. Not only could it reduce the possible negative effects to soil from over-fertilizing, it saves money.

“One thing we know is that if we reduce chemicals by 10 percent, that’s 10 percent that goes into the farmer’s pocket,” he said.

When the technology was first developed in the early 1990s, some of the basic units cost close to $100,000, but that same unit today costs about $1,800, Brown said.

Although the cost of introducing technology to farming has dropped considerably over the past decade, some Alaska farmers are still wary of it, Brown said.

“Our biggest hurdle is to get farmers to adopt it,” he said, adding that although there are some philosophical differences between them, most farmers and researchers in Alaska strive to reach the same goal. “Ultimately, we want to make Alaska agriculture more productive.”

Contact Chris Gillow at 352-2284 or chris.gillow@frontiersman.com.