{"id":9201,"date":"2013-11-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/sharper-profile-for-precision-agriculture\/"},"modified":"2013-11-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T11:00:00","slug":"sharper-profile-for-precision-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/sharper-profile-for-precision-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharper profile for precision agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

The Precision Agriculture Association (PA) of New Zealand has held its first annual meeting, setting a goal to connect more farmers, researchers and advisers to precision agriculture practices through a single organisation, chairman Peter Barrowclough said.<\/p>\n

The association hoped commercial companies, regional councils and students would also become part of the fold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s \u2018prec ag\u2019 really about? It\u2019s about getting the balance right between production and the environment, understanding and managing variability in primary production systems and helping primary producers make more money,\u201d Barrowclough told the founding members at the Canterbury A&P Show.<\/p>\n

Barrowclough, who is chief executive of Lincoln Agritech, said the association owed its existence to a massive amount of work by volunteers and sponsors.<\/p>\n

It had been a long journey to get to this point, not helped by the Canterbury earthquakes, which had disrupted marketing.<\/p>\n

However, the instigators felt they were on to something when 100 people turned up to the first two promotional events.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about getting the balance right between production and the environment, understanding and managing variability in primary production systems and helping primary producers make more money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Barrowclough<\/strong><\/p>\n

Precision Agriculture Association of NZ<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Earlier this year the Fertiliser and Research conference at Massey included precision agriculture on its agenda, as did the South Island Dairy event.<\/p>\n

Around that time PA supporters Craige and Roz Mackenzie hosted a workshop and demonstration day at their farm at Methven.<\/p>\n

The subscription-funded group has a website and will host the Asian Conference on Precision Agriculture in 2017.<\/p>\n

The association said it was interested in a land-management concept based on observation and response to variability in land and primary production systems.<\/p>\n

It relies on new technology like electronic identification, GPS,\u00a0information technology, geospatial and bio-response tools to enable farmers to act on the variability measured.<\/p>\n

The association\u2019s committee comprises Barrowclough and Craige Mackenzie, Professor Ian Yule (Massey University), Jim Grennell (Canterbury Development Corporation), Jane Adams, Harman Adams, Dan Bloomer (Landwise), Andrew West (Westfarms), Roger Williams (Foundation for Arable Research), and Brendan O\u2019Connell (Tru-Test).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new organisation has been formed to promote precision agriculture, driven by the idea production, profit and environmental care can work in harmony.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":9202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t