Increasing Demand Seen For New Agricultural Technology.

Increasing Demand Seen For New Agricultural Technology.

The Yuma (AZ) Sun (2/8, Lobeck) reported, "The search is on for new agricultural technology, with the University of Arizona's help." Experts say the movement towards increased mechanization is driven, in part, by declining interest in farm work among young people. Similarly, Mark Siemens of the University of Arizona's Yuma Agricultural Center said he "sees new technology not so much displacing workers as freeing up people for other tasks where the human factor is still needed." Siemens said "the advances of tomorrow will have a major impact on agriculture - things such as robotics, plant-sensing machines to thin and weed fields, and continuing GPS applications." Among Siemens' own projects "is a mechanical thinner that uses a computerized sensor to detect...lettuce plants and selectively remove them from a row."

        Researchers Developing System To Improve Cage-Free Chicken Environments. The East Lansing (MI) State News (2/9, Wilson) reports, "In an attempt to foster better cage-free living environments for chickens, MSU researchers are working on a project to monitor birds' movements." The researchers "developed two kinds of sensors. Placed on a harness on the back of the chicken, a small node sends signals to other sensors placed in the hen's environment." The article provides a detailed explanation of how the technology monitors the hens' movements. Principle investigator Janice Siegford said "the next part is determining what the bird is actually doing, being able to tell if the bird is doing certain things based on the movements from the monitor." Siegford also "said that the cage-free housing systems the team is developing will first be used by producers," while "the monitors and sensors...will be available to producers at a later date."

        Researcher To Study Biofuel Potential Of Abandoned Agricultural Lands. The Merced (CA) Sun-Star (2/9) reports, "Elliott Campbell, a professor in the UC Merced School of Engineering, has received the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Award, through which he'll receive $407,588 over five years" to "study the capacity of abandoned agricultural lands to generate crops used to produce biofuels." Campbell's work, which will study both the US and Brazil, will not only consider the use of abandoned agricultural lands, but also seeks to "determine the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during the production and transportation of the biofuels to help determine the environment's net gain," among other goals.