2008 World Ag Expo Product Roundup

Unlike last year, when Rudy Giuliani, dropped in to speak, none of the presidential candidates came by the 2008 World Ag Expo. But the show came too late in the game this year for “America’s Mayor” — as did the Florida primary, but that’s another story. No one at the ag expo cared, anyway. Who wants to hear politicians speak when you can check out new stuff?

Any of the 100,000-plus visitors walking the grounds at this year’s World Ag Expo, held as always in Tulare, CA, the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, had to be careful in asking the innocent question, “What’s new?” They would certainly get an earful at the world’s biggest agricultural exposition, which had a whopping 2.6 million square feet devoted to exhibits.

And while there were plenty of tires to kick — not to mention tractors to drive at the hugely popular “Ride and Drive” lots — new products were not limited to the big iron. Everything from a remote-controlled airplane, the CropCam, down to identification microdots so small they can be sprayed onto your equipment, DataDots, were on display at the show.

The aforementioned two products, incidentally, were two products celebrated by the show’s organizers this year. The companies deemed to have the show’s Top 10 new products were able to show off their wares at a new exhibition in 2008. Read on to find out more information on some of the new products of interest to growers, including these that made the World Ag Expo Top 10: the Field Water Alarm, the AutoProbe, and the Irrigation Manager.

Field Water Alarm

Inventor Bob Jacobson of Jacobson Remotics got the idea for the Field Water Alarm from, of all people, his mother-in-law. One day she told him: “Bob, I don’t mind irrigating, but I don’t like standing in the hot sun for half an hour or more waiting for the water to be changed.”

The integrated flood irrigation control system nearly eliminates the need to continuously check when the irrigation gates, distribution valves, or pots in a flood-irrigated field need to be closed. This integrated system of detection and subsequent alert provides the grower a way to decrease time wasted in the field, tells him the moment the water comes in, and warns of the possibility of over or under irrigation.

The Field Water Alarm consists of a detection probe that is placed into a row in any field where matter makes contact. Then it sends a signal to the field control unit, which is self-contained in a water-tight case. A five-watt radio unit sends a prerecorded voice message to the grower’s base station or hand-held radio receiver. The cellular unit dials up to three phone numbers in succession leaving the Field Water Alarm caller ID number and text message “ALARM ON.”

For more information, contact Jacobson Remotics at 209-847-8003; [email protected]; www.fieldwateralarm.com.

CropCam

The CropCam offers images on demand and is an inexpensive alternative to satellite or flying an airplane over a field. It can provide images for crops, drainage, spraying, precision agriculture, or a multitude of other uses.

From PineCreek Precision, the CropCam was designed to be reasonably priced, highly efficient, and user friendly for the commercial market. It is a radio-controlled glider plane equipped with a Pentax digital camera, controlled by an autopilot, along with pre-programmed ground control software. The CropCam can also be manually controlled.

The CropCam utilizes an autopilot for navigation and control of the camera. For everything else it utilizes parts (wings, servos, propellers, glow fuel, or batteries) that can be purchased locally. This makes the CropCam’s parts practical and accessible worldwide. Note: PineCreek Precision is seeking dealers.

For more information, contact PineCreek Precision at 204-344-5617; [email protected]; www.cropcam.com.

Irrigation Manager

Puresense focuses on water — its use and its quality. Poor water use plagues the industry, with the impact most detrimental to irrigated crops. PureSense brings the benefits in new irrigation management systems, delivering water more precisely and sustainably.

PureSense uses its patented informatics and proprietary monitoring stations to integrate probes, sensors, and telemetry, and position them in farms to serve customers with superior quality applications for reducing the risks of crop yields and operating margins. PureSense serves growers with easy-to-use, actionable intelligence, online and anytime from anywhere.

Many crops are susceptible to significant changes in weather. When the PureSense system anticipates these changes, alerts are sent to a grower’s cell phone, prompting the grower into action to alleviate frost damage.

For more information, contact PureSense at 510-444-1631; [email protected]; www.puresense.com.

DataDots

About the size of a grain of sand, each DataDot is manufactured using a polyester substrate with an alphanumeric code via a laser etch process. From MicroDot Security Solutions, DataDots are suspended in a specially formulated adhesive containing a UV trace and are attached to any item of value via a unique spray or brush-on process. Once applied to your equipment, simply register your pin number in the DataDotUSA database, which is accessible by law enforcement personnel to identify recovered property and return it to its rightful owner.

DataDots reduce theft through deterrence, and they help the police to prove the true identity of these assets. The “Protected by DataDot Technology” decals warn thieves to stay away from your equipment.

Growers are particularly vulnerable to theft because they often have a lot of expensive equipment that is, at times, left unattended.

For more information, contact MicroDot Security Solutions at 559-225-3368; [email protected]; www.microdotsecurity.com.

AutoProbe

Jim Burton, an Arkansas grower, was out in one of his fields taking soil samples 15 years ago when he thought, “There’s got to be a better way.” So Burton, who has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering, started envisioning a machine that would make it easier for growers to take soil samples. In 2002, he started working on the design of such a machine, and the result is the AutoProbe.

Manufactured by an Arkansas company, Ag Robotics, which is run by Jim’s son, Jeff Burton, the AutoProbe not only takes the back-breaking work out of soil sampling, it does it better and faster. The device is built around a single rubber-track-driven mechanism actuating an on-the-go probe that penetrates the soil to a depth of 6 inches and withdraws a soil core as it retracts.

Synchronized with each rotation of the track, the probe is thrust through a special link in the track with the ability to pull cores in 16-foot increments. That’s about one sample every 30 seconds when towed across a field at a speed of 8 mph by a GPS-steered vehicle. It allows growers to hit the same spot and same depth time after time, says Jeff Burton.

For more information, contact AgRobotics at 501-255-7346; www.agrobotics.com.