Lyndall: Hello, everyone and welcome to SUNUP. I’m Lyndall Stout. Efficiency is key to any successful wheat operation and a new tool developed at OSU aims to address that. SUNUP’s Dave Deken picks it up from here.
Dave: Since we’ve been doing the show, we’ve heard a lot about GreenSeeker and the technology, and it’s getting smaller. It started as a big broomstick device, and now it’s more of a pocket device. We have Dr. Brian Arnall to tell us about the growth of it I guess.
Brian: The growth, yeah the original GreenSeeker started out on a broomstick, a 12-volt GSL battery. It had a sensor that was capable of changing reads at very fast speeds in very small areas, and we have been morphing it to a smaller, more user-friendly form. This first sensor was released about 2 years ago. This is a prototype pocket sensor developed basically in the garage in Stillwater by Dr. Solis, Dr. Stone and Dr. Ron, wanting a user-friendly sensor at a low price. This has been out in the state for about 2 years now, letting producers to get their hands on it, tell us what they like, what they dislike and it had some great feedback from some really high-quality producers.
Recently, we can’t be more excited. For about the last year, we’ve been working with Tremble to develop a commercial version and they just came out with it, with what they’re terming as the GreenSeeker handheld sensor. This is doing everything that that large sensor did. It’s taken the exact same values. It’s given us the same readings we need to make that N rate recommendation for our crops. It’s just user friendly. It’s small. It’s lightweight and it’s relatively cheap, really cheap compared to the original sensor.
Dave: Talk to us about how it works.
Brian: It works just the exact same way that the original GreenSeeker worked, where it emits red and infrared light and reads a reflectance. Under this, you see the immense comes from right here, you pull the trigger and you can actually see the red light flashing. That’s what’s emitting the light, and this round eye appears once receiving that reflectance back. It’s just reading the reflectance, just like the original GreenSeeker. It gives you a value on this screen to tell you what that NAVI is. When it’s done, you take that number. You put it in the calculator. It gives you a top dress recommendation.
Dave: Some of the previous ones, you had to be close to the ground or far away from the ground.
Brian: The first pocket sensor, because of the technology of LEDs at the time, you had to be within 20, 24 inches of the soil or of the crop canopy. After a couple of days of sensing at about this height, the backs are getting sore of our producers. That’s one of the biggest complaints is that we’ve got to be able to sense taller. This sensor has an operating window of 2 to 4 feet, so it can be held anywhere at a comfortable level. The ergonomics or the way they’ve turned this handle actually sets it where the level, holding it level is not that much of an issue. You saw it earlier, it just naturally fits at a flat level. That’s been nice. I really like how this is working out.
There was actually, the first handheld sensor was on campus for a couple of months, completely vetted by Dr. Ron’s group. They did everything they possibly could to test it, to break it, to see how it was working, showing that it had that perfect correlation with the big sensor that we’ve been using for the last 10 years.
Dave: What’s the path that a person would need to do?
Brian: Just the same with the large GreenSeeker, when they have an enriched strip infield and I’ll say that word again, the enriched strip, it is absolutely necessary, it is extremely important to have the enriched strip out. I always recommend taking about 100 pesos with the sensor through the enriched strip. They’ll take the value off of this so write it down, then they walk back to their truck or their foiler or whatever be it. Sensing on the outside the enriched strip, they’ll take that number, write it down and enter it into the online calculator, and that’s where they get the nitrogen rate recommendation.
Dave: Let’s talk about costs on the handheld here. Where do we stand on that?
Brian: The costs right now, the Trimble, which this is manufactured by Trimble, sold by Trimble dealers, the cost is at $495, which is the original GreenSeeker’s somewhere above $5,000, so we’ve had a nice…
Dave: That’s a fraction.
Brian: It’s a fraction of the cost of the original GreenSeeker.
Dave: Let’s talk about cost per acre of getting one of those.
Brian: One of the things I’ve been doing for the last 10 years or so in my life is checking how well the GreenSeeker does versus conventional practice, how much money that enriched strip can make you or save you throughout the years. Over the last 10 to 12 years, we’re coming up with $10 an acre every year, year in, year out, either saving nitrogen or increasing yield. At $10 an acre, 50 acres and you’ve paid for the handheld sensor.
Dave: That’s amazing.
Brian: In a single year, that’s just with wheat.
Dave: This is an important tool to Oklahoma producers.
Brian: This is an essential tool to Oklahoma producers and this is going to take the technology to a completely new level. This is going to take the enriched strip, put it on that next level up. This is going to be what I’d refer to as in the past as a gateway technology. This is going to lead producers from the handheld sensor to variable rate technologies. I guarantee as the producers own one of these for 5 or 6 years, they’re going to look for that next level. It’s just that entry. It’s the light bar technology leading to auto steer. It’s just that next step, and I believe this is going to take acres of the enriched strip out the window and we’re going to see a majority of the acres in a couple of years in Oklahoma having enriched strips.
Maybe two or three producers go together and buy one, then you’re at $100 to $150 a person, 15 acres and it’s paid for.
Dave: There you go, okay. Dr. Brian Arnall, thank you much, and you can find out more information on our website about the handheld GreenSeekr at sunup.okstate.edu.