This is not your father's farming.
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Even at the scale of the family farm, agriculture is increasingly becoming a business where daily decisions regarding irrigation, the application of pesticides and fertilizers, and crop protection against frost damage often make the difference between profit and loss. |
These same decisions can also make a significant impact on the environment, the prospect for future growing seasons, and overall quality of life.
In a NASA project called TiSDat (Timely Satellite Data), University of Wisconsin scientists -- in collaboration with the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association and the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association -- are developing management decision aids that derive much of their power from satellite data available on the Internet soon after collection.
These aids are designed to improve agricultural and environmental management decisions using satellite data of farmland. TiSDat has four specific projects:
making irrigation schedules more efficient
predicting power needs of farmland irrigation to help utility companies make power generation decisions
estimating the duration of leaf wetness to help predict foliar disease in potatoes
predicting freezing temperatures to help protect cranberry crops from frost damage
[Keep Reading about TiSDat]
[Go to the TiSDat Web Site]
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