The FUTURE IS COW
The future is now, and not just in our smart phones and appliances. That’s how it felt to see how the University of Nebraska research center is using technology to benefit agriculture in the cleverest ways.
Take cattle feed, for example. Not something that comes up in everyone’s every day conversation, sure, but if you’re a rancher it’s a popular topic. The research center is studying the most beneficial feed plan for cattle.
“They have different breeds of cows in pens and each cow has an ear tag with a chip in it. The pen has a feed trough with bars that only one cow at a time can stick their head through to reach the feed.”
The chip in the cow’s tag sends a signal to a computer that weighs the feed before and after the cow eats and pulls its head out. They can then track the feeding data for each cow, so as the cows grow they gather statistics on how they put on weight, size, and can monitor the health of calves.
Research like this helps our Nebraska ranchers raise their herds with the best possible outcome in the most resource efficient manner. To take the guesswork out of feed is to save time, money, and raise healthy, happy cows. Not to mention happy ranchers.
Whether it’s cows or corn or anything in between, efficiency in agriculture is critical.
The same research center has a simulator that trains crop-dusting pilots in wind tunnels that can produce winds up to two hundred miles per hour. Because crop-dusting entails a lot more than just getting from point A to point B, this simulator can also measure the size of chemical droplets, the density of the plant coverage, and the amount of drift expected (how much chemical is flying into the wrong crop area).
“They are experimenting with water conservation by running tubes under crops at different heights to determine if they can save water from evaporation by dispersing it underground.”
Every variable is tested – should the tube be eighteen inches below the plant? Twelve inches? Computers measure environmental factors like rain for their part of the plant cycle to get a full picture of what works best.
“Did you know there are more than thirty-five invasive weed species in Nebraska?”
The University of Nebraska research center has samples of each species taken from many different environments, climates, and soil around the state.
“They found that thirty-five species became over 1,500 variations.”
Wild, right? Well they’re testing all 1,500 weed variations for how they absorb chemicals and working with the EPA to help reduce the amount of chemical needed. Good for plants. Good for people.
*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.
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