Cornell University

CFX-750 with FieldIQ for controlling a sprayer.

After a very busy summer my internship has came to an end. I am very grateful for the opportunity I had over the past few months working at Vantage Northeast. This internship was a great learning experience getting a chance to work with many different aspects of precision agriculture as well as meeting a ton of new people along the way.

Fendt 1000 with a high speed planter we ran at 12mph

Going over the risk of too much or not enough down force

This past week we got the chance to get out of New York again and go out to Pontiac Illinois to Precision Plantings new 200 acre test farm. This was a great opportunity for training on Precision Plantings new product as well as meeting other dealers from across the country. The day of training consisted of two different parts the first being the ride and drive time in what they called the sandbox and then the agronomy tour. The ride in drive was great with precision planting recently being bought by AGCO they had a brand new line up of equipment for us to try all the different precision planting products on. The agronomy tour took us throughout the farm showing us each plot and new things that were in the works for precision planting. It was a great trip learning the benefits of each product and where they can be best implemented. 

Beans planted after wheat harvest with a lot of volunteer wheat coming back.

Green beans are a very big market here in Western NY with the majority of them being processed through the Seneca foods plant in Geneva. That being said, it is very important to be out scouting those fields weekly checking for insects, disease, and weed pressure.  Throughout the summer at least one day a week I get the chance to get out and either scout green beans or sweet corn; both destined for canning. This week I was out walking green bean fields that were spread across the state from Utica to Buffalo.  While walking fields, I am mainly focusing on weed pressure as well as white mold and insects. With this summer being so dry in western NY I have still yet to find any white mold. I hope for the growers sake it stays that way. It’s important while I am out scouting that I am checking growth stages of the plants throughout the entire field so that no herbicide or pesticides are applied too late and can damage growth further.

Sensors at 8″ and 18″

Over the past few weeks I have been able to work with an excellent new product for farmers using irrigation on crops. The CropX moisture sensor reads real time soil moisture and temperature. The best part about the CropX sensor is that through the app you can access your sensors data allowing you to make decisions on irrigation without being in the field.  The sensors that I have been working with have the ability to give readings at depths of  8″ and 18″. This gives the ability to the grower to make decisions about when to irrigate his crop depending its rooting depth.

Second planting snap beans at RL Jeffres in Piffard, NY

The sensor can be installed within minutes making it a very simple product to use. To activate the sensor you simply scan the qr code that is on the top of the sensor into the app. This the activates the sensor as well as pinning its location in the field in case you have trouble finding it.

Scan the code to activate the sensor

Hello everyone my name is Travis Mattison and I and currently a junior in the Agricultural Sciences Major. I am doing my internship this summer with a precision agronomy company out of Rochester, NY called Agrinetix.  Agrinetix has its hands in all aspects of agriculture from selling GPS guidance systems and autosteer to fertility management plans, water management,  spray and fertilizer application control systems as well as a GIS department that does EC/field mapping, NDVI imagery and yield and planter mapping. This summer my main focus is working as a technology integrator installing and maintaining Trimble Guidance systems, 360 Yield center products, Precision planting products and Raven control systems.

The First two weeks were an extremely busy planting season. I was on the road almost everyday traveling to different farms across New York state mostly servicing Trimble GPS systems controlling auto-steer in the tractor as well as planter controls. After the hectic first couple weeks myself and the other tech integrator Chris went out to Ohio State University Agriculture Research and Development Center for a two day training conference put on by Trimble on a new product they released. The release was for the GFX750 display and NAV 900 controller as well as the Muller ISO ecu. This was a great experience receiving training on the product as well as networking with others in the precision agriculture industry from all over the United States and Canada.