Estimating the Economic Benefits of Automatic Section Control in the North Dakota Prairie Pothole Region

• Main Author: Rahman, Baishali
• Format: Others
• Published: North Dakota State University 2018
• Subjects: Precision farming.; Precision farming > Technological innovations.; Spraying equipment.; Agricultural machinery > Automatic control.; Precision farming > Economic aspects > North Dakota.
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10365/28870

The impact of Automatic Section Control (ASC) as a tool of Precision Agricultural Technology as considered in the more efficient application of inputs to produce the four major crops, corn, soybean, HRSW, and canola in the North Dakota Prairie Pothole Region. Reduction in machinery overlap in the sample 105 fields was calculated by simulating the routing paths of a 60-feet wide planter with 24 sections controlled and a 120-feet wide boom sprayer with individual nozzle control. The dollar and percentage seed and chemical costs that a farm can save by reducing overlapping area were calculated. Impact of field parameters on net savings were estimated by developing and estimating an econometric model. Results show that ASC can save substantial cost in the sample fields while field shape had the highest significant impact on net cost savings. === North Dakota State University. Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics