May 8, 2023 • 14 mins
In this mini episode, we sat down with George Vellidis, professor in crop and soil sciences and Simer Virk, assistant professor and Extension precision agriculture specialist in crop and soil sciences, to discuss what to expect out of the first Integrative Precision Agriculture Conference, which will be held at the University of Georgia May 18 and 19. Listen in to learn how global industry leaders and researchers will collaborate on the most critical issues facing crop and animal production at this inaugural event.
Resources:
The International Conference for Integrative Precision Agriculture
The Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture
Listen to our full-length episode on integrative precision agriculture
Edited by Carly Mirabile
Produced by Jordan Powers, Emily Davenport, Carly Mirabile
Music and sound effects by Mason McClintock, an Athens-based singer, songwriter and storyteller who creates innovative soul-pop music that transcends traditional genre boundaries. Hailing from small-town Southeast Georgia, Mason's influences range from the purest pop to the most powerful gospel. Mason is a former Georgia 4-H'er and a recent University of Georgia graduate! Listen to his music on Spotify.
Almanac is an annual publication that provides a window into the work being done at CAES to make the world increasingly healthy, equitable and sustainable. We are pleased to announce that the 2024 edition is now available online. Explore stories of science in service of humanity and the environment.
Get social with us!
Follow CAES on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and check out UGA Extension on on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for the latest updates.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sound Effect (00:00):
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we
get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our lives,from what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers, and we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:20):
The first Integrative Precision
Agriculture conference will beheld at UGA, May 18, and 19th.
This is a chance for industryleaders around the world and
precision agricultureresearchers to get together and
collaborate on the most criticalissues facing crop and animal
production today. In this miniepisode, we sat down with George
Vellidis, professor in Crop andSoil Sciences, and Simer Virk,
(00:42):
assistant professor andExtension precision agriculture
specialist in Crop and SoilSciences, to discuss what to
expect out of the upcomingconference.
Sound Effect (00:50):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:51):
We know the IPA international conference is
coming up here in May. Can youtell us a little bit about how
this conference might contributeto the future of agriculture or
Integrative PrecisionAgriculture specifically?
George Vellidis (01:02):
Well, let me start since I've been involved
in this, a little bit more thanSimer has and he can describe a
little bit later what hisinvolvement is. I'd like to back
up a little bit and talk aboutthe formation of the Institute
of Integrative Precision Agfirst. So when our provost, Dr.
Hu, came on board, I think hedid a survey of our stakeholders
to find out what the universityshould be investing in to move
(01:25):
the state's economy forward, andwith a focus on technology. And
one of the things that came upfrom his surveys was that
precision agriculture would be agood way for the university to
invest to help technology growin Georgia and also help
Georgia's biggest industry growfaster. We began a process of
developing this Institute ofIntegrative Precision
(01:45):
Agriculture to help the facultyat UGA work together and
collaborate more easily onsolving agricultural problems
that can be solved throughtechnology or data analysis, or
all these things we've talkedabout so far. So the Institute
has been in place for about ayear now. We're up to 45, maybe,
members, faculty members thathave joined the Institute. So
(02:08):
these are from all disciplinesat the university from the
College of Ag, of the College ofEngineering, and the Franklin
College of Arts and Sciences,from Warnell School of Forestry
and Natural Resources. And theidea is that we're all going to
be working together. But many ofthe people that have joined the
Institute don't have sort of thefundamental understanding of
precision ag and the currentproblems like Simer and I have
(02:30):
because we've been in this ourwhole careers. And so the goal
of the conference is to bringgrowers, farmers from Georgia,
to describe the problems they'refacing and the problems they
think that technology can helpthem solve. And then to have
experts from all over the worldinform us of the cutting-edge
technologies that are currentlyavailable, or what will be
(02:51):
coming available in the nearfuture that can help address
these problems. And theconference is really targeting
UGA faculty and grad students asthe audience so that they can
hear this information. And thenwe can try to form teams that
will address these problems thatwill help our growers in the
near term and the long term. Sothat's the plan for the
(03:12):
conference. And we have had, Ithink, a very, very good turnout
in terms of number of graduatestudents that have registered
for the conference. Andlikewise, a large number of the
IIPA faculty have registered forthe conference. So we're looking
forward to having a really goodinteraction and exchange of
ideas.
Simer Virk (03:30):
And it's gonna bring, you know, a lot of people
who are working in the PrecisionAg space together. Like George
said, internally, especiallythere, there are, I think, IIPA
faculty located on all threecampuses, you know, and I think
it's opportunity for all of usto connect with each other, know
what their specialties,expertise, all those are and
(03:51):
where we can collaborate on someof the solutions. I think the
other big thing I'm excitedabout also is we're bringing a
lot of these, I think Georgecalled them thought leaders, or
people who are really good atwhat they do, and they're
outside, they're from otheruniversities, industry, whether
they have really built a topnotch program at their
(04:14):
institution or in their field,where they do or it's industry.
I think I'm excited to listen totheir thoughts on how we're
progressing in agriculturetoday, or what they think five
ahead years, what's going tohappen. I think it's really good
time for a lot of us to kind oftake notes on some of that and
see how they're envisioningeverything. And maybe even if
it's a great opportunity for UGAand all of us to connect with
(04:37):
some of those, you know, we'rereally well connected with
industry in Georgia and a littlebit in the US, but that may be
another opportunity to expandour collaborations beyond.
George Vellidis (04:45):
Let me give you a couple of examples of issues
that the growers who will beattending the conference are
going to be presenting. So I'vehad conversations with the
growers, and I'm conveying theirconcerns to the people who will
be providing solutions. So I'llstart with with Lawton Pearson,
who's one of our state's largestpeach farmers. He's located in
Fort Valley. And this has been avery bad year for peaches
(05:09):
because we had a freeze when thepeach trees were blooming and so
the, it looks like the crop, thepeach crop's gonna be very poor
in 2023. One of Lawton's biggestproblems is that he has
contracts with big supermarketcompanies, and he has to fulfill
that contract. And that contractis written well in advance.
Well, he can't always tell earlyin the growing season, what his
(05:30):
peach yield is going to be. Sohe wants us to be able to
develop some kind of predictiveprogram for him that says, okay,
I want to look at my flowers, orI'm going to look at the fruit
set. And I'm going to be able topredict based on environmental
conditions, how many pounds ofpeaches I'm able to produce this
year, so that I know that when Isign my contract with the
supermarket company, I can meetthat contract, I don't extend
(05:52):
myself or under predict what I'mgoing to have. So this is a
solution that's waiting forartificial intelligence and
remote sensing and drones, to beable to collect data and make
some kind of predictivesolution. We have one of our
biggest vegetable growers, Mr.
Bill Brim, who's based here inTifton. One of his great
problems is labor shortages. Youknow, he can't get the labor
force to harvest his vegetablesand send them to market. Can we
(06:15):
produce robotic solutions thatharvest supermarket-ready
vegetables, so not processingtomatoes, but tomatoes that are
handpicked these days, and go onthe supermarket shelf without
bruising? Can we produce roboticsolutions, so that he can
harvest his product withoutrelying on a workforce that may
or may not show up becausethere's such a shortage for it.
So these are the kinds of thingsthat we hope will get UGA teams
(06:38):
built to address these specificproblems for our growers. And
these solutions are not justspecific to Georgia, they will
be adaptable all across thecountry. And then we can produce
some kind of technologicalsolutions, but ultimately, we
need commercialization for thisto be viable for the growers to
use. So hopefully this willentice companies to come to
Georgia to work with us toproduce these solutions.
Jordan Powers (07:02):
So we know that at the conference, researchers
and growers are collaboratingtogether to come up with
innovative solutions. And weheard there'll be a chance for
students to develop solutions toproblems as well. Can you tell
us a little bit more about thestudent hackathon portion of the
conference?
George Vellidis (07:13):
The student hackathon was a concept that was
brought to us by our colleaguesin in computer science, who are
also on the planning committeefor the IIPA conference. And the
idea behind the studenthackathon was to have teams of
graduate students and evenundergraduates, give them
problems that are cutting edgethat our growers need solutions
(07:36):
for and see if they can come upwith some really innovative
solutions. So for example, oneof the companies who's helping
us with these problems is ownedby a UGA Double Dawg. And he's
developing a company that willallow nursery growers and people
who have orchards to be able topredict the size of their trees,
(08:00):
so that they can better haveinventory and know when somebody
says, hey, I want 1000 trees ofthis size, yes, I've got these
trees without having to go outand count. So we're providing
the students with aerial imagesof nurseries and orchards. And
saying, okay, we want you tofigure out how to count the size
of these trees. And so that'sthe hackathon, they'll come up
(08:23):
with solutions. And potentiallyone of the solutions will be
adopted by the business. Andthen, you know, the students
will have some access to theintellectual property and so on.
So it's really exciting and atthe moment, I think we've got
almost 30 students have signedup for the hackathon. And it's
being organized by Dr. Jin Sunwho's in the Franklin College of
(08:45):
Arts and Sciences.
Jordan Powers (08:46):
Sounds like a very action based meeting, which
I feel like we need more ofthese days, like immediate
takeaways and hearing aboutteams forming and true action
being taken away sounds reallyexciting and inspiring.
Emily Davenport (08:58):
Aside from the networking and collaborations
taking place at the conference,what sort of hands on activities
will be available for attendees?
Simer Virk (09:05):
Yeah, so I think as a part of the conference, on the
second day, we have three orfour events in the afternoon,
right? And one of those eventsis spray drone workshop. And I
think it's pretty timely,because spray drones are
something very new. We have haddrones for a while in ag where
we just have cameras on there.
And it was primarily a lot usedfor research, all that, but also
(09:27):
some for scouting by consultantsand all that. We didn't see that
much adoption by growers and allthat, again, because it's good
to take pictures, but it's hardto interpret those and add value
to what they're doing as a cropmanagement, which there's still
a lot of research going on. Butthere is this very increased
interest in spray drones becausenow you have a tool that can
(09:48):
actually spray, right? So I waslike again, little intrigued by
all the questions and the callswe got last year about, you
know, how there's so many peopleinterested in it. And there's so
much evolving within the sameyear, because you have one model
at the start of the year wherethe company launched it, and
people started using it. And bythe end of the year, they're
(10:10):
already gone to a next and allthat. Plus, or with spray
drones, it's not just someonecan just go by to Best Buy or
Lowe's or somewhere and just getone, right? But the other big
thing is the regulations, youknow, and especially being with
UGA and the Extension, all that,one thing we try to do is make
sure that everybody isconsidering the regulations,
(10:31):
proper rules and everything tofly them because even though if
they're flying at 10 feet,they're still in the airspace,
right? So I think one of ourgoals here is to share some
practical applicationconsiderations of drones. One of
the things we talked aboutyesterday is like how I said
they were kind of meant for spotspraying applications, but
(10:52):
people start taking it and startspraying the whole field, right,
and that were like, oh, it don'thave enough battery life, it
don't have enough tank. Wellguess what? They were not made
to spray large fields, right? Soit's like some of the
practicality or applicationconsiderations. Because myself
here, we got a colleague fromAuburn, Dr. Steve Li, he's a
weed scientist, but also does alot of spray drone work. He's
(11:12):
got a lot of actual on-farmefficacy style data. What you
saw today was we were doing lotwith water on the spray
performance side. So he's gonnashare a lot of like, from
pesticide application. He's alsoa lot more involved with the EPA
and other regulatory agencies.
And we also have industrypartners, or people who have
(11:33):
been working with or who kind oftake, who kind of knows that how
we need to make this technologymore accessible and used right
and properly in ag, right? Sowe'll have Mark from Application
Insight coming. But our goal isto share some of the rules and
regulations, practicalapplications considerations for,
(11:53):
and also maybe touch a littlebit on where we're going with
the spray drones. And then it'sgoing to followed by a drone
demonstration outside with oneof our industry partners.
George Vellidis (12:05):
Well, I'd like to add that I think the spray
drones are a super excitingdevelopment and will really push
for this idea of automation thatSimer mentioned earlier. So
think back to the example I wastalking about with the Vidalia
onions.
Sound Effect (12:18):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (12:20):
If you'd like to learn more about integrative
precision agriculture andGeorgia's upcoming research on
Vidalia onions, listen in to ourfull length episode about IPA,
the science, not the beer. We'lllink it in the show notes for
you.
Sound Effect (12:31):
[chime]
George Vellidis (12:32):
So we'll have this little robot that can go
out and sense diseases, right?
Well, the future is that therobot will speak directly to the
spray drone and say, okay, theseare the coordinates. This is the
area that I want you to spray.
Somebody has to fill up thelittle tank on the spray drone,
but it takes off and it goes anddoes the mission on its own. And
it's all controlled by oneperson sitting in an office
(12:54):
somewhere, right? I mean,imagine the savings in labor,
efficiency, and quality ofproduct at the end. So it's a
very exciting development and Ithink that's why when we look at
our registration for these postconference events, about half of
our attendees have signed up forthe spray drone workshop. Also,
another event that we havethat's really interesting is Dr.
(13:14):
Gerald Henry, who's in the Cropand Soil Sciences Department,
has a very interesting precisionturf research program. And he
focuses on working with ourathletics program to develop
turf that minimizes injuries toathletes. So conference
attendees will have a chance tovisit his research. And he's
(13:34):
arranged, because of his closeinteraction with the athletic
department, to, so the attendeescan also visit the stadium,
which at that time will beundergoing refurbishment of the
turf so they'll be able to seethis in action.
Emily Davenport (13:47):
Okay, and is it the turf that he's working on is
in Sanford stadium or..?
George Vellidis (13:52):
Yes.
Emily Davenport (13:52):
Okay.
George Vellidis (13:52):
Yeah.
Emily Davenport (13:53):
That's really cool.
Sound Effect (13:54):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (13:56):
Thanks for listening to this minisode about
the integrative precisionagriculture conference. To learn
more about the conference andthe Institute head to the link
in the show notes. We'll alsoadd a link to our full length
episode with George and Simer,where we go in depth about all
things IPA.
Sound Effect (14:10):
[music]
Emily Davenport (14:12):
Thanks for listening to Cultivating
Curiosity, a podcast produced bythe UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Aspecial thanks to Mason
McClintock for our music andsound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we
get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our lives,from what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers, and we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:20):
The first Integrative Precision
Agriculture conference will beheld at UGA, May 18, and 19th.
This is a chance for industryleaders around the world and
precision agricultureresearchers to get together and
collaborate on the most criticalissues facing crop and animal
production today. In this miniepisode, we sat down with George
Vellidis, professor in Crop andSoil Sciences, and Simer Virk,
(00:42):
assistant professor andExtension precision agriculture
specialist in Crop and SoilSciences, to discuss what to
expect out of the upcomingconference.
Sound Effect (00:50):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:51):
We know the IPA international conference is
coming up here in May. Can youtell us a little bit about how
this conference might contributeto the future of agriculture or
Integrative PrecisionAgriculture specifically?
George Vellidis (01:02):
Well, let me start since I've been involved
in this, a little bit more thanSimer has and he can describe a
little bit later what hisinvolvement is. I'd like to back
up a little bit and talk aboutthe formation of the Institute
of Integrative Precision Agfirst. So when our provost, Dr.
Hu, came on board, I think hedid a survey of our stakeholders
to find out what the universityshould be investing in to move
(01:25):
the state's economy forward, andwith a focus on technology. And
one of the things that came upfrom his surveys was that
precision agriculture would be agood way for the university to
invest to help technology growin Georgia and also help
Georgia's biggest industry growfaster. We began a process of
developing this Institute ofIntegrative Precision
(01:45):
Agriculture to help the facultyat UGA work together and
collaborate more easily onsolving agricultural problems
that can be solved throughtechnology or data analysis, or
all these things we've talkedabout so far. So the Institute
has been in place for about ayear now. We're up to 45, maybe,
members, faculty members thathave joined the Institute. So
(02:08):
these are from all disciplinesat the university from the
College of Ag, of the College ofEngineering, and the Franklin
College of Arts and Sciences,from Warnell School of Forestry
and Natural Resources. And theidea is that we're all going to
be working together. But many ofthe people that have joined the
Institute don't have sort of thefundamental understanding of
precision ag and the currentproblems like Simer and I have
(02:30):
because we've been in this ourwhole careers. And so the goal
of the conference is to bringgrowers, farmers from Georgia,
to describe the problems they'refacing and the problems they
think that technology can helpthem solve. And then to have
experts from all over the worldinform us of the cutting-edge
technologies that are currentlyavailable, or what will be
(02:51):
coming available in the nearfuture that can help address
these problems. And theconference is really targeting
UGA faculty and grad students asthe audience so that they can
hear this information. And thenwe can try to form teams that
will address these problems thatwill help our growers in the
near term and the long term. Sothat's the plan for the
(03:12):
conference. And we have had, Ithink, a very, very good turnout
in terms of number of graduatestudents that have registered
for the conference. Andlikewise, a large number of the
IIPA faculty have registered forthe conference. So we're looking
forward to having a really goodinteraction and exchange of
ideas.
Simer Virk (03:30):
And it's gonna bring, you know, a lot of people
who are working in the PrecisionAg space together. Like George
said, internally, especiallythere, there are, I think, IIPA
faculty located on all threecampuses, you know, and I think
it's opportunity for all of usto connect with each other, know
what their specialties,expertise, all those are and
(03:51):
where we can collaborate on someof the solutions. I think the
other big thing I'm excitedabout also is we're bringing a
lot of these, I think Georgecalled them thought leaders, or
people who are really good atwhat they do, and they're
outside, they're from otheruniversities, industry, whether
they have really built a topnotch program at their
(04:14):
institution or in their field,where they do or it's industry.
I think I'm excited to listen totheir thoughts on how we're
progressing in agriculturetoday, or what they think five
ahead years, what's going tohappen. I think it's really good
time for a lot of us to kind oftake notes on some of that and
see how they're envisioningeverything. And maybe even if
it's a great opportunity for UGAand all of us to connect with
(04:37):
some of those, you know, we'rereally well connected with
industry in Georgia and a littlebit in the US, but that may be
another opportunity to expandour collaborations beyond.
George Vellidis (04:45):
Let me give you a couple of examples of issues
that the growers who will beattending the conference are
going to be presenting. So I'vehad conversations with the
growers, and I'm conveying theirconcerns to the people who will
be providing solutions. So I'llstart with with Lawton Pearson,
who's one of our state's largestpeach farmers. He's located in
Fort Valley. And this has been avery bad year for peaches
(05:09):
because we had a freeze when thepeach trees were blooming and so
the, it looks like the crop, thepeach crop's gonna be very poor
in 2023. One of Lawton's biggestproblems is that he has
contracts with big supermarketcompanies, and he has to fulfill
that contract. And that contractis written well in advance.
Well, he can't always tell earlyin the growing season, what his
(05:30):
peach yield is going to be. Sohe wants us to be able to
develop some kind of predictiveprogram for him that says, okay,
I want to look at my flowers, orI'm going to look at the fruit
set. And I'm going to be able topredict based on environmental
conditions, how many pounds ofpeaches I'm able to produce this
year, so that I know that when Isign my contract with the
supermarket company, I can meetthat contract, I don't extend
(05:52):
myself or under predict what I'mgoing to have. So this is a
solution that's waiting forartificial intelligence and
remote sensing and drones, to beable to collect data and make
some kind of predictivesolution. We have one of our
biggest vegetable growers, Mr.
Bill Brim, who's based here inTifton. One of his great
problems is labor shortages. Youknow, he can't get the labor
force to harvest his vegetablesand send them to market. Can we
(06:15):
produce robotic solutions thatharvest supermarket-ready
vegetables, so not processingtomatoes, but tomatoes that are
handpicked these days, and go onthe supermarket shelf without
bruising? Can we produce roboticsolutions, so that he can
harvest his product withoutrelying on a workforce that may
or may not show up becausethere's such a shortage for it.
So these are the kinds of thingsthat we hope will get UGA teams
(06:38):
built to address these specificproblems for our growers. And
these solutions are not justspecific to Georgia, they will
be adaptable all across thecountry. And then we can produce
some kind of technologicalsolutions, but ultimately, we
need commercialization for thisto be viable for the growers to
use. So hopefully this willentice companies to come to
Georgia to work with us toproduce these solutions.
Jordan Powers (07:02):
So we know that at the conference, researchers
and growers are collaboratingtogether to come up with
innovative solutions. And weheard there'll be a chance for
students to develop solutions toproblems as well. Can you tell
us a little bit more about thestudent hackathon portion of the
conference?
George Vellidis (07:13):
The student hackathon was a concept that was
brought to us by our colleaguesin in computer science, who are
also on the planning committeefor the IIPA conference. And the
idea behind the studenthackathon was to have teams of
graduate students and evenundergraduates, give them
problems that are cutting edgethat our growers need solutions
(07:36):
for and see if they can come upwith some really innovative
solutions. So for example, oneof the companies who's helping
us with these problems is ownedby a UGA Double Dawg. And he's
developing a company that willallow nursery growers and people
who have orchards to be able topredict the size of their trees,
(08:00):
so that they can better haveinventory and know when somebody
says, hey, I want 1000 trees ofthis size, yes, I've got these
trees without having to go outand count. So we're providing
the students with aerial imagesof nurseries and orchards. And
saying, okay, we want you tofigure out how to count the size
of these trees. And so that'sthe hackathon, they'll come up
(08:23):
with solutions. And potentiallyone of the solutions will be
adopted by the business. Andthen, you know, the students
will have some access to theintellectual property and so on.
So it's really exciting and atthe moment, I think we've got
almost 30 students have signedup for the hackathon. And it's
being organized by Dr. Jin Sunwho's in the Franklin College of
(08:45):
Arts and Sciences.
Jordan Powers (08:46):
Sounds like a very action based meeting, which
I feel like we need more ofthese days, like immediate
takeaways and hearing aboutteams forming and true action
being taken away sounds reallyexciting and inspiring.
Emily Davenport (08:58):
Aside from the networking and collaborations
taking place at the conference,what sort of hands on activities
will be available for attendees?
Simer Virk (09:05):
Yeah, so I think as a part of the conference, on the
second day, we have three orfour events in the afternoon,
right? And one of those eventsis spray drone workshop. And I
think it's pretty timely,because spray drones are
something very new. We have haddrones for a while in ag where
we just have cameras on there.
And it was primarily a lot usedfor research, all that, but also
(09:27):
some for scouting by consultantsand all that. We didn't see that
much adoption by growers and allthat, again, because it's good
to take pictures, but it's hardto interpret those and add value
to what they're doing as a cropmanagement, which there's still
a lot of research going on. Butthere is this very increased
interest in spray drones becausenow you have a tool that can
(09:48):
actually spray, right? So I waslike again, little intrigued by
all the questions and the callswe got last year about, you
know, how there's so many peopleinterested in it. And there's so
much evolving within the sameyear, because you have one model
at the start of the year wherethe company launched it, and
people started using it. And bythe end of the year, they're
(10:10):
already gone to a next and allthat. Plus, or with spray
drones, it's not just someonecan just go by to Best Buy or
Lowe's or somewhere and just getone, right? But the other big
thing is the regulations, youknow, and especially being with
UGA and the Extension, all that,one thing we try to do is make
sure that everybody isconsidering the regulations,
(10:31):
proper rules and everything tofly them because even though if
they're flying at 10 feet,they're still in the airspace,
right? So I think one of ourgoals here is to share some
practical applicationconsiderations of drones. One of
the things we talked aboutyesterday is like how I said
they were kind of meant for spotspraying applications, but
(10:52):
people start taking it and startspraying the whole field, right,
and that were like, oh, it don'thave enough battery life, it
don't have enough tank. Wellguess what? They were not made
to spray large fields, right? Soit's like some of the
practicality or applicationconsiderations. Because myself
here, we got a colleague fromAuburn, Dr. Steve Li, he's a
weed scientist, but also does alot of spray drone work. He's
(11:12):
got a lot of actual on-farmefficacy style data. What you
saw today was we were doing lotwith water on the spray
performance side. So he's gonnashare a lot of like, from
pesticide application. He's alsoa lot more involved with the EPA
and other regulatory agencies.
And we also have industrypartners, or people who have
(11:33):
been working with or who kind oftake, who kind of knows that how
we need to make this technologymore accessible and used right
and properly in ag, right? Sowe'll have Mark from Application
Insight coming. But our goal isto share some of the rules and
regulations, practicalapplications considerations for,
(11:53):
and also maybe touch a littlebit on where we're going with
the spray drones. And then it'sgoing to followed by a drone
demonstration outside with oneof our industry partners.
George Vellidis (12:05):
Well, I'd like to add that I think the spray
drones are a super excitingdevelopment and will really push
for this idea of automation thatSimer mentioned earlier. So
think back to the example I wastalking about with the Vidalia
onions.
Sound Effect (12:18):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (12:20):
If you'd like to learn more about integrative
precision agriculture andGeorgia's upcoming research on
Vidalia onions, listen in to ourfull length episode about IPA,
the science, not the beer. We'lllink it in the show notes for
you.
Sound Effect (12:31):
[chime]
George Vellidis (12:32):
So we'll have this little robot that can go
out and sense diseases, right?
Well, the future is that therobot will speak directly to the
spray drone and say, okay, theseare the coordinates. This is the
area that I want you to spray.
Somebody has to fill up thelittle tank on the spray drone,
but it takes off and it goes anddoes the mission on its own. And
it's all controlled by oneperson sitting in an office
(12:54):
somewhere, right? I mean,imagine the savings in labor,
efficiency, and quality ofproduct at the end. So it's a
very exciting development and Ithink that's why when we look at
our registration for these postconference events, about half of
our attendees have signed up forthe spray drone workshop. Also,
another event that we havethat's really interesting is Dr.
(13:14):
Gerald Henry, who's in the Cropand Soil Sciences Department,
has a very interesting precisionturf research program. And he
focuses on working with ourathletics program to develop
turf that minimizes injuries toathletes. So conference
attendees will have a chance tovisit his research. And he's
(13:34):
arranged, because of his closeinteraction with the athletic
department, to, so the attendeescan also visit the stadium,
which at that time will beundergoing refurbishment of the
turf so they'll be able to seethis in action.
Emily Davenport (13:47):
Okay, and is it the turf that he's working on is
in Sanford stadium or..?
George Vellidis (13:52):
Yes.
Emily Davenport (13:52):
Okay.
George Vellidis (13:52):
Yeah.
Emily Davenport (13:53):
That's really cool.
Sound Effect (13:54):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (13:56):
Thanks for listening to this minisode about
the integrative precisionagriculture conference. To learn
more about the conference andthe Institute head to the link
in the show notes. We'll alsoadd a link to our full length
episode with George and Simer,where we go in depth about all
things IPA.
Sound Effect (14:10):
[music]
Emily Davenport (14:12):
Thanks for listening to Cultivating
Curiosity, a podcast produced bythe UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Aspecial thanks to Mason
McClintock for our music andsound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!