A variable rate pesticide application system was developed and tested during 2001 for an agricultural aircraft in Louisiana. Using technology available to the agricultural aviation industry, a variable rate prescription of insecticide was successfully applied to a cotton field in 2002. These studies compared the efficacy and value of spatially variable insecticide (SVI) applications based on yield maps to the producer standard, whole-field broadcast treatments. Insecticide prescriptions were created from historical yield and production data. Treatments included whole-field broadcast sprays, yield-based SVI sprays, and profit-based SVI sprays. Twenty-two SVI applications were made to test fields from 2002-2005 using two aircraft equipped with on-board computer systems. SVI technologies reduced crop input costs for insect pest management, but did not significantly impact yield or crop profit within the conditions of these tests. Insecticide costs were reduced by $12 to $35 per hectare depending on the application frequency and SVI strategy. There was a 13% to 32% reduction in hectares treated in the SVI treatment strategies compared to the whole-field broadcast (producer standard). These studies showed that variable rate application of pesticides can be accomplished using an agricultural aircraft. Intra-field management zones for reducing crop inputs (insecticides) were developed from yield and profit maps. SVI prescriptions can allow producers to manage crop production costs by restricting inputs in Louisiana cotton fields.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04092007-114034 |
| Date | 10 April 2007 |
| Creators | Temple, Joshua Heath |
| Contributors | Billy Rogers Leonard, Eugene Burris, D. Keith Morris, Guy Boyd Padgett |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04092007-114034/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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