Innovation in Agriculture

Innovation in Agriculture

I referred recently to farmers as the first conservationists. This does not mean, however, that farming practices do not have negative environmental consequences. For that matter, depending on your perspective, all actions have negative environmental consequences. For example, the USEPA would have you believe that the carbon dioxide you exhale as a by-product of the cellular respiration that keeps you alive should be regulated as a pollutant.

Here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (64,000 square miles), agriculture covers 23 percent of the land area (14,720 square miles). Government and academic scientists estimate that in 2009, agriculture was the largest source of nitrogen loading (45 percent or 110.6 million pounds per year) to the Bay. It was also the largest source of phosphorus loading (44 percent or 7.2 million pounds per year), as well as sediment (65 percent or 5.3 billion pounds per year). Many programs are in place at the federal, state, and local government levels to provide cost-sharing for agricultural practices to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment runoff. The Chesapeake Bay watershed is now subject to a Total Maximum Daily Load, a water regulatory program of the USEPA.

Many bureaucrats and environmental advocacy groups would prefer that the public believe that the only way to correct environmental degradation is implementation of top-down governmental regulatory programs. This view intentionally ignores the power of innovation and free market economics.

Fortunately, there are inventors like Ronald D. Salestrom of Tucson, AZ. Salestrom has provided an “Agricultural water retention and flow enhancement mixture”; his intellectual property is protected by Patent Number 5,868,087, issued on February 9, 1999. The US Patent and Trademark Office classifies his invention as 111/132. This classification, found in a class covering planting inventions, pertains to broadcasting (think of your Scott’s rotary fertilizer spreader), specifically dispensing material ahead of a powered tiller.

Salestrom summarizes his invention in claim 1:

“1. A technique for treating agricultural land to increase water retention capabilities of the soil comprising a broadcaster and involving the steps of: 

a) distributing a substantially even spread of water absorbent polymer particles by said broadcaster over a soil surface; 

b) blending the water absorbent polymer particles into an upper level of said soil; and, 

1. applying a linear polymer to said soil surface during irrigation of said soil surface.”

Inventor Salestrom envisions that his technique of applying selected chemicals will increase agricultural water retention and minimize erosion. The technique applies water absorbent polymers into the top layer of a field, creating a water barrier within the soil. Subsequently, a linear polymer such as polyacrylamide is applied to the soil's surface to minimize erosion during irrigation and precipitation. The water absorbent polymers assist in the thorough application of the linear polymer as the linear polymer is maintained at the surface area and prevented from leaching away. The combination of these techniques will serve to reduce nutrient and sediment losses from agricultural fields.

Has Salestrom’s invention (or others in the patentECO Agricultural Index) been added to the list of best management practices (BMPs) recommended by Chesapeake Bay governments?

patentECO - No-Till Poultry Litter

No-till poultry litter

The Shenandoah Valley, where I live, is a major poultry producing area. The Valley lies within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, a 64,000 square-mile area that contributes tributary flow, and pollutants, to the Nation’s largest and most productive estuary. In 2010, the Chesapeake Bay watershed produced more than 1 billion broiler chickens, 27.5 million turkeys, and 1.5 million tons of poultry litter, which is the bedding material and poultry manure produced by the poultry houses that raise the birds. Poultry litter contains significant amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, and represents a valuable source of agricultural fertilizer (and a potential alternative energy source).

These 1.5 million tons of litter also represent a significant source of nonpoint source pollution to the region’s waterways after the litter is applied to farm fields. An article this morning in our local paper covered a research project now underway in the area that is testing a new piece of agricultural equipment that can potentially reduce pollutant loads from field-applied poultry litter.

The equipment injects poultry litter below the surface of a field in a manner similar to that used in no-till agricultural practices. After some detective work, I found that this equipment was recently granted a US patent.

Patent number 7,814,848, “System for distributing poultry litter below the soil surface,” was granted to Daniel H. Pote (Booneville, AR) and Stephen M. Haller (Magazine, AR) on October 19, 2010. Pote and Haller are employees at the Dale Bumpers Small Farm Research Center in Arkansas; the Center is a part of the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. The patent is assigned to USDA. It is classified as 111/130, which covers planting technology that uses broadcasting. As of early January 2012, 278 patents are found in this subclass, with the earliest issued in 1841 for a rotary cultivator. It was Patent number 2,040; check out the drawing — it’s art.

Back to the present. Claim 1 states:

“An apparatus for distributing soil amendment materials comprising:

a) a plurality of soil cutting blades effective to cut a plurality of substantially parallel trenches in the soil when pulled through the soil in a direction of travel;

b) a dispenser for delivering soil amendment material to the trench cut in the soil rearward of said cutting blades, wherein said dispenser comprises:
1) a receptacle comprising opposed front and rear walls and opposed side walls, an inlet for said material, and a lower surface extending between said walls;
2) said lower surface comprising a plurality of substantially parallel elongated troughs disposed substantially longitudinally along the length thereof, each of said troughs having an outlet at the bottom thereof, wherein each said outlet is positioned adjacent to one of said front wall or rear wall and rearward of and over the path of travel of one of said cutting blades effective to dispense said material to said trench in the soil;
3) a plurality of screw augers, wherein one said auger is disposed in each of said troughs and said augers are adapted to both transport said material in a direction along the length of said troughs toward said outlets and grind or shear said material as said material is transported;
4) an upstanding face plate disposed laterally between said side walls substantially perpendicular to said troughs and augers, and on the side of said outlets which is upstream from said direction of transport of said material in said troughs, said face plate defining first and second volumes within said receptacle, said first volume being upstream of said face plate relative to said direction of transport of said material, and said second volume being downstream of said face plate relative to said direction of transport of said material and encompassing said outlets; and
5) said face plate comprising a bottom edge adjacent said troughs and an upper edge disposed above the uppermost radial edge of said augers, and said face plate further comprising a plurality of openings through which said screw augers pass.”

This technology, found in the patentECO Agriculture Index, allows biodegradable solid soil amendment material, such as poultry litter, to be disposed of in soil by cutting soil trenches, grinding or shearing the material, and distributing it to the trenches in the soil.

A November 2010 press release from ARS announced that an exclusive license was awarded to BBI Spreaders of Cornelia, GA to commercialize this technology. BBI’s spreaders can also use precision agriculture electronics. ARS estimates that nutrient losses from field application of poultry litter can be reduced by 90 percent. Widespread use of these spreaders could make a significant contribution to the long-term and ongoing efforts to improve water quality in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.