Bow River Irrigation District

KEY FINDINGS

Number of survey participants: 101 or 15.5% of district irrigators
Percentage who have adopted precision agriculture technologies – 82%
Average number of technologies adopted – 4.7
Satisfaction rating of technologies (‘somewhat positive’ or ‘extremely positive’) – 87%
Top five technologies adopted (percentage of adopters):
- Using auto-steer (92%)
- Establishing field boundaries, low spots, unfarmable land (49%)
- Studying/analysing yield data (49%)
- Using satellite imagery (42%)
- Yield mapping (42%)
Effects (annual averages):
- Reduction in irrigation water (21%)
- Increase in crop quality (20%)
- Increase in crop yield (18%)
- Reduction in fertilizer (15%)
- Reduction in herbicides (15%)
- Reduction in pesticides (13%)
Top motivators for adopting:
- To reduce energy costs (67%)
- To reduce labour hours (67%)
- To reduce machine time (64%)
- To increase annual crop yield (60%)
- To increase annual crop quality (56%)
- To reduce annual irrigation water (51%)
Future adoption intentions: 82% plan further adoption in the next five years
Type of land precision agriculture applied to - irrigated 70%, dry-land 30%
Crop most benefitting from precision agriculture (percentage of adopters):
- Speciality Crops (48%)
- Cereals (7%)
- Oil Seeds (43%)
- Forages (2%)
Non-adopters - main reasons for not adopting:
- Operation is too small (31%)
- High investment costs (23%)
Non-adopters who plan to adopt in the next five years – 19%