91传媒鈥檚 targeted conservation tool aims to improve profitability for farmers
Contact: Vanessa Beeson
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擳wo Mississippi State researchers and pioneers in the growing field of economically targeted conservation are showing farmers that making money off their land can be feasible even when the land isn鈥檛 producing.
Wes Burger and Mark McConnell, 91传媒 researchers in the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, are launching the 91传媒 Precision Conservation Tool, a decision-making software that identifies precise locations where conservation practices are most economically beneficial to farmers on specific pieces of their land. Both scholars also are part of the university鈥檚 Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.
鈥淥ur goal is to ensure enrollment in conservation acreage results in an increase in revenue. This software allows a farmer to only take land out of production when it means an increase in profit, meaning producers can make more money by farming less acres. That鈥檚 a win for both the producer and the environment,鈥 said Burger, whose administrative positions include College of Forest Resources interim dean, FWRC interim director and MAFES associate director.
The copyrighted software uses precision agriculture, which Burger said 鈥渞epresents the next paradigm shift in natural resource conservation where spatially explicit decisions are made that optimize both conservation and profitability.鈥
McConnell, a Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture assistant professor, has worked alongside Burger for the last decade to bring the technology to fruition. What began as a master鈥檚 thesis project for him has become sophisticated software that promises to be a game changer for producers, agricultural technology companies and conservation experts alike.
McConnell has since earned a doctoral degree and taught at the University of Georgia for three years before returning to his alma mater in 2019 to serve in his current position. At UGA, McConnell brought on Nick Meng, then a wildlife master鈥檚 student who continued the software development efforts. UGA now shares a portion of the copyright with 91传媒.
McConnell explained how the software works.
鈥淭he conservation title of the Farm Bill鈥攚ith more than 30 different conservation practices with varied objectives and spatial requirements鈥攊s complex, so we built all that information into the software,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ne of the biggest challenges for producers is visualizing where specific conservation practices are eligible on their farms. This software solves that problem by identifying field-specific eligibility for nearly 40 different conservation practices.鈥
The system uses yield data to map yield variability across the field comparing it with crop production budgets and commodity pricing to create profit maps. From there, it singles out low-yielding areas of the field and finds opportunities for economically targeted conservation in those areas based on the farmer鈥檚 conservation goals and a program鈥檚 field requirements.
鈥淩ight now, we can tell a farmer on a very precise scale where conservation will make them money in the field,鈥 McConnell explained.
The team hopes to engage the agricultural technology industry to license the software and get it into the hands of more farmers.
鈥淭he agricultural technology sector continues to embrace sustainable agricultural innovation and can reach a large percentage of farmers nationally. We also want to continue to reach wildlife biologists in federal and state agencies and nongovernmental organizations, like Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever, who work day in and day out helping farmers navigate conservation delivery,鈥 McConnell said.聽聽聽
He pointed out that a No. 1 driver in a producer鈥檚 decision-making process is economic profitability. As far as how much profitability the right conservation program can garner, McConnell noted that in one recent simulation in Lowndes County, the range was vast.
鈥淲e analyzed 52 fields across one farm and were able to increase revenue an average of 24 percent across all fields,鈥 McConnell said. 鈥淥n some fields, that might be a 2 percent increase while on other fields, it was more than 200 percent. While I鈥檇 never ask a farmer to make a change for a 2 percent increase, a 200 percent increase is substantial.鈥
To learn more about the software, contact McConnell via email at mdm380@msstate.edu or call 662-325-2144. To learn more about licensing, contact Jim Mitchell, licensing associate聽in the 91传媒 Office of Technology Management, via email at jfm93@msstate.edu or call 662-325-8223.
Visit 91传媒鈥檚 College of Forest Resources at . For more information on the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, visit . For more about MAFES, visit .
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