Smart Grazing: A Web-Based Solution for Pasture Management

Commodities

Practices

Project Title: Smart Grazing: A Web-based Solution for Pasture Management

The purpose of this project is to develop a web-based solution leveraging automated image processing to accurately assess canopy cover and pasture biomass. This project also aims to facilitate knowledge outreach and adoption through a grazing school for producers and in-service training for extension educators. The proposed outreach programs will serve as an educational platform, imparting novel insights into pasture management practices, elucidating its importance, and showcasing how the web-based solution can assist in this aspect.

This tool will be useful for producers who want to monitor and manage pastures quickly, efficiently, and sustainably. It will be developed for smooth bromegrass and cereal rye using imagery and biomass data collected in the field and a meticulous development process. The grass canopy images will be used for calculating canopy coverage in the backend of the web-based tool. Subsequently, with the processed data, a machine learning model will be trained to automate the canopy coverage estimation process. A forage-specific regression curve will be developed between the canopy coverage and field-collected biomass data. This tool is expected to streamline and expedite biomass availability assessment, enabling producers to make informed stocking decisions promptly. To ensure the tool meets the practical needs of its end-users, a critical phase involves solicitating feedback from producers, which will be facilitated through organizing multiple outreach events, such as grazing schools, to test its functionality and offering insights for optimizing its user interface. During the grazing school events, producers will have the opportunity to actively engage with the software through hands on training. The anticipated outcomes of the project aim to directly benefit cattle producers by furnishing them with a user-friendly tool for the efficient monitoring and management of their pastures, alongside valuable insights into pasture management practices. By incorporating in-field collected images and advanced processing techniques, this tool aims to streamline decision-making processes, ultimately leading to improved productivity and sustainability in agricultural operations.

This project aims to improve pasture management by providing education on core management principles and providing a robust and convenient tool to overcome the difficulty of assessing the amount of forage available for grazing. The goal is to empower cattle producers to improve pasture management and use the pasture more effectively. We will develop a web-based tool that allows cattle producers to easily estimate the amount of forage in a field and calculate carrying capacity. Learning outcomes include increased understanding of core pasture management concepts and knowledge on how to estimate pasture biomass, appropriate stocking rate and carrying capacity using the tool. Expected action outcomes include cattle producers making more informed and timely pasture management decisions thereby preventing both under and over grazing. Additionally, Nebraska Extension educators will be trained to use and teach the software to producers, expanding the project's reach and providing a more significant impact on the agricultural community. We will conduct surveys after educational training events to assess the participants’ perception of their knowledge gained and what changes they expect to make in their behavior. We will collect contact information at these meetings for a follow up survey 6 to 8 months later to evaluate the longer-term impacts of participation including software usage and changes in their grazing management practices.