Platte Valley FFA Awarded $5,000 Grant

The Colorado Corn Administrative Committee recently awarded a $5,000 grant to the Platte Valley FFA Chapter in Kersey, Colo., which will help those students add GPS-controlled, variable-rate sprinkler nozzles to the chapter's research field. Platte Valley Ag Ed instructor John Stahley shares more details
Stahley: “With the grant, we will able to do upgrades to one tower of the sprinkle to put variable-rate nozzles on it so we will be able to change water output on that sprinkle in real time. Our plan is to fly the field about every four days with the drone. We will a high-resolution camera as well as an infra-red camera and then elevate the amount of plume, or canopy of the corn to determine where we can turn down water or turn up water to reach our goals.”
Stahley says grants like this really make a difference for additional projects that are not covered by the school’s budget.
Stahley: “But when you talk about the additional things — the cutting technology — we don’t typically have funding for that. That is where grants opportunities like this is really fabulous because then we can begin to give students the real opportunity for where agriculture is headed with micro-farming. The grant opportunities give us the ability to teach what is the cutting edge of agriculture and we really appreciate those opportunities.”