Soil Health Partnership
Heliae Agriculture is partnering with the R.W. Griffin family of companies to drive soil health in Georgia and North Florida. R.W. Griffin, one of the largest fertilizer retailers in Georgia, has become an official distributor for the Southeast region.
Griffin Evans, chemical and seed director for R.W. Griffin, says, “We are happy to create a strategic alliance with Heliae. Their efforts to drive healthy soils allows us to help our growers achieve improved return on investment on their current crops while sustaining their soil for future generations.”
In this strategic partnership, R.W. Griffin will work with Heliae on the application of its microalgae soil microbe food, PhycoTerra, to support its efforts in peanuts, cotton and specialty crops. PhycoTerra is created from a Heliae-proprietary strain of microalgae that feeds microbes present in soil. This creates a more complex soil profile that improves water retention and nutrient- use efficiency in the field, among other demonstrated benefits.
“Our soil microbe food will give the R.W. Griffin Specialty Ag product line the additional tools needed to support their efforts in soil health to their growers across the region,” said N.R. Davy, chief revenue officer of Heliae. “Our U.S. third party trials have seen more than 10:1 ROI’s for farmers in a number of key crops. This is another important step in providing regenerative agriculture solutions to growers in the Southeast region.”[divider]
Mavic 2 Pro Double 4K Upgrade
Sentera recently announced the availability of its Double 4K precision agriculture sensor on DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone. This offering provides Double 4K quality at entry-level pricing, expanding data collection options for ag professionals and growers. Several system configurations are available including collection of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference red edge and high-resolution RGB data in a single flight.
The Mavic 2 Pro drone with a Double 4K Sensor offers a robust yet affordable solution that helps users quickly detect and respond to problems. The Double 4K sensor delivers outstanding high-resolution crop health imagery and data.
“We are excited to extend compatibility to the popular Mavic drone family in order to influence better decision-making and improve outcomes in the 2020 growing season,” says Ethan Oscarson, product experience manager at Sentera. “This solution will give ag professionals more control over their data capture than ever before, offering multiple configuration options on an easy-to-use platform.”
By retaining full functionality of the DJI Mavic 2 Pro stock camera while integrating the versatile Sentera Double 4K sensor onto the commercial drone, ag professionals can capture even more data in a single flight.
All data is seamlessly compatible with Sentera’s FieldAgent web, mobile and desktop software, integrating the Double 4K data with all major digital agriculture platforms.
For more information, visit https://sentera.com.[divider]
Irrigation Tax Credit For Alabama Farmers
Some Alabama farmers could see a break on their taxes thanks to a new tax credit. This credit allows you to count certain costs associated with irrigation, including fuel conversions, equipment and reservoirs, on their income taxes.
Only qualified irrigation systems or reservoirs are eligible for the tax credit. Producers must have filled out an annual information report with the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries to be eligible.
“Producers completing and submitting an irrigation questionnaire is the first step to properly seeking an income tax credit from the Alabama Department of Revenue,” says Brittney Goodrich, an Alabama Extension agricultural risk management and economics specialist.
Eligible taxpayers can claim one credit for qualifying equipment purchased and installed during five-year periods. These periods are 2012 through 2017, 2018 through 2022, 2023 and thereafter.
“This is a cost savings that farmers can use to buy new irrigation equipment or to make upgrades to existing equipment,” she says.
According to Goodrich, this credit can also be an opportunity for Alabama producers to expand irrigated acreage. Alabama has significantly fewer acres currently using irrigation than surrounding states.
“Alabama irrigates roughly 163,000 acres of cropland, compared to around 1.2 million in Georgia and 1.7 million in Mississippi,” Goodrich says.
For more information on this income tax credit, visit the Alabama Department Agriculture and Industries website. You can also visit https://www.aces.edu or contact a member of the Alabama Extension farm and agribusiness management team.
