URBANA, Ill. — As an Extension educator with the University of Illinois, Dennis Bowman has been an advocate for farmers trusting in digital technology since the introduction of precision agriculture technologies in the 1990s. In his new, official role as Extension’s Digital Agriculture Specialist, Bowman will ensure farmers have a voice in the research and application of new technologies at the U of I. 

He’ll also be at the center of many of the university’s research projects, including identifying ways that Illinois farmland can be used for both agriculture and photovoltaics — specifically solar farms — simultaneously. 

“I’ll be making sure researchers are asking the right questions and addressing real-world farm issues,” said Bowman, whose passion for digital ag technology took root after he wrote a program that calculated fertilizer recommendations based on soil test results as a student at Western Illinois University. 

“A lot of the movement in agriculture right now relates to technology and the use of information,” Bowman continued. “The U of I is leading this effort with its Center for Digital Agriculture, a consortium of the National Center for SuperComputing Applications, the (U of I) College of Engineering computer science departments and the (U of I) College of Agriculture, which includes engineering, crop sciences, animal sciences and agricultural economics. I am Extension’s connection to that group.”

Though most of today’s farmers are keenly aware of artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture — if only through the yield monitors in their combines — Bowman feels that the full spectrum of uses for information gleaned from such now-common devices is being underutilized. 

“A part of that is that datasets can be difficult to deal with when they are really large. That’s one of the benefits of AI; the ability to create computer systems that can take these huge datasets and take some of the work out of looking for real information,” said Bowman, adding that he’ll be relying on feedback from Illinois and Corn Belt farmers to better serve their needs. 

“We have focus groups and groups of farmers interacting with the commodity groups and farm bureau, so that we can get their feedback as we start to develop things. We want to make sure we’re answering the right questions and getting the answers to them in the right manner,” he said.

In his work with voltaics, Bowman is striving to find solutions for landowners seeking to retain the maximum amount of workable crop or pasture land while also leasing all or part of the acreage to solar power project developers.

“There has been research done that proves that this concept could work,” Bowman said. “Surprisingly we don’t know how corn or soybeans might perform in this situation, because there is going to be a land portion that is under the solar panel that will get minimal reflective light. But there is an area between the panels that will get full or at least partial sun, and we don’t really know for sure what kind of impact that might have. 

“We’re going to look at yield in these situations for a variety of crops and figure out exactly what the impact is, so we may build some economic models that we would be able to plug into a system and could change the parameters — maybe with different size panels or spacing — and get an idea of the impact it would have on crops.” 

Part of the study will examine the cost-to-benefit ratio of grazing sheep or other small livestock on pasture land where solar panels are present, a practice that is already in use on some east coast farms. The “agrivoltaics” project is taking place beginning this spring on a new solar farm owned by the U of I that is located near the Urbana campus, if all the logistics can be worked out in time.

In addition to researching agrivoltaics, the Center for Digital Agriculture has received several grants to begin pursuit of other research topics including AI in agricultural systems for sustainability. 

“We are working with small, ground based robots that navigate crop rows. We’re looking at (developing) a cover crops seeder that can go in before harvest and spread cover crop seed. If we can get that system perfected at a low cost, you could drop a handful of these off at a field and they could go out and spread your cover crop seed,” Bowman said. 

“A lot of the drawback to cover crops in Illinois is due to late harvests in the fall. If you don’t harvest your corn until October, that’s not a lot of time to get a cover crop established and pretty much the only option we have is cereal rye. There are a lot of other cover crops with traits we might prefer, so if we could get that seed out there a month earlier or several weeks earlier we could have those options.”

The autonomous seeder, developed at the U of I Research Park, was utilized to plant 100 acres of cover crops under corn last fall in order to initiate the study. U of I crop researchers plan to expand the study this year, according to Bowman.

Bowman, whose 40-year career as an Extension ag adviser began at home in Macouipin County, can be reached via email at ndbowman@illinois.edu.