John Lory’s ‘Skylab’ looks to the future of forage management.
It looks like something from a science fiction tale or an other-world exploration unit. Instead, it is one of the latest pieces of equipment researchers use to study pastures.
“We call it Skylab,” said , associate professor of plant sciences at the . “It is a research tool that gives us a leg up on past technologies to easily test forages and how nitrogen can affect plant growth.”
In the spring of 2013, Lory began to assemble different sensors on a highboy tractor thanks to a grant from the Natural Resource Conservation Service and support from the MU Division of Plant Sciences. The machine with 6 feet of ground clearance is more commonly used for spraying crops, but Lory is looking to do spatial management studies of pastures at CAFNR’s in Linneus to give Missouri farmers a better understanding about what is going on in their pastures.
Reviewed 2014-02-24