CIGR Newsletter No 61
CIGR C o-S p o n s o r e d A c t i v i t i e s
International Conference on
"Crop Harvesting and Processing"
This conference, subtitled "A Global Symposium on Engineering Aspects of Harvesting, Handling, and Processing of Grains, Hay, Forage, Biomass, and Other Crops," will be held in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, from 10 to 12 February, 2003 . It is organised by ASAE and co-sponsored by CIGR, among others. This conference has attendee crossover registration with AETC 2003, which will be held at the same time in Louisville.
The commodities under consideration range from grain crops to timber to forage, biomass and fuel crops, to industrial fibers and biochemicals, to fruits and vegetables. Presentations are invited in the following areas relating to the harvesting of crops:
- Crop harvesting (common concerns)
- Crop properties
- Crop and commodity quality issues
- Harvester design, development and testing
- Densification of biomaterials
- Product storage at central processing facilities
- Safety and industry standards
- Crop processing, biorefineries
- Biomass and biochemicals to the farm gate
- Improved labor productivity
- Marketing and servicing harvesting equipment
- Automation and the man-machine interface
- Turning harvest problems into opportunities
- Evolution of new products in crop harvesting,
- Handling and processing
- Software support and Information technologies relevant to crop harvesting
Proceedings are planned to be published by ASAE. Included in the full meeting conference registration is the cost of a copy of the proceedings.
Further information is available from: Dr Graeme R Quick, Conference Coordinator, Iowa State University, Agr & Biosystems Eng Dept 200 Davidson Hall, Ames, IA50011-3080 Phone 515.294.1320 Fax: 515.294.6633 Email: grquick@iastate.edu; or from: Brenda West, Director, ASAE Meetings & Conferences 2950 Niles Road, St. Joseph, MI 4908, Phone: 616-428-6327 Fax: 616-429-3852, Email: west@asae.org. Internet: http://www.asae.org/meetings/harvest03/index.html
6th International Conference on "Construction, Technology and Environment in Livestock Farming"
Organised by the The Society of German Engineers (VDI-MEG), the Committee for Technology and Structures in Agriculture (KTBL) and the Georg-August-University of Goettingen, this conference will take place from 25 to 27 March 2003 in Vechta,Germany . In the research of various agricultural disciplines dealing with animal production and housing, a holistic approach merging specialized knowledge is gaining in importance, in particular with respect to animal welfare and environment. At the conference, the latest scientific results on technical and environmental developments in livestock farming and biosystems will be presented. The plenary sessions are hoped to attract international experts on animal welfare, animal production systems, and process technology who will introduce their subjects. There will be three parallel sessions of about 10 oral presentations each, a poster session, and video sessions.
Manufacturers, scientists, and experts in agricultural engineering are invited to give oral, poster or video presentations dealing with innovative developments or solutions in the following subject areas:
- Innovative housing systems related to animal welfare, on farm assessment
- Tools for precision livestock farming
- Emissions, factors, reduction, modelling
- Treatment of animal wastes, bioconversion
- Feeding technology for pigs and poultry
- Management and labour
- Sustainable animal production systems
- Quality assurance and safety
The proceedings, printing the articles in English or in German with an English abstract, will be available at the congress. The congress languages will be German and English. The final programme will be available in November 2002. The conference fee will be ca. 400 Euro.
Further information and registration material is available on the internet at http://www.int-conf-Vechta2003.uni-goettingen.de or http://www.gwdg.de/~fosvwe , or from: Prof. Dr. Ir. Herman Van den Weghe; Research Centre for Animal Production and Technology; Georg-August-University Goettingen; Universitätsstr. 7; D-49377 Vechta, GERMANY. Tel.: +49-4441-15 436 or 435 or Fax: +49-4441-15 448; Email: herman.vandenweghe@agr.uni-goettingen.de
International Conference on
"Land Reclamation and Water Resources Development"
The Conference, organized by the Lombardia Region and the Italian Association of Land Irrigation and Reclamation Agencies, with the co-sponsorship of CIGR, EurAgEng, ICID and WWC, will be held in Mantua, Italy, from 27 to 29 May 2003. It will deal with the sustainable drainage and land reclamation development in the European Mediterranean Environment. The discussion will be focused on the prospects of building new drainage and land reclamation systems and on the rehabilitation and modernization of the existing ones, in Italy as well as in other European Mediterranean Countries.
The main themes of the Conference will be
- Water resource management for agricultural purposes
- Planning and design of drainage and land reclamation Systems
- Financial and institutional aspects of drainage and land reclamation frameworks.
The conference will consist of an Opening Session, two Topic Sessions and a Closing Round Table discussion, with invited key-note speakers and a post-conference study tour. The official languages will be English and Italian. Translation facilities will be provided. Prospective authors are invited to submit abstracts of papers, limited up to 600 words.
Deadlines:
Notification of acceptance 15 February 2003
Submission of papers 1 April 2003
Registration fee is 100,00 Euro. Participants paying the registration fees have all the services of the programme. The deadline for the payment is 15 March 2003. A detailed programme will be available by 28 February 2003.
For further information, contact the Conference Convenors:
Prof. Daniele De Wrachien, Institute of Hydraulics Agricultural, State University, Via Celoria, 2, 20133 Milan (Italy), Tel.: +39 02 50316902 , Fax: +39 02 50316911, E-mail: daniele.dewrachien@unimi.it; or Dr. Giorgio Negri, Italian Association of Land Reclamation Agencies, 26100 Cremona (Italy), Tel.: +39 0372 31872, Fax: +39 0372 534856, E-mail: unirelom@tin.it
4th European Conference on Precision Agriculture & 1st European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming
These two parallel Conferences will be held from 15 to 19 June 2003 in Berlin, Germany. The combination of the 4th ECPA and the 1st ECPLF will allow a comprehensive analysis of the state of precision agriculture in both fieldcrop and animal production. It will also, for the first time, give the chance of drawing up perspectives for a coordinated development and for creating visions for an integration of plant production and animal husbandry on the farm of the future, in terms of sustainable and "transparent" production.
The conferences are organised by the Institute of Agricultural Engineering (ATB), Potsdam-Bornim/Germany, and the Centre for Agricultural Landscape and Land Use Research (ZALF), Müncheberg/Germany. Co-organizers are professional societies and institutions of agricultural engineering, such as VDI-MEG, EurAgEng and CIGR, and of Agronomy, Crop- and Soil Sciences and Animal Sciences, such as DLG, DGFZ, EAAP
The Conferences, held in English, will deal with the following topics:
4th ECPA, focused on precision agriculture:
- Systems research and modelling
- Methods and tools for analysing spatial variability
- Crop management strategies
- Decision support tools
- Sensors and their application for decision support
- Yield formation, nutrient dynamics and energy flow
- Long term effects on site and environment
- Information management on field and farm level
- Impact on economics and management of crop production
- Statistics, data analysis and research design
- Teaching, extension and training
- Social aspects and impact on national economy
1st ECPLF, focused on precision livestock farming:
- Systems research and modelling
- Decision support tools for process and product quality; chain management
- Effects on animal welfare and environment
- Telemetric measurement and monitoring of animal welfare parameters
- Sensors and their application for air quality and pollution control
- Sensors and their application for decision support in milking processes
- Sensors and their application for measurement and control of feed production processes
- Sensors and their application for decision support in animal feeding, health management and reproduction
- New technologies for individual identification of farm animals
- Documentation for quality assurance and safety
Excursions and sightseeing tours will familiarise participants with Brandenburg, the state surrounding the German capital Berlin. It is known for its rich cultural heritage including the famous parks and palaces of Potsdam, and for the quiet landscape with numerous lakes along the rivers Spree and Havel. Equally, Brandenburg stands for professional largescale farming, typical for the whole North-Eastern part of Germany.
For further information please contact: Conference office 4th ECPA and 1st ECPLF, Dipl.-Ing. agr. Andreas Jarfe, Centre for Agricultural Landscape and Land Use Research (ZALF), Department of Land Use Systems and Landscape Ecology, Eberswalder Strasse 84, D-15374 Muencheberg, Germany. Tel: ++ 49 (0) 33432 / 82-257; Fax:++ 49 (0) 33432 / 82-389; E-Mail: ajarfe@zalf.de . URL:http://www.ECPA-Berlin.org
4th EFITA Conference 2003
This conference of the European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (EFITA) will be held in Debrecen and Budapest,Hungary, from 5 to 9 July 2003. It will deal with the following topics:
- Expert and decision support systems
- Internet/networking applications, e-services
- E-commerce/e-business
- Information systems
- IT economics
- Production chain support
- GIS/RS applications
- Extension support systems
- Strategies/policy
- Farm management
- Education/training
- Sustainable agriculture and IT
- Precision agriculture
- Quality management and food safety control
The conference consists of EFITA Workshops (July 5) on the one hand and, on the other hand, a combination of the following two elements (July 7-9):
The "mainstream conference" gives room for a broad spectrum of themes related to the design development and use of IT systems in and for the agri-food sector. It will include plenary sessions, parallel working group sessions, poster sessions, and computer demonstrations.
The "conference symposia" are small conferences within the EFITA conference. They address specific interest groups and focus on applications of information and communication systems in specific areas. They will be organised according to up-to-date matters of interest.
Deadlines:
Early registration 30 April 2003
Late poster abstract registration 15 May 2003
The conference language will be English. Papers and posters are requested for all listed subject areas and related fields. Participants wishing to make refereed or oral presentations are requested to send abstracts of 300 to 600 words. Please use the form supplied on the Conference Web site.
Early registrations are welcome to be sent electronically through the conference web site or by e-mail. The conference fee (Euro 380 before / 450 after 30 April 2003 for EFITA members; Euro 190 / 220 for students) includes workshop costs, conference materials, welcome reception, lunches, dinners, coffee, tea and scheduled excursions during the conference.
Further information is availabe from the conference secretariat: E-mail: efita2003@date.hu; URL: http://www.date.hu/efita2003/.
ITAFE’03: International Congress on Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and Environment
Co-sponsored by CIGR, amongst other organisations, this congress will be held from 7 to 10 October 2003 in Izmir, Turkey . The Congress topics are all related to the design, development, use and management of Information and Communication Systems in and for Agriculture and Extension, Agribusiness and Food Industry, Agricultural Policy and Environment:
- Information and communication systems for the improvement of activities
- Decision support systems (DSS)
- GIS, GPS, RS application
- Precision farming
- Expert systems
- Database Management Systems (DBMS)
- E-Commerce
- Education and training
- Distance learning
- Strategy and management information systems
- Modelling and use of statistical analysis
- Simulation applications
- Biotechnology and bioinformatics
- Wireless communication
- Laboratory systems
- Automation in process control
- Quality control and standards
- Environment control systems
- Water management systems
- Data acquisition and signal processing
- Role of IT in rural development
- IT in developing countries
Authors are kindly invited to submit abstracts (300-600 words) in Rich Text (4 cm margins on all sides, Times New Roman, font size 12 pt) with up to five keywords and giving the authors’ name (each potentially presenting author undelined), affiliation, institution and email addresses below the title of the abstract. For each accepted paper, at least one author is requested to register for the Congress upon delivery of the final paper. All accepted papers will be available in the proceedings during the congress.
The official language of the congress will be English.
Dates
Submission of abstracts 15 March 2003
Notification of acceptance 15 May 2003
Submission of final papers 15 August 2003
Please send all correspondence to the following postal or email addresses: ITAFE’03 Congress Secreteriat, Ege University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Machinery, 35100 Bornova, Izmir, TURKEY. Tel & Fax : +90 232 3427642 Email: itafe@agr.ege.edu.tr or itafe@ziraat.ege.edu.tr Further information, registration forms, etc., can be found at http://www.itafe.ege.edu.tr/

