NetNews@IFAJ2001
September 10th,2001

- Enthusiastic discussion about Monday topics

- Milk is a source of  health-products

- Meat balls can lower cholesterol

- Aerial photos as a tool for better N-fertiliser planning

- Murnakutka and Tervalohi fascinated

- The man and the forest  

 - SATURDAY 
   8.9.2001
 - SUNDAY 
   9.9.2001

Enthusiastic discussion about Monday topics

Modern techniques in Finnish agriculture aroused enthusiastic discussion. See the speeches here.

Ensio Hytönen	Jarmo Juga	Chairman Jyri Ollila
Timo Lehtimäki	Gustav Smulter	Raimo Tammilehto
	Annika Mäyrä-Mäkinen:	Sisko Mäkelä
	Milk is a source of  health-products 13.40pm

	Merja Leino:
	Meat balls can lower cholesterol 14.30pm The effect of food in human health has been a hot topic of discussion. Also the meat companies have been keen on developing health products. Consumers in Finland can buy cholesterol lowering frankfurters, meat balls and potato salad. Atria meat processing company introduces these kind of new Benecol products this autumn. Finnish own health trends have effected in meat products so that the sodium content has reduced in sausages significantly and the fat content of Finnish pork meat has decreased by 24 percent over the last fifteen years.
Business Area Director Merja Leino from Atria remarked, that this light boom can also mislead consumers. A product can be labelled as light if its total energy content is 33 percent below the norm. A light version of a greasy sausage can anyhow content high fat, while many whole meat products contain minimum amount of fat, but are not allowed to be called light.

Jouko Kleemola and Jari Peltonen:

Aerial photos as a tool for better N-fertiliser planning

Kemira Agro Oy

Remote sensing using aerial images is considered suitable for the rapid monitoring of fields under cultivation. Plants reflect a large proportion of incoming light in (near) infrared wavelengths and absorb light in red wavelengths. It is thus possible to estimate canopy parameters, such as plant biomass, based on measured reflectances. A satellite image would be a preferable way to obtain remote sensing data. However, it must occasionally be supported by, for example, airborne data or weather problems. Particularly in Nordic conditions, cloudiness can hamper or prevent imaging during the growing period. Therefore, remote sensing using aerial imaging might be a better method for the rapid monitoring of crop growth and for creating application maps for fertilisers and pesticides as well as grain yield and quality maps, which help farmers to improve their economy in crop production.

In the summers of 2000 and 2001 Kemira Agro tested aerial photos (false colour images) as an information source in estimating crop biomass and leaf greenness in Finland. Approximately 150 farms were included in the study. Images on test fields were taken twice during the season. Simultaneously real crop samples were taken to estimate the crop growth and grain quality formation potential. The field measurements and image data were linked using DGPS positioning.

The images were taken at the height of about 1km, with a single image covering an area of approximately 170ha. The film used was Kodak Aerochrome II Infrared Film 2443. Wavelengths below 525nm were filtered out. The film was processed and scanned to a 0.5m resolution in the laboratory. Aerial surveys were planned and conducted by the National Land Survey of Finland.

The field boundaries used in rectifying the images were obtained from the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The rectification was conducted using ERMapper software (Earth Resources Mapping Pty Ltd.). The reflectance data on each test field was extracted and used in calculations, by utilising Kemira Lorisä (LOcal Resource Information System) software. The reflectance data contained raw digital counts for blue, green and red in each pixel, ranging from 0-255. The process for monitoring the field and calculations for creating maps and solutions are described in Figure 1.

The study showed that it is possible to develop a service that provides a flexible concept for farmers to utilise precision farming techniques, by monitoring fields with aerial images (cf. the relationship between the observed and estimated crop samples in Figure 2). The concept offers the farmer a management tool for sampling his fields with more targeted soil samples, providing more cost-efficient and controlled fertilisation and crop protection measurements, and optimising the harvesting quality of the crop for better pricing.

Figure 2. The relationship between observed crop dry weight and relative value of red.

For further information, please contact 
Jari Peltonen, Group leader;  Agronomy ; Espoo Research Centre
tel: + 358 10 862 2449 or + 358 50 337 4438 or e-mail jari.peltonen@kemira.com

Jouko Kleemola, Senior Scientist, Espoo Research Centre
tel: + 358 10 862 2390 or + 358 50 351 3954  or e.mail jouko.kleemola@kemira.com

Murnakutka and Tervalohi fascinated
00.45am

How to eat Murnakutka and how to dance Tervalohi? Or was it vice verca? Murnakutka danced so that the sweat was flying and the floor  was tramping. And tervalohi, blackened salmon, was the absolute favourite of Renske Sculting from The Netherlands.

But who said agricultural journalists can’t dance. Look at the photos. Spain and Flamenco, just wait for us!

The man and the forest
00.15am

Floating men are Finnish cowboys and old floating films are our westerns. Finland´s black gold, tar, is now turned to green and even Nokia has it’s roots deep in the forest.  

These things we learned in Lusto, Finland’s national forest museum and an exhibition and activity centre. Lusto showed us the interaction between mankind and forest. Located in a most famous and beautiful national landscape of Punkaharju, Lusto was just the right place to be visited on a rainy Sunday.

-         This is like travelling around the world in three days, said Eeva Virekoski while starting the short tour in Lusto-museum.

We got some titbits of Finnish forest culture. First one was Kippis – the spirit pan, a piece of Finnish history, when spirits were forbidden and one had to make booze in the forest.

We got to know, that after second world war Finland had 300 000 men and 80 000 horses working in the forest and now only 3500 men and several machines.

The quick world tour ended in the room of Silence, which attracted 2,5 million people in the World Exhibition in Hannover last year. Sitting down in a room where you heard only the birds and fishes and saw an autumnal forest lake landscape took us to a totally different world, but for us Finns so very familiar.

Of Finnish forests two thirds are owned by private people and parents want to leave the forest to their children. – That’s the special thing of Finnish forests and the basic of sustainable forestry, told Eeva Virekoski. – We have also everyman’s right so that anyone can go to the forest to pick up berries or for a walk or ski. So welcome to Finnish forest whenever you like!

LUSTO = annual ring  

Text: Riitta Mustonen

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