The core competence of the department comprises the two areas, system analysis and agricultural technologies, which are partly integrated:
System analysis
Modelling
- Process based modelling: cereal- and forage-systems (yield and quality development, over-wintering, gas-emissions, C- and N-dynamics, pests and diseases, climatic issues, food security).
- Statistical modelling: cross-validation, bootstrap, Monte Carlo, Bayesian calibration.
- “Practical modelling”: Predicting cereal yields, grass herbage yields and quality, fertilization models, early warning models (e.g. diseases, pests)
Production systems (considering both agronomic and environmental issues)
- Dairy and beef production systems
- Whole cropping systems (crop rotations)
Holistic analyses
- Studies on sustainability, life cycle assessment (LCA)
Agricultural technologies
Precision agriculture
- Sensors (including image-building sensors), multiple sensors systems, remote sensing
- Platforms: handheld, mounted on tractor, robots, UAV, air planes, satellites
- Multivariate statistics (PCA, PLS, PPLS, CPPLS)
- GIS
Agricultural engineering
- Auto-steering
- Implement-steering
- Automatization
Robotization
- Agricultural production: Development, adaptation, testing
- Research techniques («scouting», systems for N2O-emissions)
Additionally, the department includes high competence on agronomy, economic statistics and technical equipment for/mechanization of field experiments.