In this edition of the Precision.AgWired.com Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we hear from three real farmers who have implemented precision agriculture techniques and equipment.

During the recent AGCONNECT Expo in Atlanta, farmers Doug Applegate, Bill Darrington and William Masteller talked about how each of them got involved in precision agriculture and why it is so important to them. Their comments came during the Successful Farming Innovations session entitled “Vision for 2020: Does Precision Farming Pay?”

Applegate, who farms near Oakland, Iowa, was a fairly early adopter of precision agriculture, putting the technology to work for him in 1996.

“It gave us a tool to keep track of where everything was planted, compare yields. Variety selection is very big on helping the cost effectiveness of using this equipment. That was our original payoff,” says Applegate.

Darrington, who didn’t come to the precision ag game until 2006, says he was waiting for the right system to come along that would help him farm the hilly terrain of Western Iowa.

“We end up with a lot of overlaps. You all know what it’s like when you’re planting 34,000 seeds, and you double that, you don’t have much yield in those areas.” Darrington says precision ag helps him prevent those types of duplications in seeding and fertilizing that don’t really help the overall yields.

South Dakota farmer Bill Masteller told the group that precision agriculture was a business decision for him to get the most out of his 1,500 acres of wheat, corn and soybeans.

“Farming is a business, of course. And they don’t exactly give land away or make more of it. So, since I have such a limited amount to work with, I have to be efficient as possible.”

All three farmers agree that good technical support is extremely valuable for them to get the most out of their precision agriculture operations.

You can hear more of what the three had to say in this edition of the Precision.AgWired.com Podcast in the player below below. [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/precision/precision-podcast-17.mp3″ text=”Precision.AgWired.com Podcast”]

You can subscribe to the Precision.AgWired.com Podcast here.