The Iowa Power Farming Show kicked off in Des Moines today and Ag Leader Technology launched some new precision ag products just in time to show them off for the thousands of growers on site. One new product is the updated Mesa Rugged Notepad with the SMS Mobile software package. The Mesa Rugged Notepad is a handheld device that is … Read More
Strawberry Picking Future Could Be Robotic
Strawberry harvesting is a one of the most labor-intensive agricultural operations since it generally has to be done by hand to do it right. The berries ripen at different rates and they are very fragile, so mechanization in the field has been very limited. But, leave it to the Japanese to come up with a robot that might be able … Read More
Wireless on the Farm
Wireless on the farm can help produce better crops, net more money for growers and land a superior product in stores for consumers, according to studies by Texas AgriLife Research scientists. “We’re working on a system that uses wireless sensing in rice production,” said Dr. Lee Tarpley, AgriLife Research plant physiologist in Beaumont. “We’d like to be able to continuously … Read More
Real Precision Soil Mapping in a Vineyard
Fascinating video of how one Sonoma County, California vineyard, Jordan Winery, is finding the best grape characteristics in various field locations, digging soil pits and analyzing soil attributes and characteristics in order to bring that location’s success to the whole field. Talk about precision agriculture! Take a look. And here’s a blog post about the soil mapping study.
Precision Planting Pays
“Precision Planting’s business is trying to make sure seeds get into the right space at the right distance and seeds only land where they need to land,” Precision Planting’s Jason Larkin explained to me during the Farm Progress Show. We use precision technology to know where the tractor is at and where the plant is at to control population, so … Read More
Big Bud – The World’s Largest Tractor
Big Bud is the world’s largest tractor so the Farm Progress Show is one of the best places to put this piece of history on display. Big Bud is so big that I couldn’t fit the tractor in one picture. I mean Big Bud is BIG. It was built in 1977 in Montana by Ron Harmonn and his crew for … Read More
A Demo of Ag Leader’s SMS Technology
Ag Leader is known for their precision farming technologies and this year during the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, farmers were gathered around to check out their latest and greatest offerings. Ag Leader’s SMS Technologies are a big hit so I spent some time with Lucas James to learn more about how they worked. James first walked me through … Read More
OptRx Improves Nitrogen Efficiency
I’m here in Iowa at the Farm Progress Show. Although there are farmers from all over the world in attendance, farmers in Central Iowa have been struggling with excessive amounts of rain. This causes crops, such as corn, to lose nitrogen, which negatively impacts crop yield. Nitrogen has also become more expensive over the past couple of years so more … Read More
New Holland Puts Your Farm on the Map
Precision is the name of the game when it comes to farming these days. It’s getting hard to find a farmer anymore who doesn’t use auto steer at the very least – and the options to save resources, time and money just keep growing. At the New Holland exhibit at Commodity Classic, I talked to Matt Ahrens about some of … Read More
Opening of the 2010 Commodity Classic
The opening of the trade show is the real “official” start to the Commodity Classic. The exhibit hall is filled with the latest and the greatest technology and machinery for growers of corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum. According to the official attendance figures, there are 4175 attendees at Classic this year, 1338 of them are growers. This is the 15th … Read More