You don’t usually think of precision agriculture when it comes to the dairy industry. However, I heard it this morning in a press conference for GEA Farm Technologies at the World Dairy Expo. So I asked their CEO and President, Vern Foster, what he meant by it. Basically, he says that agriculture is changing and even in a dairy there’s a growing need for owner/operators to get online and see what’s happening in a milking parlor when they’re not there and to do more precise measuring.

You can listen to his answer here: [audio:http://zimmcomm.biz/wdexpo/wdx-08-foster-precision.mp3]

I was attending their press conference because the company we’ve known as WestfaliaSurge is now part of a new brand, GEA Farm Technologies. As Foster explains, “It’s to pull all of the organizations that are part of GEA Farm Technologies, Houle, Norbco, WestfaliaSurge, pull it under a common brand so it makes sense for the marketplace, makes sense for our investors, makes sense for our customers and our dealer distribution.” The GEA stands for Global Engineering Alliance, a 5.3 billion Euro company that operates in 50 countries. Vern says, “It helps us really re-focus under one umbrella as we continue to grow and create additional organizations and innovate into the field of agriculture.”