It’s kind of redundant these days to say “precision farming” since the vast majority of farmers now have adopted some type of precision technology on their operations. But GROWMARK and FS Services have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to new technology and bringing their customers what’s next.

“We really started in the precision emphasis back in the 1990s…so our companies have really been involved for over 20 years now,” said GROWMARK Agronomy Information Services Manager Sid Parks. He says they use On Farm Discovery to evaluate the latest products, technology and management techniques to learn what works and what doesn’t.

One of the newest areas for evaluation is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or drones and how they might benefit farming operations. “We have a couple different versions of UAVs that we’re out testing and trying to evaluate potential applications,” said Parks. “Getting it up in the air and flying it is the easy part, it’s getting the information back and turning it around into some sort of a decision-making process.”

Parks will be attending the upcoming InfoAg Conference in St. Louis along with several FS member company representatives to take a look at what is coming down the pipeline. “We’re there to meet with potential vendors and customers and understand some of the presentations that will be going on,” said Parks. “We will use that conference as a way to glean through some of the offerings that might be out there and if there is a fit maybe we can incorporate that into our product offerings as well.”

Listen to my interview with Sid here – and be sure to check out our coverage of the InfoAg Conference July 28-30, sponsored in part by GROWMARK. [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/growmark-july15-parks.mp3″ text=”Interview with Sid Parks, GROWMARK”]