Indiana Prairie Farmer magazine wrote a recent story quoting a Franklin, Ind., precision farming consultant Greg Kneubuhler who says the next hot tool farmers want to invest in is row shut-offs for planters. He says a savings of 5 percent can be achieved, which can deliver a payback in two years. And in some cases, with irregular-shaped fields, payback can … Read More
New TeeJet ISOBUS Sprayer Control
TeeJet now offer two new solutions for ISOBUS sprayer control for owners of factory-installed virtual terminals, or for operators who require a complete system including a virtual terminal. The TeeJet ISOBUS Sprayer System uses a John Deere, CASE IH or AGCO virtual terminal. The kit includes the IC18 ISOBUS Sprayer Electronic Control Unit (ECU), BoomPilot automatic boom section control module, a switch … Read More
The Value of Software Training
Friday, I wrote about how Ag Leader listened to customers of their SMS Advanced software and built a Certified Training program to give participants deeper knowledge that helps their own business. This weekend I spoke with Justin McCuiston, who helps customers of the farmer-owned cooperative Farm Service Inc., in northeast Arkansas with variable-rate fertilizer programs, yield mapping and other precision … Read More
Certified Training For SMS Advanced Software
Superior precision farming software is crucial in order to help growers maximize in-field efficiencies. Ag Leader Technology not only delivers excellent SMS Basic training for growers, it now offers a three-day Certified Training course for its SMS Advanced software users who want to go beyond the one-day training. SMS Advanced software is geared toward crop consultants, agronomists or other co-op … Read More
Time Savings With Precision Farming Equipment
We like to write weekly about how growers and how company technology makes precision agriculture pay. Part of making these tools pay almost always includes time savings—which isn’t always as black and white as input dollars saved. Today I spoke with Hannibal, Mo., grower Mark Lehenbauer about his first decade with precision farming tools on their corn-soybean operation. Mark, who … Read More
Wireless Soil Monitors for Precision Irrigation
Water use efficiency is vital for agriculture as our global population continues to grow. To help growers minimize water use while maintaining crop yields, Cermetek offers the new AquaMon Wireless Soil Monitoring Network. AquaMon allows active monitoring of the soil. Knowledge of soil conditions is essential to achieve high crop yield with less water. Maintaining the optimal level of moisture … Read More
Research: Machine-Vision Guided Cultivation
Machine-vision cultivation is a commercial reality for vegetable growers, but is it improving integrated weed management in these crops? University of California-Davis research results, that appeared recently in Weed Technology, showed machines gained the upper hand over hand-weeding and cultivation of broccoli and lettuce during times of rainy weather. Hand-harvested crops such as broccoli and lettuce are easily threatened by weeds. … Read More
Precision Agriculture Future is Here
Precision farming has come a long way since the military allowed civilian access to the NAVSTAR GPS constellation in 1995. We’ve gone from initial accuracies of tens of meters down to a couple centimeters. And now we’ve got receivers handling multiple satellite constellations, referred to as GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System). Topcon Precision Agriculture’s senior VP Albert Zahalka gave a … Read More
Bread from Precision Agriculture by EarthGrains
Sara Lee is taking a unique approach to market its 100% Natural line of EarthGrain brand bread. They are promoting wheat, known as Eco-Grain, grown by precision farming growers who use variable rate fertilizer driven by satellite imagery. And they’re calling it a movement, “Helping to preserve the earth, one field at a time.” Horizon Milling (a joint venture between … Read More
Benefits of Leasing Precision Farming Equipment
You’ve read, perhaps talked to neighbors, or maybe you’ve learned first hand that many tools of precision agriculture pay for themselves—maybe in one year, maybe three. But perhaps you’re thinking you can’t swing that $5,000 or $15,000 payment right now in order to start saving input costs with this technology. To that end, some companies are making it simple and … Read More