Had the pleasure this week of talking to a great guy, George Ropp of RCMS Consulting, who is 74 years young and still helping farmers—use computer software, no less. Ropp, of Van Wert, Ohio, decided to get into GPS work after retiring from the county extension service in the early 1990s. “I started grid soil sampling fields for the local … Read More
Raven Slingshot Expands Connectivity and Software Integration
Bridging the connectivity between in-field data collection and existing office software has just become more simple with Raven’s Slingshot API. Building upon the Slingshot suite of wireless products and services, including RTK correction, data transfer, remote support, high speed internet access and more, the Slingshot API is designed to bridge the information gap between activity in the field and existing … Read More
The Year in Precision Farming – 2010 Recap
This past week, I caught up with Matt Darr, Iowa State University ag engineer and precision farming guru, to chat with him about this past year in precision agriculture. “We’ve said for a few years now that ‘accuracy is addictive.’ Well farmers are proving that as this has been a year driven by higher precision—a move to more RTK accuracy.” … Read More
Powerful Software and Good Data Drives Better Decisions
What if you had good solid data that could be correlated and optimized for fertility, seeding rate, hybrid/variety type, and crop inputs—all by different management zones—for every field you farm? To that end, I spoke today with John McGuire, owner and tech guru of Simplified Technology Services in Montpelier, Oh., who is helping growers in northwest Ohio figure out their … Read More
USDA Data Collection Goes Hi Tech
Straight from the USDA Blog we find out that the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will begin using iPads to collect data in 2011. They have already been testing them in the field, as NASS interviewer Don Phillips is pictured here using an iPad for data collection for the September Agricultural Survey. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), will take … Read More