Come August, John Deere Ag Management Solutions (AMS) and Raven plan to combine technologies and offer a broader suite of precision application control solutions to growers. “We’re targeting this August to combine technologies from John Deere and Raven. We’ll be able to offer an expanded line of universal solutions to customers through our John Deere dealer network,” says Nick Block, … Read More
International Ag Shows Announce Alliance
The organizers of two international agricultural shows have announced a formal alliance to coordinate show dates that will allow agriculture producers to attend a major international agriculture trade show each year. The alliance is between DLG (German Agricultural Society), the organizer of the world’s largest agriculture machinery show Agritechnica, and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), organizer of the new … Read More
Precision Pasture Grazing With Sensors
Taking 200 grass measurements per second, the Rapid Pasture Meter from C-Dax Systems in New Zealand helps dairy and intensive grazing operations ensure optimum grazing conditions. The concept came from the New Zealand Center for Precision Agriculture at Massey University, which continues to provide input into the ongoing development of the technology. Farmworks develops the accompanying PDA and desktop software. The … Read More
Target Pests With Precision Ag Technologies
Maximizing economic return is the payoff sought by growers with any precision farming technology. And a new story in Southeast Farm Press talks about how the Precision Farming team at the University of Georgia is using soil texture to target nematodes. With precision agriculture, we try to refine things in order to achieve the goal of maximizing returns,” says Richard Davis, … Read More
Smart Nozzles Aid Precision Application
With planting and spraying season top-o-mind right now, more and more growers are saving money with planter and boom control precision agriculture technology. For growers ready to move up to the next level of precision, check out Harrison Ag Technologies and their Smart Nozzle–which received a FinOvation award for 2009 from Farm Industry News magazine. Using GPS technology for tracking … Read More
Raven adds Planter and Sprayer Control
With one console, farmers can control both planter rows and sprayer boom with Raven’s Cruiser. The company’s SmartRow and SmartBoom precision agriculture technologies will help farmers use GSP to save money on seed and chemicals, while greatly reducing over-application. Raven is excited to introduce SmartRow™ automatic planter control via the same SmartBoom automatic boom control console— that’s two separate section … Read More
Precision Irrigation from Valley
Just as GPS-guided auto steer has helped plant super straight rows, producers can now irrigate in the same straight lines to minimize variances in water application to help maximize yields. Valley Irrigation now offers GPS Guidance for linear irrigation equipment. Here’s what two farmers said about their trials with this new precision agriculture technology. Leonard Water Services, the local Valley … Read More
The Future of Automated Crop Production
An autonomous gardener robot that uses sensors and computers to water, fertilize and harvest fruits and vegetables is under development by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students of computer science and artificial intelligence labs (CSAIL). While the long-term goal of this specific research project is to develop such automation for greenhouses, imagine the uses for monitoring fields of grain. … Read More
Are You Using Your Precision Farming Data?
Remember your first yield monitor, when all you did with it was watch the numbers spin wildly across your fields. Heck, even when one took the next step to map the data, few knew how to use it to make improvements. Using technology to it’s fullest extent takes time, education, practice, and a good advisor. And the technology of precision … Read More
Extreme Precision Application Needed
Precision farming technology that controls sections of your planter, sprayer and fertilizer spreader are key to the “extreme precision” needs of farmers, says Iowa grower Clay Mitchell, as reported recently in Farm Industry News. This young farmer, who avidly practices many forms of precision agriculture and blogs about it at The Mitchell Farm, is not a fan of variable-rate technologies … Read More