Our next Precision Pays Profile calls Indiana home, where he operates Tom Farms with his family. Tom Farms consists of 16,000 acres of seed corn, corn and soybeans. Cindy met up with Kip Tom, during the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Trade Talk and he shared his love for agriculture and all the new gadgets that make farming easier and more efficient.

Kip is also one of Ag Connect’s Masters and Mavericks who has embraced the emerging trends set before him and is eager to share how agriculture can move forward and continue to feed the world.

“We didn’t have precision farming to what we have today. I’d put it this way, I think even my grandfather and great-grandfather probably had some form of precision farming on their 80 acres they operated. Today, it’s much different. What’s really interesting is over the past 20 years precision technology has been at the farm gate.”

“Today, I’m really excited because I look at it this way, we are at the convergence of innovation. We’ve got biotechnology, we’ve got informatics and then we’ve got the ability to remotely or mechanically control how we put those three things together. It’s another lever we can pull now to improve yields.”

Kip made it clear that the most significant thing in terms of precision agriculture that increases yields on his farm, decreases his carbon footprint and increases his bottom line was biotechnology and seed genetics. In the struggle to continue to feed the world Kip also reminds us that failure is not an option. He insists that biotechnology, the ability to run our farms like a business while making good decisions and improving yields is something that should be the center of everyones operation.

Listen to Cindy’s complete interview with Tom here: Kip Tom

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album

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Meet another one of our farmers working hard to take advantage of new technologies to make feeding the world just a little bit easier. Martin Barbre farms with his son in a partnership raising corn, soybeans and wheat. He calls southeastern Illinois home and has farmed there since he was 19 years old.

Cindy talked with him during the National Association of Farm Broadcastings’s Trade Talk. He explained how grid sampling was his farms first step into using precision agriculture allowing them to apply fertilizer according to need.

What has changed over the years?

“When I started we were sitting on an open tractor, breathing the dust, listening to the noisy muffler. I am lucky I didn’t get 40/20 hearing, for some reason my hearing is still good. But it has changed so much, we have adopted new tillage practices, we no-till quite a bit more, saving soil and conserving our resources. The technology has changed a lot. The seed technology has just been great, not only the technology but the genetics have changed. We use yield mapping, grid soil sampling and try to maximize the most out of every arce. That’s our goal.”

What do you see in the future of precision agriculture?

“I think just further enhancements of what we are doing now. More precise, better tools then what we started with. Now we just need them to be precise and we are looking forward to that.”

Martin also shared his excitement for the iPad. He said sometimes on the farm the smartphone is just not big enough and the computer is simply too big. But the iPad he uses is just right.

Listen to Cindy’s complete interview with Martin here: Martin Barbre

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album

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