Precision Pays

Because of the advancements in technology, the agriculture industry has come a long way from where we started.  The aerial application business is no exception.  In this Precision Pays Podcast, brought to you by Ag Leader Technology,  we examine how aerial application has become more accurate and more efficient.

Things have changed a lot since Agriflite Services president David Eby began flying.  Gone are the days of counting paces to measure fields and using telephone poles as markers.  Today’s aerial applicator’s can come within six inches of their target.

All thanks to GPS satellite technology.

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In 2010 US crop growers lost $20 billion to insect damage and spent $4.5 billion on insecticide.  In this Precision Pays Podcast, brought to you by Ag Leader Technology, we take a closer look at a new way to monitor insect pressure in your field.

Johnny Park, president and CEO of Spensa and a Purdue research assistant in electrical and computer engineer has created an easier, more efficient way for producers to monitor insect data collected from fields.  This month, Park launched MyTraps.com.

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You can learn more at www.MyTraps.com.

When you think of technology, tires aren’t exactly the first thing that come to mind.   In this Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology we examine how the world of implement tires is changing and how Titan Tires is helping producers become more efficient in their operations.  Brent Murray is a sales rep for Titan Tires and he says stubble damage is a problem that farmers deal with on a regular basis.  Today, we find out what the tire industry is doing to help producers overcome this challenge in the field.

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

Precision Planting of Tremont, Illinois recently launched a new iPad monitoring application for use in production agriculture. 

It’s called “FieldView”, their latest addition to the 20/20 Seed Sense system for planter management.  Sean Arians, education coordinator with Precision Planting, says the application puts the iPad to good use in the cab of the tractor. “Rather than just playing games like Angry Birds on it, now you have the capability to have cellular data available in the tractor,” Sean says, noting that as we look towards sharing and managing data, this can provide the ability to transfer software updates and information from maps into the cap and up to a server where it can later be accessed by a computer in the home or office.

Find out more about “Field View” in this report: Sean Arians on FieldView

MyWay RTK was launched in the Fall of 2010.  It’s a new RTK system engineered for the specific needs of agriculture – and designed so farmers can work with those most important in making their operation successful.   In this Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology we take a closer look at a technology neutral solution to help farmers receive their RTK corrections over the internet.  Sid Parks, is the precision agriculture manager for Growmark.  He says neither he nor Growmark has any ownership in MyWay RTK – they just think it’s a “good thing”. 

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Holiday season is rapidly approaching with just a few short weeks from Thanksgiving and only 55 days until Christmas.  We oftentimes forget about what it takes to get the food to our table.  In this Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology we sit down with Trenton Beemis, a Wisconsin cranberry farmer and recently the National FFA Organizations Proficiency Award winner in Fruit Production to examine just how that beautiful red fruit makes it from the bogs in Wisconsin (or any of the other bogs in the United States) to your holiday dinner table.

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

How can we keep up with the technological advancements growers face in the field?  In this Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology we sit down with Katie Dierker, Division Marketing Manager with John Deere and find out what John Deere is doing to meet the increased demands of growers in the field.

This summer, John Deere had its biggest John Deere New Product Launch in its history.  One of their goals is to keep growers on the go in the field.  Dierker says they focused a lot on the front in of the combine.

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

There are Android and iPhone apps for just about everything.  My friend, Jason Webster runs the Practical Farm Research for Beck‘s Hybrids in Downs, Ill.  In addition he farms, too.  Jason fully admits he doesn’t always practice what he used to preach about scouting fields during the growing season.  Because of that – he’s gone to a more sophisticated form of scouting.  One that he utilizes and with full conviction can explain to farmers why they should make the leap to incorporate that technology into their farming operations, too. 

In this month’s Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, Jason explains the future of finding problems in our fields. 

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here. The Precision Pays Podcast is sponsored by Ag Leader Technology.

I love my TomTom.  I really am not sure what I would do without it.  I come from a small town in Central Illinois and I recently made a career move that took me to Indianapolis.  Tom is the best co-pilot a girl from small town USA that moved to the big city could hope to find.  He takes me turn by turn to my destination, coaxes me through wrong turns and rarely is he incorrect.  At this point, I can’t imagine my life without “him“. 

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we explore GPS technology.  If you’re like me – and rely on your GPS just to navigate the roadways – imagine how heavily some industries (like agriculture, airlines, railways and even the New York City Fire Department) rely on the accuracy and efficacy of GPS in their daily operations.  What would happen if we lost the ability to use it?  This month we sat down with Sid Parks, Manager of Precision Farming with GROWMARK, and learned about the Coalition to Save Our GPS, how we could potentially lose it and why this is something for us to monitor.

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here. The Precision Pays Podcast is sponsored by Ag Leader Technology.

What problem cost growers the most during planting season?  In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we’ll look at some of the challenges growers have faced this spring after Mother Nature’s temper tantrum and how the technological advancements in modern agriculture can benefit them.

I sat down with Sean Arians, Education Coordinator for Precision Planting, a company based in Tremont, Ill, about the wide variety of tools available to growers today.  One of the great things about today’s farming practices is the availability of these technologies.  Today’s technologies aren’t just for the big guys anymore.  Farmers can now choose their level of investment and can see their return on investment in a shorter period of time.

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we’ll look at how some farmers are using their online time and the social media tools they’re using to make important purchases.

A recent survey by AgHaven showed that more farmers are spending more time online but are sometimes frustrated with the results. AgHaven President, Srik Soogoor says they’ve developed a website to help those producers who work on multi platforms. Soogoor says since they’re using these smart phones and iPads, farmers want access all the time.

Meanwhile, Paulsen Marketing looked at how people in rural areas were using the online community. Paulsen’s Alicia DeGeest says their white paper, entitled “Rural Lifestylers are Changing the Way They Research and Buy Products,” delved into what people in these areas were doing. She and her Paulsen colleague Sara Steever found that people identifying with the rural lifestyle were adopting new, online technologies at about the same rate as their non-rural counterparts. DeGeest says these rural consumers used online feedback to influence their buying decisions and even employed their connectivity right in the stores to help them decide what to purchase.

It’s a fascinating conversation, and you can hear more of it in the player below: Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we hear about a new app that can help producers more precisely mix crop protection products.

Precision Laboratories, an agricultural chemical company, has developed, Mix Tank, an iPhone-based app that allows you to save custom tank mixes and share them via email, Twitter and Facebook.

You can hear more about how Precision Labs developed and continue to work on Mix Tank from the company’s Vice President Jim Reiss and Marketing Director Daniel Ori in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

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You can find out more about Mix Tank through the Precision Laboratories website.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we hear from a panel that discussed how to maximize yields using precision ag techniques. David Waits, President and CEO, SST Software, was joined by Terry Griffin, Professor of Production Economics and Row-Crop Farm Management at the University of Arkansas and Bruce Erickson, Director of Cropping Systems Management at Purdue University at the recent GROWMARK FS GreenPlan Maximizing Yields seminar.

Waits says the biggest issue is the standardization of data.

“Until we do that, we’re all on a different basis, and we’re going to have trouble bringing very much of it together.”

Erickson, says precision agriculture is much different than when it started in the mid-1990s, with the biggest jump in technology in the guidance field. In fact, he says precision is really now the conventional way of farming.

“I can’t think of a full-time, commercial farmer who I work with right now who doesn’t use some type of precision farming.”

He adds that most of the benefit from precision ag has been in the form of lowering input costs and maximizing yields. But Griffin says we’re also seeing a benefit to farmers’ and their families’ overall qualities of life.

“Even if we ignore the economics, people are happier.” He says less stress and less fatigue that precision agriculture helps bring to the table are making real differences in people’s lives.

You can hear more of what the three had to say in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we hear from three real farmers who have implemented precision agriculture techniques and equipment.

During the recent AGCONNECT Expo in Atlanta, farmers Doug Applegate, Bill Darrington and William Masteller talked about how each of them got involved in precision agriculture and why it is so important to them. Their comments came during the Successful Farming Innovations session entitled “Vision for 2020: Does Precision Farming Pay?”

Applegate, who farms near Oakland, Iowa, was a fairly early adopter of precision agriculture, putting the technology to work for him in 1996.

“It gave us a tool to keep track of where everything was planted, compare yields. Variety selection is very big on helping the cost effectiveness of using this equipment. That was our original payoff,” says Applegate.

Darrington, who didn’t come to the precision ag game until 2006, says he was waiting for the right system to come along that would help him farm the hilly terrain of Western Iowa.

“We end up with a lot of overlaps. You all know what it’s like when you’re planting 34,000 seeds, and you double that, you don’t have much yield in those areas.” Darrington says precision ag helps him prevent those types of duplications in seeding and fertilizing that don’t really help the overall yields.

South Dakota farmer Bill Masteller told the group that precision agriculture was a business decision for him to get the most out of his 1,500 acres of wheat, corn and soybeans.

“Farming is a business, of course. And they don’t exactly give land away or make more of it. So, since I have such a limited amount to work with, I have to be efficient as possible.”

All three farmers agree that good technical support is extremely valuable for them to get the most out of their precision agriculture operations.

You can hear more of what the three had to say in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.

In this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology, we talk to this podcast’s sponsor, Ag Leader and review what the company did in 2010 and what’s to come in 2011.

Ag Leader’s marketing manager Dave King says 2010 was a busy year for his company with the introduction of lots of new products, including the Integra displays, the ParaDyme and OnTrac2 steering systems, the OptRx crop sensor system, and the SMS software line.

While new gadgets and software are good, King says Ag Leader has not forgotten that customer service is key. That’s why they have the Blue Delta dealer program.

And coming in 2011, King says we’ll see improvements to the Integra display systems and expansions of the dealer and customer training programs, as well as some new features for Ag Leader’s SeedCommand and DirectCommand product lines and the expansion of the OptRx line for wheat growers.

He says if you’d like to find out more, just check out the company’s website, www.AgLeader.com, or go see a dealer in person or at one of the many farm trade shows Ag Leader will be attending in the coming year. A complete list of shows and dates is available on the Ag Leader website.

You can hear more about what Ag Leader did in the past year and what the company will be offering in 2011 in this edition of the Precision Pays Podcast in the player below below. Precision Pays Podcast

You can subscribe to the Precision Pays Podcast here.