Technology - General
Sarah Beth Aubrey explores the advantages and disadvantages of early adoption in the ag industry.
“We are talking about fuel produced in 2025, but that is going to use the crop we are growing this year,” Mitchell Hora says.
“We are really in a second phase of ag tech,” says Ryan Raguse, co-founder of Bushel. “We aren’t in an overly mature state—we’re still somewhere in the middle ground.”
As we near the finish line (but not the end of our journey) we revist five of your favorite Smart Farming Week stories.
Take a reasoned, purposeful, and proactive approach to adding new technology.
There has been a recent wave of connectivity and guidance products released for farm machinery. Here are a handful of considerations to keep in mind before buying into a system for your fleet.
Yield Optimizer is a digital tool that uses independent seed trial data to help farmers make seed selections with guaranteed yield performance. CEO Billy Rose tells how it gives farmers peace of mind.
When deciding what technology serves your goals, and to get the most bang for your buck, determine if you need to grow business revenue, increase productivity, reduce costs and/or stabilize daily operation.
In a year with razor-thin margins, at best, corn and soybean growers can use a variety of new technology and tried-and-true agronomic tools to score higher yields this season.
In the West, automation is geared toward smaller, driverless equipment. In the Midwest, major manufacturers have introduced their largest horsepower combines and tractors yet, all with autonomous capabilities.
Minor space weather events have temporarily knocked out corrections signals over Canada and The Dakotas in the past. Would your farm be ready for a more severe outage?
The 2024 AgLaunch startups bravely pitched straight to the farmer masses at the event. While truly an impressive class, only one would be chosen for the coveted top honor.
Planter technology once focused on acres per day, but plant spacing and uniformity have moved to the forefront and there’s been an explosion of technology to help manage the furrow. Smart investments will maximize corn yield on every soil type.
“It’s in these challenging markets farmers need to think about driving more efficiency using technology,” says Darryl Matthews, a recently retired tech executive. Certain technologies can provide a short-term ROI.
“Smart farming means making your life more efficient, so you don’t have to focus on the mundane but instead on making the best product possible,” says Nebraska farmer Lukas Fricke. “We only have so many hours in a day.”
Biome Makers said it pairs artificial intelligence with its soil database to decode soil biology and provide growers with more actionable information.
Steve Cubbage provides insights on the five areas expected to have the biggest impact on agriculture this year.
Through the Frontier Fields program, a select group of farmers will document their experiences with a biological product over the course of a year.
Four-dollar corn dominated discussions, but farmers remain open to new innovations and machinery as spring planting and the promise of a new production season beckons.
The startups will be featured in a pitch event at Farm Journal’s Top Producer Summit Feb. 5-7 in Kansas City
Nitricity is on a quest to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions via its innovative natural liquid fertilizer manufacturing process. The technology represents a major disruption to the global fertilizer market.
Deere drew them in with practical yet cutting edge displays – like an iPhone controlled 8R tractor running field tillage – driving the conversation forward with a fun spin on its tech stack and cotton production.
A farm kid from Kansas is bringing a new robotic weeding concept to market and he’s got big dreams for the future of crop protection.
ISO outlines the transformative potential of smart farming in addressing the complex challenges that our world faces today.
Farm Journal’s machinery and technology editor was on the ground in Louisville last week. Here’s a handful of the trends we saw down in Bourbon Country.
“Our mission is to improve and expand our program to create additional opportunities for even more American farmers,” said Leonardo Bastos, Senior Vice President of Ecosystem Services at Bayer Crop Science.
This is a new seed lubricity agent applied at plant as a talc/graphite replacement which also provides a micronutrient package (5% phosphate, 1% iron, 3% mnagenses, 2.5% molybendum, 10.5% zinc.)
The electric economy is ready to roll into town this decade as battery technology improves, renewable power generation expands and automakers buy in to a future powered by something other than gasoline and diesel.
Here are some tips to help you translate your data into higher yield and ROI.
Grain bins are some of the most valuable tools on the farm. While the traditional design hasn’t changed that much, the technology in and around the bin continues to evolve.