When technology stops working at planting time, tech specialists usually get the full brunt of a farmer's stress. So what's it look like from this side of the fence? Many of the troubleshooting procedures require engineering data that is beyond our field level knowledge. We generally turn to the manufacturer's technical support at this point. Sounds simple enough, right? Well guess what? Because what we do is weather dependent, all farmers are going to the field in generally…

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As the spring planting season draws to a close here, I can't help but be struck by the frantic twists and turns my life has taken over the past couple of weeks. I am sure all jobs have their rough times but I know mine has its predictable two to four weeks of extreme chaos each spring. I have had quite the adventure over the past several weeks for a variety of reasons, but it all began with me leaving for Portugal over the last few days of April and first few days of May. I know…

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I was lucky enough to spend the last several days touring Portugal and assessing where they stand on technology and precision agriculture. It was quickly apparent that precision technology has not impacted their market like it has in most of the U.S. That is not to say they are not using the latest in ag techniques. They are very interested in pursuing the best agronomic management practices. This was obvious in the number of center pivot irrigation systems I observed. In addition, our host…

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I recently received an email from a crop consultant friend of mine who stated that he was seeing "seed companies pushing VRT seeding and N…and they have no basis to do so, just because it links the customer to them." The practices he is referring to fall into the category that I talked about a few months back -- variable rate, because you can. To make matters worse, it is also variable rate for the sake of selling a product, and that makes it doubly dangerous. It is…

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Almost without fail at each of the meetings I attended this winter there was at least the mention of data management.  Data management has become the new buzz word in our industry.  We have companies and individuals who are aggressively pursuing strategies to collect data from our field operations.  The problem I see in many of these strategies is that there is a predominant focus on collection with very little thought given to the utilization of the data. I think most…

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Let's think like a conspiracy theorist for a minute.  What if my manufacturer were able to use the GPS on my truck to tie my travels to the roads on which I drive?  From this information they would be able to come up with the number of miles I drive on township, county, state and federal roads.  The company could then go to the appropriate government entity and, for a fee, report my usage to them. The government entity could then tax me based on usage.  All this could…

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Just a few short months ago I never gave my data a second thought.  I mean really, what could I have that someone else would really be interested in? I am generally not a very interesting person and I do not do things that are extraordinary. My daily tasks are not that exciting. Even so, you and I have patterns we follow and things we do that generate data.  There are companies out there that invest huge sums of money to learn your patterns and collect your data. In…

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I was speaking at a meeting in Central Illinois before Christmas.  My presentation included using data to make agronomic management decisions.  In the talk I mentioned that accurate data is absolutely imperative to making good decisions.  I described the example where I think of the business of precision agriculture like an inverted pyramid.  The point of the pyramid is the grower and the data they produce.  If they do not do a good job of collecting data, the rest…

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Speaking this week throughout Illinois, we have been discussing the phenomena of "variable rate because you can."  What is "variable rate because you can"?  I explain it by asking audiences what they think of when they hear the term "precision ag." Almost always the answer I hear has something to do with hardware, such as autosteer or yield monitoring.  I think of this as the hardware mentality and we all fall into the trap of thinking…

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I know you are probably worn out from long hours in the field during the fall harvest and post harvest activities, but don't forget a very important task that is left. Make sure to spend some time looking at your fall collected data. I have had several growers question me about using the data they have from this fall due to the extreme dry conditions of the growing season. They are unsure if there is any value in the harvest data. In my opinion we have as much to learn as ever from this…

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