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Precision palliates pain points

Lynn Grooms
Jul 5, 2023
Jul 5, 2023

1 of 3

Auto-steer and global-positioning-system guidance demonstrate their value as evidenced by their adoption rate in the past two decades. The technologies are currently used on more than 50 percent of U.S. land planted to corn, soybeans and other crops, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

Contributed

Guidance systems enable Tim Maloney to operate equipment in daylight and in dark. 'With both tilling and harvesting there are efficiencies of reducing overlap and making fewer trips through the field,' he says.

Contributed

'(Precision-agriculture technologies) all have their place; it's just a question of whether the return is big enough,' says Jake Engelke, who farms several-hundred acres near Platteville, Wisconsin.

Lynn Grooms/Agri-View

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Lynn Grooms

The adoption of precision-agriculture technologies is tied to how well those technologies eliminate farmer pain points. And those technologies must first overcome farmer skepticism. That skepticism is addressed through demonstration of real or perceived value, says Randy Taylor, an Oklahoma State University-Extension agricultural engineer.

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Lynn Grooms writes about the diversity of agriculture, including the industry’s newest ideas, research and technologies as a staff reporter for Agri-View based in Wisconsin.

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Adoption of auto-steer and guidance systems, 2001-2019

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