Technology plays big role in farming

Technology has taken on an important role in the lives of farmers in today’s world.

Precision agriculture uses GPS to navigate equipment through fields. Some precision ag systems can get passes to within a few inches.

“Precision agriculture is primarily about maximizing efficiency,” said Wilhelm Orten, Precision Farming Specialist at Yost Farm Supply in St. Francis, Kansas. “Whether it’s time, fuel or other kinds of inputs in farming.”

John Deere’s precision ag systems can offer farmers real-time assistance.

“We can get alerts from a customer’s equipment if, for example, they have a plugged air filter,” said Larry Talbott, general manager at 21st Century Equipment in Imperial.

“We can pinpoint the location of the equipment,” he added. Through a remote-display access, technicians at 21st Century in Imperial can see the monitors the farmer sees in the equipment.

“If there’s an update to help a situation, (technicians) can push that software remotely to that customer,” Talbott said. “It’s pretty cool stuff.”

But the idea of guided farming isn’t new.

“It has been under development since the 1920s when primitive mechanical systems were installed to steer tractors along a desired track,” said Viacheslav Adamchuk, a precision ag engineer from  the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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