What will agronomy look like five or ten years from now? Will drones and automation have replaced agronomists and field walks? There’s no denying that technology definitely plays a larger role in his job than it used to, says Shane Thomas, agronomist with Yara Canada. From field mapping software, to variable rate capabilities, NDVI readings,… Read More
Farmers who use Trimble have a new option to connect their farm. The company announced its new entry-level software dubbed Farmer Core, which enables farmers to connect to all aspects of the farm operation by computer or phone. The program uses the company’s new AutoSync that automatically syncs guidance lines, field names, boundaries, landmarks, and… Read More
The province of Saskatchewan is looking for creative ways to connect a regular Joe (or Jane) to a land owner to get permission to access land. While attending and speaking at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention, Premier Scott Moe announced this Innovation Challenge. The challenge comes after changes to The Trespass to… Read More
CNH Industrial has started to produce and test 3D printed spare parts in a move to add sustainability and efficiency to the parts process, the company says. The company is piloting the process with four parts for buses and agricultural machinery. The parts were created by additive manufacturing. The process builds the part using layers of… Read More
What is something you don’t know about your farm right now that you’d like to know? Is there technology out there to solve a particular problem you have? When it comes to navigating the very noisy space that is farm technology, Rob Saik, agrologist and agriculture technology leader, says these questions are a good place… Read More
Producers’ growing frustration over giving away valuable electronic production data has led a Guelph-based company to try to stop the bleeding with a new technology called mPowered. The technology is a blockchain-driven platform that lead developer Joel Sotomayor says will let farmers put crop, livestock, and environmental data in what he calls an “online vault”… Read More
The news Precision ag company Farmers Edge and ag retail and grain handling company Richardson Pioneer Limited have announced a multi-year partnership that will “distribute digital precision technology to growers served by over 90 retail locations across Western Canada.” The two Manitoba-based companies will “work together to deliver state-of-the-art digital agriculture products for retail and… Read More
When we think about cyber hacking, things like election tampering or credit card theft likely come to mind. A recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security report, however, focused on the very real threat of breaches and hacking of precision agriculture data. As tough as it has been for some to even conceptualize what data being… Read More
Many situations have two scenarios: one where a problem is looking for a technology, or the other where technology exists and is looking for a problem to solve. In the case of farming, often it’s the problem that comes first, but when it comes to autonomy, the technology has been leaps and bounds ahead of… Read More
More Canadian farmers believe that the need for improved profitability will prompt them to use field data management software in the future — and nearly one-quarter of non-users and current users say they are likely to adopt new software in the next three years. These are among the findings from Stratus Ag Research, in its… Read More
It only makes sense to apply fertilizer where it’s needed, and only where it’s needed. For a long time, agricultural machinery and technology companies have focused on achieving this goal, including German company Fritzmeier Umwelttechnik. The company’s technology, called the ISARIA Crop Sensor, uses four different wavelengths delivered with LEDs and up to 2000 measurement values per… Read More
Players are going to start dropping out of the race to be the dominant farm data platform sooner than later, says a cropping systems economist who focuses on farm data analytics at Kansas State University. Right now there are still dozens, maybe hundreds, of participants, with agronomy companies, equipment manufacturers, seed and chemical companies, tech… Read More
For some, technology like autonomous tractors and unmanned aerial vehicles offer great interest; for others, the quick advancements in robotics and data are overwhelming and intimidating. Will we soon see job losses? Will human presence on farms be made obsolete? Not at all, says Christine Su, co-founder and CEO of PastureMap, a company that makes… Read More
A new software platform from Valley Agricultural Software (VAS) gives dairy producers real-time access to critical data and reporting from anywhere with an internet or cellular connection. The California-based software company unveiled its new VAS Platform at the recent World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. In this video, senior software developer James Moger explains that… Read More
Farmers invest a lot to produce a crop, from before the seed hits the ground through to the harvest. With all the investment and technology that goes into producing a crop, why stop short when the grain hits the bin? Some of the most successful farmers are using technology to ensure they have the information they… Read More