It took the telephone and electricity more than 25 years to achieve 10 percent market penetration in the United States. Smart phones took about four years to go from five percent to 40 percent market penetration of US households.
While it’s difficult to assess adoption of precision agriculture tools and technology, there is evidence we’ve finally entered the “late majority” stage of adoption.
As 2015 appears through our windshield, let’s take a wide-angle at other facts and facets of precision ag progress.
Accuracy is very important to precision agriculture, of course, but I think what it means may be changing. The term once was mostly associated with the precision of your global-positioning, but now it seems to mean more.
A post by James Addicott, a student at the University of Cambridge in the UK, set me to thinking about the implications. In his post, he shared that “according to the UK (United Kingdom) Government and the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 76% of farmers in England want to "improve accuracy" using precision farming techniques, whereas 63% want to "reduce input costs". There is little information other than this.”
Turning on an acre of solar power was cause for celebration at Harborview farms where they are pursuing a goal of powering all their grain-drying with sunshine. Having a “throw the switch” event provided an opportunity to also celebrate agriculture’s sustainability and share it with others through this video news clip.
If you need another example of the stewardship value of precision ag tools and technology just give a glance toward the Lake Erie watershed.
Ohio has a new law requiring anyone who applies commercial fertilizer to more than 50 acres to be certified by the state. Ohio Governor John Kasich signed the regulations into law in late May. Certification will be required by 2017.
When the construction team for Valent BioScience’s new Osage, Iowa biorational plant was set to lower the huge fermentation tanks into place, they were sending a message of corporate leadership and commitment. Capturing the event and creating this video new clip enabled that clear message to be sent and received by others around the world.
If the high plains aren’t your home, you can never be quite sure what’s over the next horizon. Climb up a hill of lush irrigated winter wheat and you may be surprised by a drop in elevation and a big spread of rangeland dotted with black cattle. The journey forward brings a different view and new possibilities.
Adopting new technology is similar. A grower adopts guidance. Then adds boom shutoff. Then section control. Then the bulb above his head lights up again: ‘I can vary fertilizer and plant populations on these circles. Water, too.’
Hold a meeting that pulls in nearly 4,000 corn, soybean, sorghum and wheat growers and you’ll be sure to attract ag media. Attract ag media and you better make sure there’s space for news conferences.
This year’s Commodity Classic had its share of news conferences, and many of them had to do with precision agriculture and the data it generates. By the way, PR people call them “news conferences” and not “press conferences,” because, well, radio, tv and Internet guys don’t really use presses. But I digress.
Here’s the thing that happens when corporations feel they are falling behind: They write news releases and hold news conferences that tend to be more geared to assure stockholders and others having a stake in the business that “despite all appearances to the contrary, we are NOT falling behind. We have really great stuff right around the corner. It’s going to be big. And cool. Really cool and really big. Did we mention how cool? And how big?
Because those of us who write in magazines are human beings and easily distracted with shiny things, there’s no lack of coverage for drones these days. Political correction, there’s no lack of coverage for “unmanned aerial vehicles” or UAVs.
Of course, we do want to call them UAVs and not drones. Too often that term “drone” has had “predator” in front of it or “strike” at the end of it. Neither of which sound particularly appealing to a suburban soccer mom. Just when ag professionals of all kinds have managed to gain more traction with the idea that we only use the inputs we need where we need them (think precision agriculture, 4Rs and environmental stewardship), along comes a term that puts us right down there with terror: drones.
Sports of all kinds offer a ready analogy to consider when preparing your team and your customers for a great season of precision agriculure. Pardon the cliché, but having a solid game plan matters.
Machines, systems and people all offer opportunities for “spring tune-up” and often it’s the little things, when overlooked, that will stop you cold.
