Blake Flurry. Precision farming is a farming management concept based on observing and responding to...

WHAT’S PRECISION WORTH?

Blake Flurry

What’s Precision Worth?

Precision farming is a farming management concept based on observing and responding to intra-field variations. Today, precision agriculture is about whole farm management with the goal of optimizing returns on inputs while preserving resources. Today precision farming relies on new technologies like satellite imagery, information technology, and geospatial tools. It is also aided by farmers’ ability to locate their precise position in a field using satellite positioning system like the GPS or other GNSS.

What is Precision Farming?

What’s Precision Worth? Why Is Precision Important?

It’s expected that the world’s population will reach 9.8 billion people, which is 34 percent higher than today’s population. Much of this growth will happen in developing countries like Brazil, which has the largest area in the world with the most arable land for agriculture. In order to keep up with rising populations and income growth, global food production must increase by 70 percent in order to be able to feed the world. This is where precision agriculture comes in.


Why is Precision Important?

Precision agriculture technologies are becoming more and more essential to farming each year. As the world’s population increases each year the amount of agriculture land used for food production decreases per person. For Example: In 1967 there were 4.2 acres of cropland/person, while in 2007, just 1.4 acres of cropland/person were available. By the year 2030 its is projected that there will be less than half an acre per person in the world. This means that producer’s will have to use precision technologies to produce enough food for the world on the acres that are still in production then.


Why Is Precision Important?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates there are 2.1 million farms in the United States, using 941 million acres of land, with production worth $200 billion a year. American farmers annually spend $23 billion for fertilizer, chemicals and seeds and $9 billion for fuel and energy costs. With all of the costs that producers incur today many of them are relying on precision ag technologies to help them be more precise with their inputs and in return cut their costs and ultimately increase their yields and profit margins.


What can precision farming do for you?

•Improve Crop Yield.

•Provide information to make better management decisions.

•Reduce chemical and fertilizer costs through more efficient application.

•Provide more accurate farm records.

•Increase profit margin.

•Reduce pollution.

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The top benefits growers listed from their use of precision agriculture technology were:1.) the ability to apply chemicals and fertilizer where needed.2.) greater profitability due to lower input costs.3.) identification of poor producing areas of their fields.

What Can Precision Farming Do For You?


85% of corn growers, 88 %of cotton growers and 100 % of soybean growers indicated their operation has been more profitable using precision agriculture technology.

The average input savings per acre for these producers that are using precision ag technologies with inputs including seed, fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and time and labor were $19 per acre for corn, $18.50 per acre for soybeans and up to $39 per acre for cotton.

Payback of Using Precision Ag:


Doug Martin has been using strip tillage and the Trimble GIS system on his planter on his central Illinois farm since 2009 and has found that using this precision technology has saved him an average of:

Eliminated 2-3 tillage applications a year 1500 hours of labor a year

3.5 gallons per acre of over application of fertilizers a year $19,000 in fuel cost per year



The NRCS performed an experiment using a simple guidance system on a spray rig used on a 1,000 acre farm with a continuous corn crop and found that the guidance system reduced overlap from 24 in to 2 in across the field which saved the farmer $13,000 in over applications and fuel costs.

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Growers using precision ag implements on their operation reported an average annual saving of 15% per year on seed, fertilizer and chemical inputs. With this money these producers are saving, they are able to pay off their investments quicker. Many of the larger producers are reporting paying off their precision ag investments within the first year while the smaller producers report paying their investments off in as little 2-3 years.

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55% of farmers said that cost is their biggest concern when it comes to investing in precision ag technology.

Light bar guidance on a tractor used for tillage and fertilizer application

Investment

Universal autosteer on a tractor used for tillage and fertilizer application Integrated autosteer on a tractor used for tillage, fertilizer application and planting

Seed-row shutoff clutches

Payback Period

300 Acres

400-500 Acres

900 Acres

1500 Acres


A 1998 survey of over 10,000 American farmers revealed that:

70% were not aware of precision ag technologies

2% were aware but were not adopters

Less than 5% had adopted some aspect of precision ag

The Future of Precision Ag:



Today it is estimated that 58% of U.S. producers are using some form of precision ag technology on their operation. It is also projected that 87% of the producers that are not using precision technology today will implement some form of precision technology into their operation within the next 10 years. This leaves only 5.5% of the U.S. producers that will still not be using any form of precision technology by the year 2023.


The Future of Precision Ag:These are the results of a manufacturing survey that was

conducted by Ag Professional Magazine in order to find out how many producer’s were implementing new precision ag technologies into their operation .

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This is a graph of the projected adoption trend of precision ag technologies in developing countries like Brazil, Mexico, and India in the next 37 years. This graph shows that precision technologies are expanding across the globe at a very fast rate but also shows that precision ag is here to stay.


What’s Precision Worth? Conclusion:Precision farming has changed the face of production agriculture and has proven that it is here to stay for many years to come. It has taken the farming industry and turned it into a technical savvy and data cluttered community. However precision farming is essential to the future of humanity because as the world’s population continues to increase and the amount of acres under production decreases each year precision technologies act as an equalizer, accounting for the lost acres of farmland by increasing yields and lowering the costs of inputs on the lands that are still under production.

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Blake Flurry. Precision farming is a farming management concept based on observing and responding to...

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