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Growers have become more dependent on the tools of precision ag to manage their margins, and ag retailers that can help producers use the new technologies will strengthen their relationships with them.
“We have seen a resurgence in the interest of even the basics of precision agriculture. Farmers finally understand that there's value in grid soil sampling and yield maps,” says Steve Cubbage, president of Record Harvest, Nevada, MO.
Farmers who have had yield monitors for years are now installing global positioning system (GPS) units to map their fields so that they can truly understand every acre. “Having a yield monitor without GPS is like buying a car without wheels,” Cubbage says. “You can make the speedometer go up and down, but you can't go anywhere with it. We believe that yield maps are the Holy Grail of precision agriculture data. When we sell a yield monitor, we help program all the fields and varieties into the monitor for the client. Then we offer free yield mapping for the first year. We want the customer to be as successful as possible collecting data the first year and then to have maps when he's done. After the first year, we offer a flat-fee yield-mapping service that frees the grower from the headaches of software and yield mapping while ensuring year-to-year data integrity.”
Many of the services that Record Harvest offers grew out of Cubbage's own farming operation. He began using a yield monitor on his farm and hired grid-sampling services from his local ag dealer. “It seemed like everyone wanted to sell you a piece of equipment or a service, but no one wanted to put it together,” Cubbage says. “Out of necessity, Record Harvest was born.”
Established in 1997, Record Harvest specializes in precision agriculture — from equipment to software to services. The company is a master dealer for Ag Leader products and a premier dealer for Trimble Agriculture and Water Management products. It also sells Mid-Tech, Rawson and Dickey-john equipment and software from SST and Ag Leader. Record Harvest's service division is one of its fastest-growing businesses.
Third-party providers
Cubbage believes that, in the future, ag retailers will need to devote more resources to making precision ag work. This will prove challenging to many dealerships because many cannot justify an in-house precision ag program. “Many have tried this and it hasn't worked,” Cubbage says. “You can't have the individual who's running your GIS [geographic information system] program being pulled out to run anhydrous tanks to farmers when he should be soil sampling.”
As a result, there may be more third-party firms providing precision services to retailers. “We've promoted this to independent input retailers who cannot justify an in-house precision program,” he says.
Cubbage also has developed an online system that allows clients to upload raw soil and yield data for processing. The system allows the retailer to provide specific information, such as what fertilizer the customer wants, yield goal and the type of application equipment to be used.
Record Harvest bundles the processed files and uploads them to the retailer's online account. The retailer can then download the file, put it on a memory card, put it in a truck and spread the variable-rate prescription. Upon completion of the application, the dealer uploads the as-applied data to the same account for a complete record of what was done.
Nutrient management
Archiving information will become increasingly important for growers and retailers as more government programs require GPS records. “We're already starting to see this in some of USDA's voluntary nutrient management programs,” Cubbage says, adding that the next farm bill could make some of those programs mandatory. “If this happens, there will be a sense of urgency in the precision agriculture business that we have never witnessed before,” he says.
Dick Heilmann, plant manager, CPS, Hamler, OH, agrees that precision ag tools will become increasingly important in nutrient management programs. Heilmann's northwestern Ohio fertilizer plant offers grid sampling, variable-rate fertilizer and lime application, and yield-mapping analysis. The CPS dealership also sells Trimble guidance systems to customers wanting to optimize their fertilizer and lime application programs.
Prices for some of these precision ag technologies are coming down, which should enable more retailers and growers to use them in the future. In some cases, prices will remain somewhat the same, but the customer will get more of a package, Heilmann says. Some Trimble lightbars, for example, now have available options, such as a screen.
“Prices have come down and the technology has gotten so much better over the years,” Cubbage adds. “Autosteer technology is the biggest surprise for us. If someone five years ago would have said that the automated steering market would make up 45 to 50% of our sales, I couldn't have even told them what autosteer technology was. This technology has come on like a streak of lightning.
“Ag retailers will have to adopt these technologies today and not tomorrow if they are to be successful in a very competitive business,” Cubbage continues. “Producers are demanding that their retailers are on board with variable-rate technologies and understand how it all works. Fertilizer and inputs are too costly to apply in a broad brush like the masses have done for years.”
This is one reason the automatic boom shutoff is currently a popular item. It can save producers and ag retailers nearly 7% in total applied product, Cubbage says.
Greater efficiency
With higher input prices and tightening margins, growers will demand higher efficiencies and will look to precision ag technologies to help them achieve those efficiencies, suggests Gabe Moudy, South Plains Precision Ag Inc., Plainview, TX.
South Plains Precision Ag Inc. offers four main precision ag services: aerial imagery, soil conductivity, yield mapping for cotton growers and GPS mapping for drip irrigation management. The company services about six million acres in 13 counties in West Texas and two counties in New Mexico.
Monitoring crop protection product application rates is an important function of precision ag, Moudy says. He adds that his company uses infrared imagery to monitor growth regulator applications as well as weed situations in cotton at least twice a season.
The company overlays soil maps, yield maps and maps from aerial imagery to help growers see variability in their crops and to help them make appropriate management decisions. Moudy would like to see more precision ag technology being used to do variable-rate irrigation because water is such a big driver behind variability in crops. In some parts of the country, it also is the most expensive input.
“AMS is able to offer automatic guidance with plus-or-minus 13-in. accuracy with no cost for the SF 1 signal,” Harringa continues. “In the past, there was a charge for the subscription for all levels of accuracy. The trend with most technology is for the price to come down as market adoption increases and the technology itself costs less to provide.” The price of GreenStar AutoTrac SF 1 has dropped, for example.
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