Thursday, January 27, 2011

Precision Guidance

Our Agrivator group (more on that another day) is arranging a demo-day for several companies that sell precision farming equipment.  I had somebody ask me recently if guidance/autosteering really pays.  The answer is a resounding "YES!"

By using GPS, we can dramatically improve efficiency.  It allows us to reduce overlap, increase speed and decrease operator fatigue.  This saves a bunch on inputs (fuel, seed, fertilizer, labor etc.) and helps us get more out of the very expensive equipment we run over our fields.  At the same time, we're able to be a little gentler on our environment too! Below is a little video of a common device.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

It's Alive!

Yep.  Still here.  Blog not dead.  Am working to resuscitate.  Yesterday went to listen to Troy and Stacy Hadrick of www.advocatesforag.com/.  You may have seen Troy's "Yellow Fail" video on YouTube.  If not check it out:



Troy and Stacy gave an excellent presentation on social media for agriculture.  As a follow up, today I participated in a National Corn Growers Webinar on the same topic.  Suffice to say, I am becoming a true believer.  Truth be told, however, a big reason I have failed to post for some time is that I have struggled with feedback.  It takes time to put together cogent thought and I wasn't sure I was getting any meaningful Return on Investment.  Without comments on this blog I had no way to track whether anybody cared.  And maybe they don't -- but yesterday and today convinced me I should try again and should invest in some new tools (to me) that until now I had avoided.

Get ready Facebook (and maybe even Twitter) another newbie is coming.