“A look back on 2012 and ahead to 2013”

Well, 2012 was an exciting year for some in agriculture, and for others, a year that they can’t wait to forget. As for me, it has been very exciting. We had some growers that reported that this was their best year ever for corn and soybean yields. Hard to believe looking back at the summer being so hot and dry, but in west central Minnesota we got a few very timely rains, and the rest was tapped into the soil moisture from early spring’s wetness.

 From a precision ag data standpoint, 2012 was a great year for us. We were in the field starting March 19th, the earliest ever that we can think of, started out warm and moist, and stayed warm-hot for the majority of the spring and summer and into fall. What does this mean for our harvest data? We had little or no wet areas to plant around this spring, and we had almost no drowned out areas through the summer, and with the record yields this fall we should have some of the best yield maps we have been able to get since 2010. As the old saying in agriculture “the million dollar rain” makes even more value not only for that year, but also for the next few years. While the rain makes the crop for the current year, good data from that year contributes to the management of the field for years in the future. The “million dollar rain’s” value is now multiplied exponentially in its value for years to come after a record crop due to our ability to change our farming practices to allow us to grow better crops, use our inputs more efficiently and put more dollars in the farmers pockets, which coincidentally usually ends up going back into the local economy.


Recently I have been thinking about where agriculture is going in the next few years and farther in the future. Some of you have probably already seen the video titled “Farm Forward” that John Deere has put out. While some of this may seem very much in the future to some, I believe that it is in the not too distant future, some of the technology is already in use to some extent in agriculture or other areas. If you have not seen the video, here it is…

 So where do I believe we will be technology wise in the next 10-20 years? I think it is a little hard to answer that question only because some of the technology we may be using then has probably not even been invented yet. I do believe that in the next 10-20 years, the types and amount of change will be great! In the nearer future I believe we will continue to see machinery become more automated, getting closer to driver-less tractors, or for sure needing only one operator to run two or more pieces of equipment at the same time. It has been demonstrated already, it is just figuring out how to make it safe for production agriculture to have these machines operating by themselves in our fields.

Data is going to become more and more standardized across the industry. We will be able to take our data from our John Deere planter, move it to our Ag-Chem sprayer, and then to our Case IH combine in the fall. Monitors are becoming more “plug and play” like today’s pc’s and smart phones. It will be much easier to hook your Case IH tractor to your John Deere planter and have the two systems work together.

Mobile use of data and apps for making decisions on the fly in the field and transferring Rx maps to machines out in the fields is going to be huge in my opinion. I think we have only scratched the surface on what can be done with our smart phones and tablets like iPads. Some manufactures such as Precision Planting’s 20/20 Seed Sense are already using iPads to control seeding Rx maps for the planter. The use of this technology will continue to grow very quickly. 

Planter Moniter with iPad

Agriculture is going to need a lot of very technical and hard working people coming into the industry in the coming years to help farmers and Ag retailers process and put to use the data that is being collected. Not only this, but we will need computer programmers and machine technicians to build and service the machinery and the software that we are relying on. If you are looking for a quickly growing industry and have interest in the technical field, then agriculture just may have a place for you, you no longer need to grow up on a farm or even have any farm experience, as long as you are willing to learn and work hard, you have an opportunity in ag. Of course agriculture is also in great need of those with agronomy experience or schooling, past experience is helpful, but not absolutely necessary. If you are interested, please check out your state university or other higher education institutions to see if a career in agriculture is for you.

Great ag school, but I am a little biased!

Thank you for taking time to read my blog, and please feel free to let me know what you think, or if there is any topic in agriculture that you would like to learn more on.

Jason