If you visit this week's Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois, count on a solid introduction to precision agriculture. Dozens of exhibits will feature tools and technology to help Cornbelt farmers become more efficient in their planting and nutrient application, as well as basic financial savings from avoiding excess application of expensive inputs and unintended overlaps. But how many of your neighbors have either moved ahead of you or are lagging behind you?
Precision agriculture can be defined as encompassing a suite of farm-level information technologies to better target the application of inputs and practices. But once expected to be widely and rapidly adopted, it has been slowly adopted by rank and file farmers, says USDA's Economics Research Service in a recent report.
• Corn and soybean yields were significantly higher for yield monitor adopters than for non-adopters nationally. This yield differential for corn grew from 2001 to 2005. Yield monitors are being adopted more quickly by farmers who practice conservation tillage. The USDA economists reported, "Although weather generally determines moisture levels over a wide area, precision technology utilizing GIS could allow farmers to see if plot-level yields would benefit from a change in management practices within a single field."
• Corn and soybean farmers using yield monitors had lower per-acre fuel expenses. Average per-acre fertilizer expenses were slightly higher for corn farmers that adopted yield monitors, but were lower for soybean farmers. But when it comes to expense, there is a conundrum, and ERS economists speculate, "It is possible that the reason that there are no significant differences between fertilizer expenses incurred by corn producers using VRT and guid¬ance systems is that fertilizer application itself is reduced, with the cost savings paying for custom application."
• In the Corn Belt, GPS maps and variable-rate technologies were used on 24 and 16 percent respectively of corn in 2005, and 17 and 12 percent of soybean acres in 2006, but nationally the adoption rates for variable-rate technologies were only 12 percent for corn and 8 percent for soybeans. The USDA economists reported, "The uncertain profitability of variable-rate technology has discouraged its adoption among some farmers. For example, the GPS mapping of crop yield response to managed inputs, field topography/soil characteristics, and weather is regarded by many as too difficult, and thus profitability is difficult to gauge under a wide range of circumstances."
• Average fuel expenses were lower, per acre, for farmers using variable-rate technologies for corn and soybean fertilizer application, as were soybean fuel expenses for guidance systems adopters. The economists added, "Low adoption rates for VRT are not necessarily caused by VRT's inherent non-profitability, but by a lack of information concerning the profitable incorporation of VRT data into farming practices."
• Adopters of GPS mapping and variable-rate fertilizer equipment had higher yields for both corn and soybeans. The USDA economists reported, "The yield difference increased for corn from a little over 20 bushels/acre (10-percent differential) in 2001 to almost 30 bushels/acre (23 percent) in 2005. Adopters of GPS mapping also had signifi¬cantly higher yields for both corn and soybeans in 2001/2 and 2005/6, with the differential ranging from 14 to 18 percent."
• Adoption of guidance systems, which notify farm equipment operators as to their exact field position, is showing a strong upward trend, with 35 percent of wheat producers using it by 2009. The economists report, "Environmental and management factors may favor the adoption of precision agriculture, which may affect crop yields. Research investment has been a major factor raising corn yields, and Monsanto is close to having a drought-tolerant variety of corn available for field testing. Monsanto indicates that rather than offsetting the need for precision agriculture, their new seed technologies complement it."
Summary:
The recent rapid adoption of yield monitoring technology is likely due to its increased retail availability, reduced cost, and increasing ease of use. Average fuel expenses, per acre, for both corn and soybean farmers are lower for farmers who use yield monitors. Adopters of yield monitors had higher corn and soybean yields than non-adopters in 2001/2 and again in 2005/6. Even though the adoption of GPS mapping is less prevalent than yield monitors, both corn and soybean farmers achieved higher yields nationwide when GPS was used. The future viability of precision agriculture will likely depend on (1) whether the technologies become less expensive and/or easier to install/maintain; (2) whether conservation tillage becomes even more widespread; and (3) the relative prices of fuel, fertilizer, and custom applications.
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