Spring is here, and as a litany of research articles (and song lyrics) suggest, seasonal weather affects our mood. Rain or shine, the ag economy also affects moods, especially when it comes to adopting new technology.

Throughout the last couple months I've heard from agronomists, Extension educators and researchers, and early-adopters of ag technology. They pose the same question: How do we drive adoption of new technology? It can be a tough sell, especially with lower corn prices compared to 2011-12.

In 2016, $3.23 billion was invested in ag tech startups, according to a report from AgFunder. Although a decline from a record-breaking $4.6 billion in 2015, this illustrates that investments in technology like remote-sensing, site-specific management, and data management and aggregation services aren't going away anytime soon. The bigger question, however, is whether or not producers are using this technology.

I've mentioned before that as an ag journalist, it can sometimes be easy to look at adoption through rose-colored glasses — after all, most of the growers I'm interviewing are in the higher end of the spectrum in adoption, efficiency, profitability and sustainability. The reality, however, is the adoption curve is different for every producer depending on his or her situation.

So, just what drives adoption at the farm level? How can researchers, agronomists and industry reps do a better job of encouraging adoption of new technology — specifically technology that enhances decision-making? It's a question different stakeholders in Nebraska are coming together to help answer.

One group, a nitrogen and water advisory group organized by Central Valley Ag, is aiming to encourage adoption from the producer level up, bringing together like-minded growers from different production environments with different practices, to help drive adoption of technology to improve nitrogen and water management decisions. The goal is to identify tools like nitrogen models, pre-sidedress nitrate tests, and crop canopy sensors that early-adopters see the most potential in to enhance decision-making, but haven't quite made the full leap of faith to implement just yet. By taking the next step forward in establishing trust, this helps create agents of change in the field to encourage adoption among fellow growers.

Meanwhile, the Nebraska Water Balance Alliance (NEWBA) recently introduced Aquamart: the Ag Water Performance Nexus — a new program designed to link targeted on-farm water management practices to the larger framework of water use, conservation and management across the state. The goal of the program is to promote sustainable and measureable improvement to Nebraska's water resources by providing value at all levels to all stakeholders — and that includes using precision technology at the farm level, whether it's soil moisture probes, satellite imagery or variable-rate.

At a recent NEWBA meeting, members, including vendors, farmers and researchers, posed the question: How do we change adoption rates, and what does it take for producers to invest time and money in a new technology that can help improve nutrient and water management?

It's a question I've struggled to answer, but a big piece of the puzzle is in approaching new tools and technology as a value proposition — weighing the costs and benefits of bringing a new tool into the operation and demonstrating that value consistently over time.

It may be a long-term investment, but the value of the return increases over the long run. Increasing production will take the incremental increases in efficiency through decision tools and technology. As one agronomist put it recently, the big increases in efficiency and profitability won't be made by doing one thing 100% better, but 100 things 1% better.