Farm Industry News

What’s New From the Shows: From measuring weather precisely to sensing moisture in the soil, technology is changing how you farm.

October 19, 2019

13 Slides

By Farm Progress staff

You don’t have to guess whether the soil is “a bit tacky, but I will go anyway” anymore. You can know moisture content for sure as soon as you begin working in the field if coulters or some other parts contacting the soil are equipped with the Veris iSan+ system. You may still make the same decision to keep running if it’s super-late in the season, but at least you will know for sure what risk you’re taking.

The ability to know actual soil moisture content on the go is just one benefit precision technology is bringing to agriculture through new products. At fall farm shows, a host of companies unveiled a wide range of new products which rely on some form of precision technology to function. You can now find precision technology in everything from tillage operations to manure application to fertilizer spreading.

Aerial images from the field taken by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can deliver more information than just pretty pictures. Sentera unveiled an option that allows you to receive a tassel count per acre if you fly corn in midseason. The company had previously developed an option to deliver stand counts early in the season when you’re making decisions about how well your planter worked, and if you need to replant or not. Check out the gallery to learn more about this new option from Sentera.

Companies that identify and develop equipment to capture and record weather data also continue to increase a producer’s ability to understand the exact weather conditions affecting crops in real time. Mike Thurow of Spectrum Technologies demonstrated how quickly you can collect weather information from your own weather stations on a smartphone; he set up several in-field stations in the township surrounding the Farm Progress Show, and recorded and displayed rainfall variations during the weekend before the show.

Check out the slideshow to get a better feel for the type of technology that’s available to assist you today.  

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