Precision agriculture (PA) is increasingly being employed for a wide range of commodity crops, but traditional row crops are the driving force underlying the growth of PA. GPS based mapping, including yield monitors leveraging GPS and GIS, are used on over half of corn and soybean operations in the US, per the USDA’s survey of those industries in 2014 and 2016, the most recent data available. The survey found that guidance technology and auto-steer systems were adopted by 33% of corn and soybean operations, and between 16-26% of these farms used GPS capabilities for variable rate technology (VRT). We expect the rate of adoption has increased, as new generations get involved in farm management, and continued consolidation and farm size support the economics of PA technologies.
Precision agriculture is comprised primarily of these GPS mapping applications that support…
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