Jess
Lowenberg-DeBoer
The incremental improvements to
precision agriculture technology struggled to compete for attention in the
tents and demonstration fields of the 2001 Farm Progress Show held Sept. 25-27
a few miles south of Lafayette, Indiana. Some mid-sized companies showed their
enthusiasm for the technology, but signs of retrenchment in the industry were
visible as some major players reduced involvement.
Marc Vanacht, a business consultant
from St. Louis, MO, visiting the show,
explained that precision agriculture is maturing.
“From 1990 to 1994 was the time of
the precision ag entrepreneurs starting companies in their farm offices and
machine sheds,” Vanacht said. “During the period 1995 to 1998 the major
manufacturers jumped in by buying out entrepreneurs or by developing their own
expertise. With the drop in grain prices and falling equipment sales in the
late 1990s, companies took a hard look at the economic potential of precision agriculture.
“With the mergers and acquisitions of the last few
years we have seen a tremendous drop in resources devoted to precision
agriculture R&D. Tyler, Willmar and Ag Chem have been acquired, among
others. Many of the entrepreneurs have either been bought out or have gone out
of business.”
Enthusiasm for precision farming was
most evident at several mid-sized companies, but that enthusiasm was not always
obvious to the casual visitor because these companies have smaller tents and
displays. Trimble, Farmworks and SST had booths in the “Varied Industries”
tent. Ag Leader had a modest tent on a side street of tent city.
“In this business technical support
is key,” said Ryan Oehler, of Daugherty Inc, working in the Ag Leader tent.
“Many of our Ag Leader dealers are crop consultants or ag retailers who are
working closely with their customers. The major manufacturers are in the iron
business and have had trouble making the transition to this type of product.”
Scott Nusbaum, of Farmworks, said
that a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) global positioning system (GPS)
receiver that clips on to a Compaq iPAQ palmtop computer was drawing attention.
“This is the tool for those people
who have been wanting to get into GPS, but didn’t want to spend $3000 to
$4000,” Nusbaum said. “It gives them a tool to start using for crop scouting,
soil sampling and drawing field boundaries. Also, there are some people who
never thought that they would be using GPS. But now that the price is coming down,
they are starting to get interested.”
Among the major farm equipment manufacturers only
John Deere and Caterpillar had staffed precision agriculture displays. In
addition to their Greenstar® yield
monitor and Starfire™ GPS, the John
Deere site touted the Field Doc™ system for providing traceability for identity
preserved grains and introduction of the Autosteer system. Among other things,
the Caterpillar display promoted the reduced need for calibration with their
optically based yield monitor. The Case Advanced Farming System (AFS) was a
shadow of former years. The AFS display consisted of a single dusty panel.
There was no sign of precision agriculture in either the New Holland or the
AGCO tents.
GPS guidance and automated steering
seemed to be the biggest draw for both major manufacturers and mid-sized
companies.
“About one in three people ask about
lightbars,” said Oehler. “Most of the interest in GPS guidance is from
producers who already have a yield monitor and GPS, and want to add another use
for their GPS.”
Trimble offered a test drive tractor
equipped with their Autopilot®
technology in the demonstration field outside of the Farm Progress Show
tent city. With Autopilot® the driver
only has to turn on the ends. The current technology will follow straight rows
with a one inch error, but not contours. Because the Trimble product uses Real
Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS, cost is in the $40,000 to $50,000 range.
“Some producers with drip irrigation
use Autopilot for tillage,” said Michael Helling, Trimble. “They can till
without tearing up the tape. Some vegetable producers use it build ridges and
consistently plant on the peak of that ridge. “
Helling also said that some Midwestern producers are
using Autopilot® for corn and soybeans
in the Midwest. With autopilot producers can hire lower quality labor and still
have straight rows.
By early next year John Deere
Autosteer promises a lower cost automated steering based on their Starfire™
GPS. The cost of the John Deere product may be easier to justify for corn and
soybeans, and the two to three inch accuracy may even be accurate enough for
planting row crops.
Public sector precision agriculture
efforts were better represented than in the past. The Purdue Laboratory for
Applications of Remote Sensing (LARS) was part of a high tech display in the
Varied Industries tent organized by the Potash and Phosphate Institute (PPI).
The Stennis Space Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
and their spinoff company ITD Spectral Visions were also part of that display.
The Purdue Site-Specific Management Center (SSMC)
had a tent outside of tent city, next to the corn maze. The maze in the shape
of Purdue train mascot had been laid out with the help of GPS. An estimated
10,000 people trooped through the maze and most of those stopped in the SSMC
tent to pick up their prize, a maze poster. Some 75 groups checked out backpack
GPS units in the SSMC tent to navigate the maze.
The SSMC tent had 17 displays from various Purdue
precision agriculture research projects, ranging from remote sensing to
economics. Judging from the number of people who entered the tent to pick up a
maze poster without stopping to look at the displays, the SSMC material was
probably too technical for most Farm Progress Show visitors. However, there was
a core group of visitors who came to read and ask questions.
In both the public and private
sectors there were those who wondered if the Farm Progress Show is the best
venue for precision agriculture. The Farm Progress Show is the mass market of
agriculture. Precision agriculture seems to be turning into a more specialized
technology that mainly interests a group of technologically oriented producers
and those who provide knowledge based services to the larger agricultural
market (e.g. crop consultants, agronomists working for ag retailers).
“The audience for our product is
much more targeted than what we find at the Farm Progress Show,” said Brandon
Buie, SST account manager. Buie looked like the stereotype of a Maytag repair
man sitting alone in his booth. “ We do best with a group of about 30 people
who want to learn about analysis of precision ag data.”