Farmers are rapidly adopting high-tech equipment, cloud services, and data analytics to increase cop yields. TechRepublic visited a large farm operation in Indiana to see the tech in action.
The Jones family, who owns a farm in Palmyra, Indiana, is one of the leaders in the area for precision agriculture. Robert Jones said he wants to be proactive, rather than reactive, with this movement.
Robert Jones and his son, Chris, look at the soil map of their field in Palmyra, Indiana.
Jeff McGee buys a Climate Corporation subscription to monitor his fields in Brandenburg, Kentucky.
Representatives from Helena Chemical perform soil test analysis for the Jones farm.
George Bercaw, a Climate Corporation representative and good friend of the Jones family, demonstrates how the platform analyzes soil nitrogen levels.
Climate Corporation is a weather monitoring service. The company was bought by Monsanto in October 2013.
The Climate Corporation app is available on mobile devices. The farms, soil, and weather can be monitored from anywhere.
The barn office overlooks the main storage space for the machines used on Jones farm.
This 80-foot wide combine is used on the Jones corn field in southern Indiana.
Chris Jones sits in the cab of the family’s combine and demonstrates how the precision technology works.
Chris Jones looks at the Ag Leader monitor, which shows the productivity of the family’s main corn field in Palmyra, Indiana.
recision technology is a farming management concept that measures and responds to field variability for crops, often using satellites and GPS tracking systems.
The Jones family uses this Ag Leader monitor for guided steering, crop yield monitoring, and mapping.
In the Jones’ main barn, an iPad sits on the tire of a tractor. iPads are used like monitors in the cabs of machines.
Precision Planting was bought by Monsanto in 2012 and was the seed giant’s first hardware acquisition for field technologies.
The Jones family, who are second-generation farmers, tend about 5,000 acres in Washington and Harrison counties in Indiana.
After working in the office on a rainy day, Robert Jones and representatives from Helena Chemical head to lunch.
Robert Jones looks out over his farm from his barn office window as he talks on the phone.
Lyndsey Gilpin is a former Staff Writer for TechRepublic, covering sustainability and entrepreneurship. She's co-author of the book Follow the Geeks.
