Top 5 Precision Agriculture Technologies For 2015: Data’s Day

By its nature, the precision agricultural marketplace features myriad products and services. From hardware options to attach to Big IRON to software programs that continuously crunch numbers to find useful patterns/make yield recommendations, the host of offerings is seemingly endless.

In part because of this characteristic, PrecisionAg magazine several years ago decided to put together an annual listing of the five most talked about/active categories that fall within the realm of precision agriculture. This Tech Top 5 has included all kinds of products, such as yield monitors and variable-rate seeding units, as well as services such as general data collection using handheld computers and, more recently, tablet devices. In this sense, the 2015 listing is no different.

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However, according to Jeremy Wilson, technology specialist for Crop IMS, Effingham, IL, a closer inspection of the 2015 Tech Top 5 reveals something more at work — a common thread binding all these myriad segments together in one sense.

“I really think the entire list of five should just be data,” says Wilson. “Today, it seems that 65% or more of the precision agricultural industry is working on something related to data. The 2014 list showcased items that created data or used data to accomplish a desired task, but this year, the trend seems to be more about how we use this data to be more successful in production agriculture. Growers and service providers are beginning to understand the value of data and its importance to improving the productivity and profitability to a farm or business. All this will eventually beg the question of how matters relating to data usage and privacy should become a consideration.”

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To illustrate this point, we proudly present the Tech Top 5 for 2015. To heighten the suspense a bit, we’ve listed these in reverse order, from No. 5 to No. 1 (and on separate pages).

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No. 5: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

An Agribotix pilot flies over emerging corn.To readers who remember how talked about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been in precision agricultural circles the past few years, it might seem odd that this segment of the market would rank so far down on the list of top precision agriculture technologies. After all, anyone who attended this past year’s annual Commodity Classic or InfoAg Conference events was likely to find dozens of manufacturers displaying UAVs targeting agricultural use. In fact, there were even a few events held during 2015 that featured nothing but UAV companies on their exhibitor lists.

Despite these facts, Wilson says UAVs barely made his list of the year’s top technologies for precision agriculture. “The UAV business is still on my list for 2015, but the interest level is not what we have seen the past couple of years,” he says. “With the current set of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules for UAV use in place, the market is in need of a little time to mature and bring customer adoption of this technology.”

Tim Norris, manager of Ag Info Tech, LLC, Gambier, OH, agrees with this assessment of UAVs. “In my opinion, UAVs took a step backwards this year vs. last year,” says Norris. “In 2014, the laws regarding the use of UAVs seemed vague and it was believed that a grower could fly their own field legally as long as they followed the rules and guidelines for the recreational user. However, at the end of last year, the FAA made it clear that this was not the case.”

According to most industry insiders, FAA is expected to have its final UAV operating guidelines in place within the next 10 months or sooner, so many of the questions surrounding UAV usage by agriculture should be answered. In the meantime, says Crop IMS’ Wilson, early adopters of UAV technology can continue to “work out the kinks” in their field use while improving their ability to better utilize data.

“Image processing seems to be a hurdle that is being overcome,” he says. “But more advancement in this area should increase growth of the UAV technologies.”

No. 4: Remote Imaging

ImageryThe top precision agriculture technology at No. 4, remote imaging, ties back to UAVs and other high-flying devices such as satellites. According to Wilson, the quality and frequency of images from satellites continues to improve each and every year, making the category much more appealing to precision agriculture users in the process.

And, he adds, there are more developments in remote imaging to come. “Additional innovations in software design to transform these images into a working knowledge set has the potential to be an important piece to improving productivity for the future. As this innovation in both the quality and quantity of imagery being made available today, coupled with improved handling services, has the potential to have a significant impact on optimizing the potential of every acre.”

Horsch Anderson Air SeederNo. 3: Variable-Rate Application (VRA) Seeding

For the past several years, variable-rate application seeding technology has been growing a steady clip, says Ag Info Tech’s Norris. And it’s about time, he adds.

“It was not too long ago that hardly anyone was variable-rate applying their seed, but I thought it would take off way faster than it did,” says Norris. “This was the first year that I have seen it happen and grow faster than my expectations. However, in 2015, people were seeing the advantages of VRA seeding and wanting to use it, especially in soybeans.”

Tied to this trend was the increased use of electric seed meter drives, he adds. “Getting rid of all of the mechanical driveline including chains and bearings take a lot of the inconsistencies out of the planting operation,” says Norris. “We read in 37,000 acres of planter data from this spring and our average simulation was 99.7% where these units were used.”

Cloud Data StorageNo. 2: Data Storage

Collecting data is only have the battle for most precision agriculture users, say experts. Keeping it someplace is almost as important.

According to Norris, a number of companies have recently launched tools for growers to store/manage their agronomic data. Manufacturers tend to operate their own environments for this task or are building new systems to wirelessly move agronomic data from the field to new cloud-based environments. These growers and service providers can then log in at the end of the day (or season) at their leisure to download this agronomic data and machine performance information.

“Over time, these systems will get more robust and will even provide reports and analytic services to the users,” he says. “There are several third-party system doing a good job of ‘plugging in’ to other existing environments so that there can be one spot for a grower or service provider to have access to all of their agronomic data.”

Grower using MyJohnDeere with tabletNo. 1: Data Collection/Smart Devices

Given what everyone connected to the precision ag market says about the importance of data, it should come as no surprise that the rapid spread of smart devices — both inside and outside the cab — led the technology pack in 2015. “Smart devices are continuing to be adopted and are showing up in the cab,” says Norris. “I think growers are seeing that it is a very handy and very easy technology to implement, and I think you will continue to see more and more apps being built for agricultural use.”

Crop IMS’ Wilson echoed this view. “The increasing number of devices and software to capture machine data is simply amazing,” he says. “These services connect to a tractor CAN-BUS system to automatically capture all the machine and agronomic data as the tractor is running through the field. Other systems are able to connect to manufacture clouds to import data already transferred there. Then the data is uploaded into a cloud to begin processing, with some systems sending back real-time analytics such as a benchmarking process where individual fields are compared to an aggregated group of fields.”

Put together, adds Wilson, these kind of data collection systems could change how some precision agriculture purveyors run their operations. “The analytics being used by these systems seem to provide a new look into the data being collected,” he says. “Before, it required much more work by the grower or service provider to produce these kind of reports.”

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