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PrecisionAg Resources

PrecisionAg WORKS: FALLING PRICES

Consider other responses from those we surveyed on the different aspects of their enhanced profitability:

  • About 75% of all adopters said that a GPS has increased their profitability.
  • 80% said use of an electronic controller to vary application or seeding rates has increased profitability.
  • 60% of adopters said that a yield monitor has increased profitability.
  • About 56% of corn/soybean/wheat and 88% of cotton adopters said that a yield monitor has increased profitability in terms of both saving money and aiding increased yields.

When the benefits seem this clear to those who are using the technology, what holds back those who are not? To find out, we asked growers – both adopters and those who have not adopted -- about their key hang-ups. We unearthed two issues that were not really surprising but probably had never been quite as well-documented as widely as this study enabled. The key barrier to entry is far and away start-up cost and a distant second is the feeling that the technology is too complex.

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Falling Prices Figure5Falling Prices Figure5
The tables (Figure 5) show responses from both adopters and non-adopters. Adopters were asked to give the primary barriers in putting precision ag technology to use in an operation, and non-adopters were asked to give the disadvantages neighbors have with precision ag. Concern for start-up costs ranked first for both. Non-adopters were then also asked the give the primary reason for not putting the technology to use in their own operation (Figure 6).

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Falling Prices Figure6Falling Prices Figure6

Start-up costs were cited again, but this time a self-perception about lack of scale was the barrier that was second-most expressed.

But those growers might want to take another look. While prices for technology will vary depending on your intended goals and current operation, prices for operating many aspects of precision ag have come down even as the capabilities of the equipment have improved. With today’s robust prices for commodities (and crop inputs) cost adoption as a percentage of crop income is probably more favorable than it’s ever been. – K. Elliott Nowels