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Tom J Bechman
DATA COLLECTOR: Note the information displayed in the middle of the planter monitor screen on organic matter, soil moisture and more. It’s sent to the cab from Smart Firmers on the planter. This is just one example of how you could make better management decisions based on data collected on your farm.
Technology that allows you to collect more data in the field than ever before and use that data to make crop management decisions is here. You can buy it today, and more is coming, says John Fulton, an Ohio State University Extension specialist.
He recently told Indiana certified crop advisers through a virtual session that prescriptive agriculture is the wave of the future. Collect and store data, then use it to make prescription maps to program equipment to make succinct changes in input rate or even input choice on the same pass across the field that is prescription agriculture at its core.
Tom J Bechman
PRESCRIPTION FARMING: Steve Long, Franklin, Ind., called up a prescription to spread lime on this field. It changed rates or shut off the applicator, depending upon lime needs. Here are key trends suggesting data management and prescriptions based on data will become more important.
Nearly three decades ago, excitement built around precision agriculture. The late Howard Doster, a Purdue University Extension ag economist, was one of the first to use the term “precision agriculture” repeatedly.
Today, John Fulton, a Precision Ag Extension specialist at Ohio State University, says farmers are ready for prescriptive agriculture, the next step beyond precision agriculture. It’s no longer about just knowing where you are spatially in the field. Now it’s about using data collected from specific areas to make management decisions about inputs and treat each area of the field in the most efficient manner prescriptive agriculture.