Farmers need high-tech — but the right high-tech
The potential of devices seems infinite and, at times, frightening, says Toban Dyck
Technology is going to save agriculture. Technology is going to feed a growing world. Technology and big data are the answer. At least, that’s the proposition. Technology is the herald of progress. It might be, but not yet.
German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel believed that the world, history, time advances this way — the dialectical method: a thesis is put forward; it’s negated; then a blend of the two emerge, forming a new thesis.
If technology is the thesis, the lack of accessibility, affordability and training is the antitheses. And the synthesis is what will come out of these technologies becoming more affordable, more known and better understood.
The combine on my farm contains a lot of technology. Its computer can do more than I have ever required of it — more than I know what to ask of it. Of the machine’s many moving components, most are monitored on an adjustable touchscreen display. The whole thing is a technological marvel. And in our case, a marvel that is more than 10 years old.
Newer combines have significantly more technological capacity. And many farmers have these kinds of computers and digital infrastructure in most of the trucks and tractors, as well.
Speaking at the Grain World conference in Winnipeg, a John Deere representative said he expects the introduction of new technologies coming from the agriculture sector to plateau for the next three to five years.
There is a glut of tech currently available to farmers, each device and/or platform and/or implement promising to be the answer to increasing profitability, increasing sustainability and making the most of your time.
Companies around the world have been throwing money into the development of new agriculture-based technologies for many years, effectively creating a store of disparate devices and things that, unless they are used together, amount to a sea of stuff so large that farmers are finding it hard to choose.
Drone technology is promising, but it’s expensive and farmers are finding that the information they ingest usually requires additional technologies to interpret. Advancements in soil mapping are impressive and will no doubt allow farmers to monitor the health and fertility of their land like never before. Software and websites connecting farmers to available markets are becoming ubiquitous but many are still expensive and burgeoning.
Research outfits such as commodity associations, private companies and government labs are implementing new technologies that will better connect farms with critical and useful information.
The John Deere representative and many others believe that the next three to five years will be a time for farmers to become familiar with the technological landscape, assess what specific things will benefit his or her farm, and then either seek out the required training or, as farmers are wont to do, take the time to figure out.
The story of agricultural technology is no longer about how my combine has an advanced computer. It’s about how that computer talks to the tractor, grain cart, seeder, sprayer and/ or the farm’s agronomist. Then, how and where it stores that data over time. The networking potential of these devices is seemingly infinite and, at times, frightening.
Farming is no longer full of peracre considerations. Decisions are being made on a sub-inch level. Variable-rate technology is great, but it’s even better when it communicates with not just the tractor operator, but every machine and/or person on the farm.
I’d adopt more technologies on my farm, but I have yet to decide what my opening moves should be. There is a lot to choose from, and most of the available options need to come down in price before they would be worth considering.
I believe the John Deere representative’s accidentally Hegelian take on technology. As some of these important technologies come down in price, farmers need to take stock of what’s all available, figure out what’s best for their farms and learn how to properly use the darn stuff.