Farming Smarter, Not Harder

During his three decades of farming, Marc Hasbargen has experienced many changes on the family’s 10,000-acre farm that his grandfather started in 1945. One of the biggest evolutions has come in the use of precision agriculture practices.

Shortly after college in the early 1990s, Hasbargen joined his father, uncle and brother to grow wheat, corn, soybeans and sugar beets on the farm located just east of Breckenridge, Minnesota. As farming practices advanced, the family upgraded equipment. So, when John Deere debuted its AutoTrac automated steering capabilities in the early 2000s, Hasbargen jumped on board, convincing his family to put the technology into some of their older tractors.

With auto steer, a farmer sets up a GPS heading that keeps the tractor straight without someone steering it. That heading is used across the entire field as the crops are planted. Every subsequent tractor a farmer brings into that field to do various tasks uses the same heading. Auto steer ensures the tractor always follows the same path. As a result, “you can run a tractor longer with less stress of trying to keep it straight,” Hasbargen explains.

Using auto steer, the Hasbargens have eliminated one planter altogether because of the efficiencies gained. “That’s a huge savings,” he adds.

After successfully using auto steer, the Hasbargens have moved onto other precision practices. Yield mapping uses maps to determine which areas of a field need more fertilizer. This enables variable rate chemical applications to allow farmers to only use chemical fertilizers on the areas that need them, instead of using the same amount across an entire field.

What is Precision Agriculture?

Advances in farming technology is a major focus for RDO Equipment, a Moorhead, Minnesota-based John Deere and Vermeer dealer with locations in 12 states.

By employing technologies like machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), GPS, sensors, data analytics and automation, precision agriculture practices increase efficiency and improve sustainability for farmers.

Precision farming practices help farmers reduce inputs and increase return on investment (ROI) because it allows them to more precisely plant seeds and apply chemicals, according to Katy Derheim, a precision application product manager for RDO Equipment.

John Deere’s See & Spray technology is one such example. Using ML and AI, See & Spray seeks out weeds within fields and targets them strategically to apply herbicide only on the invaders.

“RDO customers who used See & Spray were able to reduce inputs for herbicide application up to 67%,” Derheim says, noting the John Deere national average is 65%. “Farmers are good stewards of the land. They care deeply about their soil health. So, to have a precision technology that helps them be better stewards of the land, as well as providing an ROI—it’s really an awesome product for me to be able to support.”

The Evolution of Precision Farming

The auto steer technology the Hasbargens use in their tractors is just one of the many advances in precision farming practices Tony Kramer has witnessed in his 15 years with RDO Equipment. 

The need for precision agriculture is more important now than ever, according to Kramer, who is the product manager for planting technology with RDO Equipment. “We’re not going to find any new tillable farmland, so instead we need to shift to utilizing technologies or precision agriculture to do better with the land we have today,” Kramer says. 

According to Bulldozer Revolutions1, agricultural landscapes in the United States are being converted to residential and commercial uses, at the rate of 2,000 acres of tillable land lost daily. 

With planting in particular, technology advances help farmers ensure that the seeds are planted at a consistent depth and spacing across a field. John Deere ExactEmerge planters use electric drive and BrushBelt technology to enable farmers to plant at higher speeds while maintaining precise seeding depths and placement, according to Kramer. 

From there, technology advanced to hydraulic drives, which helped improve planting precision. Electric drive planters, the latest technology, control each row, regardless of whether you’re planting with four-row units or 54-row units. 

Coupling the technology advances in the planter itself with sensor data and yield mapping saves money. If, for example, a specific soil type can only hold enough plant-available nutrients for 28,000 seeds per acre, there’s no point in planting 30,000 seeds per acre on that piece of land. “That additional 2,000 seeds per acre are essentially going to a loss, because the soil doesn’t have the ability to provide the necessary nutrients for those extra 2,000 seeds,” Kramer explains.

Overcoming Challenges in Precision Ag Adoption

As with any new technology, precision agriculture faces some adoption hurdles.

Cost can be a challenge, because often farmers think they must purchase new equipment to get the benefits of the technology. However, the technology can sometimes be implemented in existing equipment, as was the case when the Hasbargens were able to add auto steer technology to their tractors to realize the time savings. 

John Deere and RDO specifically offer some Precision Upgrade Kits (PUK). Rather than purchasing a whole new piece of equipment, “you can take a slightly older piece of equipment and get into a little bit of technology at a lower cost because you can put the PUK kits on them,” Derheim says. 

Kramer agrees. “There’s a lot of hesitation to try [precision agriculture] because it’s always, ‘Oh, that’s just for the big guys,’ or ‘I can’t afford that.’ Not every piece of precision agriculture is a fit for every single farm. But, that being said, there’s something out there for everybody.”

Educating farmers about the value of the technology can also be a challenge. When precision agriculture came into its own, it was sometimes difficult to get the Baby Boomer generations on board. “They are more skeptical and hesitant to adopt any of the technology,” Kramer says. “With them, it’s really putting the numbers on paper and providing the outcomes.”

Hasbargen recalls having to convince his father and uncle about the benefits of auto steer. But once they saw the technology in action, they realized it enabled them to plant longer days with less fatigue. After that, they were sold on the technology. 

As Millennials and Gen Z start to take over family farms, Kramer sees a definite shift in attitude toward precision practices. “Younger generations have been immersed in technology nearly their entire lives. They are much more eager and interested to see how technology can potentially reduce costs while also increasing efficiency and productivity across their operation.”

The Future of Precision Agriculture 

In the future, the addition of cameras and sensors on planters will provide a fully autonomous solution for planting, according to Tony Kramer, product manager for planting technology with RDO Equipment. Right now, from the cab of a tractor, farmers can adjust certain aspects of planting, but in the future, he expects sensors to make those decisions based on ML and AI. 

“AI automating planter functionality is coming in the not-too-distant future. That’s going to be … one of the harder autonomous solutions to adopt for some farmers, because the planting pass is so important,” Kramer predicts. “But as we learn with AI in other production steps, I think that the comfort level will increase, and it’ll allow farmers to be more open-minded to adopt more AI with that planting step of production.”

Hasbargen sees himself and his family becoming experts in technology, as well as wearing all the other hats farmers wear. “Probably one of the biggest things in my farming career that we’ve gained is the use of the technology,” he says.