Jay Peterson

In the agricultural world, seeding technology is getting more precise every day. Calc-Seed is an app that can easily and efficiently help you do precise seed calculation so you know not only how many pounds per acre you need, but also total tons as well. The interface is clean allowing you to do your calculations in one of four […] Read more

In this new series, Jay Peterson reviews ag-related apps for iPod and iPhone. 
The first app up: fertilizer removal by crop

Editor’s note: Jay Peterson has a new iPad. He’s going to be using it to check out apps (software applications) that might be useful on your farm. Let us know if you’re looking for an app for a specific need, or if there’s an Android or Blackberry app you’d like to review. This fertilizer removal […] Read more

It can take a lot of time to make the most of FCC’s Field Manager Pro, 
software, but Jay Peterson thinks it will be worth the time you spend


Going into another crop year is always a new and exciting venture. With the advent of all the new technology out there, farmers are not only looking for ways to record what they are doing in season but able to also project what they want to do — both agronomical and financially. One of the […] Read more

While many farmers are talking about variable rate technology, there are still lots of farmers who aren’t using it in the field yet

It seems that Variable Rate Technology (VRT) has found itself in a middle ground of use at the current time. The technology is there to use, but VRT has yet to have truly caught on as the next big thing in precision farming practices. From my discussions with farmer and agriculture professionals, it seems that the percentage of farmers actually using […] Read more

There are many business planning resources out there that will tell you being able to do 12 things well and at high efficiency will always be more profitable than trying to do 36 different things at a lower efficiency. In the context of production agriculture, I think it more than makes sense. Maintaining a clear […] Read more

With all technology there comes a time when there is a major shift from the old to the new. This usually comes from technology that’s been around for a few years, but either hasn’t been available in mass form, is too expensive or complicated for the average person to afford or hasn’t yet been perfected. […] Read more

Every year it seems there is an epic struggle to decide which glyphosate product to purchase. Luckily, glyphosate is not a very complicated product, and with the high uniform quality of today’s products it is not too difficult to have a high success rate if used in the proper solution within good application parameters. GLYPHOSATE […] Read more

There may not be any more important decision on the farm each year than choosing what to plant. Grain prices, agronomic factors and rotation are the key factors, although chasing price trends often wins out. Farmers seem to always want to stick with last year’s home-run money-making crop instead of trying to determine what will […] Read more

Getting a jump on the competition is a basic business principle; any advantage is better than none at all. In farming, your biggest competition is often weeds soaking up moisture and nutrients before or when the crop goes in. This competition directly steals yield out of the bin and takes away from your bottom line. […] Read more

Living, growing weeds in a field you’ve already sprayed is not something you ever want to see. More and more these days, weeds that survive spraying are not the result of misses or poor product but because of resistance to a growing list of products. Classifying a weed as truly herbicide resistant isn’t as cut […] Read more