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Tag Archives precision agriculture

Ag tech: Look before you leap
Equipment, News

Ag tech: Look before you leap

Consider these factors before you put your money into the latest ag innovation

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Although it’s easy to be smitten with the latest precision agricultural technology, one expert in the field advises people to look before they leap when it comes to adopting the technological innovations on offer. “Do your homework and know that the return on investment or the value of a technology on one farm is not […] Read more
The green-on-green spray technology displayed here allows weeds to be detected and sprayed in a growing crop. Sprayer expert Tom Wolfe put spot spraying right up there in his list of top three transformative technologies during a recent presentation at the Manitoba Agronomists Conference.
Editor's column, Wheat & Chaff

Editor’s Column: Where the action is

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There is no question spot sprayers are a hot topic in agriculture right now. As Scott Garvey reports in his article in our February 7, 2023 issue of Grainews, a new robotic spot sprayer called Solix from Solinftec, which is headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, and in West Lafayette, Ind., could be available to Canadian […] Read more
The percentage of canola growers using variable-rate fertilizer on all of their fields in 2021 was down slightly from the previous year.
Columns, Crops

Why are farmers slow to adopt variable-rate fertilizer technology?

Reasons for the slow adoption rate plus tips to get you started

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Variable-rate fertilizer (VRF) application has caught the interest of a lot of farmers over the past 15 years. However, the level of adoption of VRF has been slower than expected. A Fertilizer Canada survey of canola farmers in Western Canada in the fall of 2021 found only 10.2 per cent of growers used VRF application […] Read more
Bonnie Mandziak says precision ag companies must do a better job of providing farmers with guidance on how to use the data that precision ag technology generates.
Crops, Features

Precision ag panel spells out benefits and slow adoption rate

The challenges to variable-rate-technology uptake and other precision ag tools, and industry direction and focus

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While interest in precision agriculture has surged in Canada over the past decade, it’s no secret it isn’t being adopted as quickly as some in the industry would like to see. Garth Donald, manager of agronomy in Western Canada for Decisive Farming by Telus Agriculture, agreed the adoption rate for precision ag methods such as […] Read more
OmniPower autonomous power platforms undergoing testing in Arizona. Saskatchewan grower Carl deConinck Smith uses the OmniPower autonomous system developed by Raven Technology to run a SeedMaster seeder and a New Leader spreader on his farm.
Crops, Equipment, Features

How to make the most of every acre

How precision ag tools can help boost efficiency and production

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It’s often said you need the right tools to do the job right. That is certainly the case in agriculture, where today’s farmer relies more and more on leading-edge technologies to push the boundaries of efficiency and production. There’s no argument on that point from Shayla Wourms, who runs a family-owned grain farm in Saskatchewan along […] Read more
(Dave Bedard photo)
Crops, Machinery

Agco buys Manitoba ag autonomy firm JCA

Massey, Fendt maker boosts precision ag capacity

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International farm equipment maker Agco is aiming to boost its bench strength in the precision agriculture and autonomous ag sectors by buying a Prairie software and hardware company known for both. Agco, the maker of machinery brands including Massey Ferguson, Fendt, Challenger and Valtra, said Monday it has bought Winnipeg-based JCA Technologies for an undisclosed […] Read more
The 70-foot-wide Seed Hawk air drill at Bailla Farms has a 980-bushel tank with four compartments. With sectional controls every 10 feet across the width of the drill, it is very responsive to variable-rate seed and fertilizer placement as it passes over 10 different production zones in each field.
Equipment, Features

Do SWAT Maps deliver?

Farmers say layered information allows them to apply inputs where they do the most good

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Colin Rosengren and Kelly Baillargeon farm on almost opposite ends of Saskatchewan, yet they have the same thinking when it comes to what they expect from precision farming and variable-rate technology (VRT). Rosengren owns Rosengren Farms along with family members at Midale, in southeast Saskatchewan, while about 650 kilometres to the northwest, Baillargeon owns Bailla […] Read more
This photo of a field sprayer outfitted with two cameras on the boom is an example of a new service being introduced by Croptimistic Technology this year called SWAT Cams. As the sprayer travels over the crop, the cameras will take pictures every 50 feet. The images are analyzed by software and used to show the amount of biomass cover over every acre. The variation in ground cover will be of value in making management decisions about increasing or decreasing inputs, such as seeding and fertility rates.
Equipment, Features

Crop pictures worth a few thousand footsteps

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Croptimistic Technology, based out of Naicam, Sask., perhaps better known by its SWAT Maps brand name, is launching two new services in 2022 to make it easier and more affordable to map the soil and topography of the whole farm, and then literally view every acre of the crop during the growing season.  SWAT Cams […] Read more
The iMetos 3.3 is the premier weather station from Metos Canada designed for sophisticated field monitoring and forecasting.
Equipment, Features

How IoT technology can help you make better farm decisions

A connected network of sensors, soil probes and in-field weather stations can deliver detailed data that’s accurate and up to the minute

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There’s lots of talk these days around the “connected farm” and the growing slate of tools to help producers boost productivity, increase efficiencies and reduce risks on their farms. An important aspect of this technology is IoT or internet of things. IoT allows interconnected devices to measure many kinds of agronomic variables and relay this […] Read more
A CNH manufacturing plant at Sorocaba, west of Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil. (Photo courtesy CNH Industrial)
Crops, Machinery, Markets, Reuters

CNH sees revenues rising to 2024 on precision agriculture plans

Margin at agricultural unit seen at 14.5 to 15.5 per cent

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Milan | Reuters — Italian-American vehicle maker CNH Industrial on Tuesday gave guidance for a total revenue growth of up to 24 per cent through 2024 as it presented a new business plan after spinning off its truck, bus and engine units. In a bid to focus on its higher-margin agriculture and construction machine businesses, […] Read more

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