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New precision agriculture technologies

Aimed at creating a more efficient farm operation

By Diego Flammini, Farms.com

As the 2015 planting season approaches, farmers are looking for better ways to understand what’s going on underneath and on top of the soil and the proper measures to take to ensure this year is the most fruitful and profitable year they’ve had.

One of the current popular ways farmers are going about it is adopting precision agriculture – using technology to look at their farms differently and adapt their farming practices accordingly.

Here are some of the newer products on the market available to farmers who already practice or are thinking about adopting precision agriculture.

Topcon Positioning Systems
This Livermore, California operation with offices throughout the United States and abroad is helping farmers get more yields with less inputs.

It has many different options and capabilities for farmers. They can use the GPS and implement automatic steering on their combines, or their ASC-10 to control spreading and spraying for maximum efficiency and eliminating gaps.

senseFly eBee
The eBee drone, made by Swiss company senseFly (it’s available in the United States and Canada) has the ability to survey the fields and compile various data including elevation, plant counting and can use thermal infrared to perform plant physiology analysis.

With their Postflight Terra 3D software, they can take the images from the drone, download them directly, create NDVI maps and write prescriptions that can be carried out on the same day.

Join the conversation and tell us if you currently practice precision agriculture or use any of these products. If you do, how have they worked for you? If you don’t use them, would you consider doing so?

Check out the precision agriculture page for more information.


Trending Video

Treating Sheep For Lice!

Video: Treating Sheep For Lice!

We are treating our sheep for lice today at Ewetopia Farms. The ewes and rams have been rubbing and scratching, plus their wool is looking patchy and ragged. Itchy sheep are usually sheep with lice. So, we ran the Suffolk and Dorset breeding groups through the chutes and treated them all. This treatment will have to be done again in two weeks to make sure any eggs that hatched are destroyed too. There was a lot of moving of sheep from pen to pen around the sheep barn but by all the hopping and skipping the sheep were doing, I think they enjoyed the day immensely! We hope you do too!