Harvesting corn and soybeans isn’t the only field demonstration you’ll see at the Farm Science Review. There’s also a section devoted to precision agriculture.

I went out to the field when these got started and spoke with John Deere’s Jamie Bultemeier (pictured on the left). He was conducting a precision tillage demonstration. Jamie’s an agronomist by training so he focuses on crop production as it relates to seeding, tillage, sprayers and GPS equipment.

In his demonstration he was tying two of those together. He says they have a John Deere 2510S strip till rig being guided by John Deere RTK sub inch accuracy steering to allow for repeatable planting next spring. After running down a row a little ways he stopped to talk with farmers and they commented on how moist the ground was even though there had been little rain of late.

Questions he gets asked a lot include, “How should I set it? What fertilizer should I use? What kind of attachments should I put on?” He says he’s spoken with about an equal number of farmers who are using the technology and those who aren’t yet.

You can listen to my interview with Jamie here: fsr-08-bultemeier.mp3

I also caught Jamie doing an end of the row run during his demonstration which you can watch here:

Farm Science Review Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the Farm Science Review is being sponsored by Monsanto and the Propane Research and Education Council.