There is a group of indigenous people in Honduras that live off an average of $300 a year… less than one dollar a day. At least two months out of every year they starve. That’s the reality as Billy Collins sees it. Billy has been working with the Chortí Maya, the direct descendants of the Mayan Indians, for five years. …
Ag Leader Technology Precision Scholarships
Precision agriculture training at Iowa State University just got a boost. Today, Ag Leader Technology announced their commitment to support students interested in precision agriculture by establishing the Ag Leader Technology Precision Agriculture Scholarship within the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE) at Iowa State University. Five Ag Leader scholarships will be awarded annually starting in the 2008/2009 school …
Visiting John Deere AMS For Precision Pays
It’s been a very interesting day on the road. I just finished up conducting some interviews at the John Deere Ag Management Solutions offices in Urbandale, IA. I’m going to be using them for a series of stories on Precision Pays. There’s a lot going on in the precision ag world right now as pressure mounts to reduce input costs …
Trimble Makes Precision Ag EZ
There was certainly a lot of precision agriculture equipment and software on display at this year’s Commodity Classic as well as at the National Farm Machinery Show. Here’s Matt Hesse, Auto Pilot Segment Manager for Trimble at Classic. We asked Stewart Doan to find out what’s new from Trimble in ’08. Matt says they’ve got a number of new products …
New Viewer Software From AutoFarm
Another company I just didn’t have time to visit with at Commodity Classic is AutoFarm. They’ve got some new products out including software that displays data on precision displays. This is a screen shot of what it looks like. AutoFarm® announces the upcoming release of AF-Viewer™ II software. Developed by Farm Works Software exclusively for AutoFarm, AF-Viewer II will offer …
Marketing Farm Machinery
If you’ve never attended the National Farm Machinery Show then you really owe it to yourself to wander around the largest indoor show of its kind in the world. I mean it’s big. I didn’t stay for the whole show this year but I think I covered some ground anyway. While there I spoke with Dan Smaldone, Media Manager for …
New ISU Precision Ag Lab
Iowa State University has a new precision ag lab thanks to Ag Leader Technology. Pictured from left to right are: Dr. Thomas Brumm, Associate Professor, ISU, Dr. U. Sunday Tim, Associate Professor, ISU, Dr. Ramesh Kanwar, ABE Department Chair, ISU Al Myers, President, Ag Leader Technology, Michael Vos, Software Sales Manager, Ag Leader Technology. Ag Leader Technology, Inc. has donated …
Self-Propelled Sprayer Debuts on Consumer Market at Agritechnica
John Deere has officially introduced its first ever self-propelled sprayer for the European market, the 5430i, as one of the latest options in sprayer technology at Agritechnica 2007. The Manager of John Deere advertising in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, Paul Leathem, says European business is moving away from mounted sprayers and is demanding more self-propelled technology. He says …
New Look for John Deere at Agritechnica 2008
The preview days for Agritechnica 2007 suggest that John Deere is going to be rather busy at the event this year. Typically, the preview days are reserved for media, honored guests and participants who don’t mind paying triple the normal entrance fee. But, the high-dollar tickets didn’t manage to keep a steady crowd away from John Deere’s revamped exhibit. Dr. …
Precision Agriculture in Rice Planting
Precision agriculture is hitting the rice industry in Japan. At least it’s in R&D now at the Furukawa Agricultural Research Station. I interviewed Yoshisada Nogasaka, Research Team for Farm Machinery and Systems for NARC, the National Agricultural Research Center. He’s the guy who’s developing the software to run the prototype Autonomous Rice Transplanter we saw on demonstration at the Furukawa …