‘Wait and see’ | Growers are interested but want to see evidence of long-term benefits
Calgary — Edgar Hammermeister doesn’t know how many farmers have fully embraced precision agricultural technology.
“That’s a hard statistic to find. I would love to see one,” said Hammermeister, a producer from Alameda, Sask.
He knows there is a high degree of adoption with autosteer, but he doesn’t know how many farmers are using variable rate technology to apply fertilizer, fungicides and herbicides.
“Farmers are dabbling, but the degree of adoption is fairly small,” said Hammermeister, who was at a recent precision agriculture conference in Calgary to stay current on the latest technology. “There are guys on the cusp, who are trying to get an understanding of the risks and rewards.”
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Many farmers want to make sure there is a return for the big financial investment and time involved in adopting the technology, especially when the some of their neighbours have made the investment and seen little return.
“There is quite a wait and see. The technology was a little oversold.”
Hammermeister said he knows farmers are gathering data through yield monitors, satellite imagery and yield maps and trying to interpret the data to improve profitability.
Craig Shaw of Lacombe, Alta., said precision farming is a critical part of his operation, and he wants to stay abreast of the latest developments and find ways to maximize the tools he is already using.
Shaw said he is interested in using new remote sensing technology to find variations within fields.
He is watching new technology that allows farmers to join multiple sensors together so that they will meld information from a variety of sources and allow him to look for the clues in the data.
Shaw believes the technology is valuable because it allows a more precise placement of seed and fertilizer by reducing overlap.
“Using variable rate, we think we save dollars there, but those are not constant,” he said.
“Over time we think we are making money. Technology is now allowing us to look at things in ways we didn’t before.”
