AgCareers US

DIGITAL AGRICULTURE

by Kate Boeckenstedt, AgCareers.com Marketing Intern

KEEPING UP WITH THE LATEST

technology trends can be difficult.

However, staying up to date with the

newest advancements in agriculture

technology can be even more challenging.

According to

National Geographic,

there

will be nine billion people on Earth to

feed by 2050. So what is the importance

of digital agriculture?

A major factor in digital agriculture

has been the technology of precision

farming. Farmers all across the nation

now have the capability to install electric

drives for changing populations on the fly,

seed meters for plant spacing and

downforce of applied pressure to

maintain the perfect seeding depth and

uniform emergence. As well as a new

tool for planters added to the market this

year that provides feedback information

on the soil’s organic content and overall

cleanliness of the seed trench. With the

utilization of agriculture data systems like

precision farming or autosteer, farmers

can plant straight rows and ensure there

is no significant gaps or overlaps of the

crop rows in their fields. The

advancements of technology in the

agriculture field allow farmers to

produce more efficiently.

It used to be extremely difficult to

manage data and companies struggled to

find a universal system that was

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ood

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uide

compatible with all brands of machinery.

The data has now been modified to store

all information in one system. All of the

information used to be stored in a tower

and now it is all in the cloud. The cloud

allows the farmers access to their data

at all times and they do not have to

manually download it from the tractor

and transfer it onto a hard drive. James

Jordan, a GPS professor at Kirkwood

Community College, thinks one of the

next big things for digital agriculture

will be automated prescriptions that

will make recommendations for seeding,

fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides and

fungicides.

Another piece of technology that is

beginning to play a key role in digital

agriculture is the utilization of drones.

Jordan says, “The hardware is currently

ahead of the science.” The drones have so

many capabilities but there are currently

not enough solutions for what to do with

the data. Someday drones will be a new

piece to the puzzle of providing daily,

weekly and monthly images of each field.

Those pictures will validate the

progression of how the crops are

maturing and knowing how weather,

diseases and pests are impacting it. As

well as developing an actionable plan of

what to do with the pictures and

information. Jordan also thinks

crowdsourcing data in the agriculture

industry is upcoming. This application

allows farmers to upload their data to

a network and benchmark what other

farmers in a certain area are getting for

an average yield.

Agriculture companies are even

working to develop solar-powered robots

that can spray and weed fields. The

robots are still in the development stage

but are being tested in several parts

of the world. The robot is designed to

distinguish weeds from crops and zap the

weeds with herbicide. Studies suggest

that these robots could interfere with the

multi-billion dollar industry of genetically

modified plants and herbicide sales since

the robots are only designed to spray

herbicide as needed. The robots are

currently being designed for fields

planted with vegetables and cotton.

Eventually, within the next five years,

there is expected to be a robot designed

to spray soybean fields.

AgCareers.com has a wide array of

careers in the digital agriculture field.

Jobs posted on the site vary from Data

Scientists, Precision Technology Specialist,

Precision Agriculture Sales, Drone Pilot,

Process and Technology Analyst,

Research and Development Manager,

Technical Agronomist and Custom

Applicator Data Analyst.

WHY UTILIZE DATA &