How to Effectively Reach Farmers and Assist Them in Reaching Their Precision Management Goals

Precision and digital agriculture have been popular buzz words floating around the last several years. These broad terms cover a plethora of topics including GPS ear tags for livestock, soil moisture probes, and aerial imagery. With such a wide number of technological advances at their fingertips, it can be overwhelming for farmers to know where to start. A study conducted by Purdue University in 2019 took a deeper look at data and software usage across 800 farms larger than 1000 acres (DeLay et al, 2020). Their research revealed that over half of farmers who don’t use farm data or software avoid using it because they either don’t know how to utilize it or are unclear on the benefits. An opportunity to dive deeper and take a look at Nebraska allowed us to draw conclusions on how Nebraska farmers feel they want to received assistance with adopting precision technology onto their operations. The biggest findings from this survey are that people want strong customer support from technology companies. They want to trust who they work with and know that they are being looked after. Over half of farmers are willing to pay for someone to provide a service for them rather than adopt a new technology on their own. Cost is still a very limiting factor. Technology is on the verge of really taking off in agriculture. In the next 8-10 years, I predict a bigger adoption of new technologies as they continually improve and younger generations take over the operation