We tend to think about soil sampling as a line item expense. Something to do when times are good, but can be delayed when budgets are tighter. That couldn’t be further from the truth

We have been talking about the potential of aerial imagery from UAVs over the past few years, but what struck me recently at the InfoAg conference was the excitement surrounding satellite and aerial imagery from aircraft.

Tech companies often think user agreements are not that important—no one reads them anyway. This mentality instructs their lawyers to draft lengthy, lopsided, overly complex agreements that no one understands

Biologicals, inhibitors, and many other products are seeing the culmination of a growing season. And while we are operationally focused, there is a wealth of data streaming into out monitors to feed a winter worth of study and decision making.

I’m not one to procrastinate when it comes to paying bills, yet I’ll admit to occasionally stretching the timeline when it comes to trying out a new service or product — to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth.

You have a lot of external things vying for your time. Family, civic duties, and many other things ask for a piece of you each and every day. Balancing those with your farm operation is always a juggling act, and there is no easy time of year. How do we prioritize these events, and categorize them, so we get the most out of them?

The last five years have witnessed an explosion of online cloud-based platforms that promise to revolutionize farming. These platforms collect agriculture data, such as yield data, soil type, rainfall, fertility and dozens of other data points across entire fields.

There is no doubt that in the last 20 years we have come a long way in reading what our fields tell us. Whether it has been the wide adoption of soil sampling, yield monitors, or even the advent of infield sensors like moisture probes, we have come a long way in learning how to read the signs that our fields give us.

Talking with precision farming managers, I’ve found many have a method for minimizing the madness of recruiting or retaining employees.

Hopefully, by now, everybody is done planting. But mostly by now, we can begin to reflect and evaluate just how our planting season went. This reflection includes walking our fields and evaluating stand and emergence consistency.