Following the success of its first two, sold out events, Lessiter Media Inc., Brookfield, Wis., has announced the theme of the 3rd Precision Farming Dealer Summit — “Bridging the Precision Profitability Gap.”

Our most recent online poll asks how soon dealers expect autonomous vehicles to be commercially available, and the vast majority don’t expect we’ll be waiting very long.

The roundtable topic of adding agronomic services drew a large crowd. To kick the conversation off, moderator John Marshall, integrated solutions manager for Wade Inc., took a quick poll to get a feel for how many in the room currently offered agronomy services. Of the 30 or so who sat in on this roundtable, roughly 20% had hired an agronomist.

The first question tackled in this roundtable discussion was “What is autonomy?” Initially the group would have thought of driverless tractors completing tasks in the fields without an operator in the field.

The 2017 Precision Farming Dealer Summit succession planning roundtable in St. Louis “played” to a packed room. Moderated by Tim Norris, former CEO, Ag Info Tech (2016 Most Valuable Dealership), Mount Vernon, Ohio, the participants included family-owned precision dealerships with a handful to employees all the way to businesses with hundreds of employees.