Erin Hightower, an agronomist for John Deere dealer RDO Equipment who is based in Kennewick, Wash., often uses a sports analogy to illustrate the first step to successful data management.

In the wake of Hurricane Helene's devastating impact on the western regions of North Carolina, an unexpected group of heroes emerged: farmers armed with drones.

“I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far,” Tyler Troiola says. “The herbicide savings were as advertised on corn. Soybeans were a little trickier, though.”

The RootWave system uses electricity to boil weeds and their roots. The new agreement will see the two manufacturers co-develop new weeding technology and products.

Tyler Troiola traded in his Hagie sprayer for a used 2018 John Deere R4038 sprayer with a 120-foot boom and 1,000 gallon-tank so he could upgrade to See & Spray Premium. His dealer, Sloan Implement, installed the 36-camera system, which took almost 2 weeks to complete.

The use of precision technology continues to grow for conservation-minded farmers according to No-Till Farmer’s 16^th annual No-Till Operational Benchmark Study and Strip-Till Farmer’s 11^th annual Strip-Till Operational Benchmark Study.

They may be on the cutting edge of technology, but robots rolling out across Australian farms are now incorporating tactics from the past to kill weeds.

Since the early days of no-till, a practice that began commercially in the U.S. in 1962, this group of farmers has embraced and found success with precision agriculture.