There’s no shortage of competition among precision farming manufacturers, with both OEM and aftermarket suppliers jockeying for market share. Acquisitions and strategic partnerships continue to shape the future of the industry.

Returning for a third time to the Agricultural Electronics Foundation’s (AEF) annual North American Plugfest event in Lincoln, Neb., I again marveled at the intensity of the dozens of engineers as they hustled from station to station in search of enhanced equipment compatibility.

Celebrating my dad’s birthday this past weekend with family, one of the gifts he asked for — and we gave him — was a mobile tablet. This was admittedly a journey into uncharted technology waters for someone who’s never owned a cell phone and still regularly watches VHS cassettes.

Taking the pulse of precision farming dealers during the last few months, many say they’ve seen double-digit percentage drops in their precision hardware revenue during the last year.

While data continues to collect dust for some, more farmers are trying to turn their compiled farm information into something more than “pretty pictures.” A multitude of service providers have data management solutions that promise profitability.

In the last edition of our e-newsletter, I related the revolving-door professional path of a friend to the fluctuating job market for precision farming specialists. After talking with a diverse group of independent and farm equipment dealers last week about their recruiting and retention practices, it seemed like a topic worth revisiting.

Having lunch recently with a longtime friend in the technology business who is notoriously nomadic when it comes to employment, we casually debated the plusses and minuses of job flexibility vs. career stability.