[Technology Corner] Growing Interest in Precision Technology at National Strip-Tillage Conference

We just got back from the 10th annual National Strip-Tillage Conference in Bloomington, Ill. Precision technology was a hot topic throughout the 3-day event.

Drones took flight at the Precision Planting PTI Farm workshop. Precision Planting lead agronomist Jason Webster told the crowd of no-tillers and strip-tillers that he’s on board with the potential of these UAVs to provide a significant ROI.  

Pete Youngblut, owner and president of Youngblut Ag, a precision dealer in Dysart Iowa, gave a classroom presentation on precision technology, and how certain tools are crucial to the success of a strip-till operation. He’s been to several strip-till conferences, but he’s never seen this much interest from attendees in precision technology.

“It’s been growing — I think in the last two years even I've seen a large jump in it from the precision side. And a lot of guys will come to me and they go, "Hey, I got this monitor from you and we got auto steer in it. Does that mean I could do strips and maybe go in between my old corn rows or what could I do different?" And it's just been phenomenal. So it's caused us to do more with Strip-Till with row units, toolbar attachments, those kind of things. And it's kind of been a progressive step.”

Redekop, Sabanto, InnerPlant and One Smart Spray showcased their cutting-edge technologies during another precision-focused classroom. We’ll have a recap of that session coming soon to PrecisionFarmingDealer.com..