Like many of my childhood friends, I grew up with an appreciation for nature and I cut my teeth as member of our local Boy Scout troop. I can still picture my mom sewing every one of those merit patches onto my uniform, which she recently found and returned to me, for sentimental reasons.

Tyler Knudsen, precision ag salesman for Ziegler Ag Equipment in Altoona, Iowa, talks about the benefits of having designated precision ag sales and service/support roles at the Ziegler's dealership.

As many dealerships canvass the precision farming landscape for additional help, it was interesting to receive a call last week from an experienced precision technician who recently decided to start his own business.

Wells Implement, Inc., a third-generation, family-owned agriculture equipment dealership based in Plymouth, Neb. is now a Topcon Precision Agriculture (TPA) dealer.

While settling in last Sunday evening with my wife to catch-up on some dramatic television viewing stored in our DVR, we were interrupted by a restless 5-year-old who was clearly thrown off by daylight savings.

Precision hardware sales & additional staff could lay the foundation for future service offerings.

Precision farming can be handled and defined in a variety of ways from one dealer to the next. We sat down with five precision farming specialists, across all colors, to ask them how they define precision farming, what they look for in their precision technicians & where the technology is headed.

As a precision farming dealer, what are your top three needs to improve technology service and support capabilities at your dealership heading into 2013?

There were plenty of the combines still roaming the fields in Indiana and Ohio during my swing through the two states last week visiting several precision farming dealers.