The tale of the Pitcher Whisperer immediately reminded me of a recent interview I did with Vanderloop Equipment's Mark Vanderloop, who I’ll call the “Tech Whisperer” of the 3-store AGCO dealership.

High costs are apparently keeping many ag retailers from adding drone pesticide spraying, fertilizer applications, cover crop seeding and field imagery to their lineup of services offered to farmers.

To put that into perspective, these savings are the equivalent of 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools over an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.

The 1992 release of the Yield Monitor 2000 — the first commercially successful on-the-go yield monitor — was a historic moment in the emerging world of precision agriculture. It was the brainchild of Al Myers, Ag Leader founder and president, who never imagined the company would become what it is today when he spent years tinkering with the prototype in his basement.

In honor of the 2nd annual Precision Specialist Week celebration, we collected these tributes from members of the ag community to recognize all of the hard work and dedication of those making today's precision farming systems possible.

Even for widely used options like variable-rate fertilizer, GPS auto-steer, auto seed shutoff and yield monitoring data analysis, more than 15% of no-tillers indicated they would likely purchase the technology in the next 5 years.

The average professional, if they’re lucky, might be able to cite one mentor in their life. I’ve been blessed with several who decided that developing me, advising me and correcting me was worth their effort.

Planting season has arrived in the northwest corner of Illinois. Chad Baker hits the road for last-minute planter inspections and agrees to give us a peek behind the curtain during one of the busiest times of the year.

I’ve spent the last 20 years working in the ag equipment business with John Deere — the first 10 in the corporate world and the last 10 in the dealership world.