Technology Cuts Costs, Increases Crop Yields

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By Northwest Herald | 02 July 2012 | 211

When John Bartman planted this spring at his Marengo farm, he had a touchscreen mounted in his tractor automatically telling the machine to add more seed here, less there. More fertilizer in this field, less in that. The technology, called geographic information systems (GIS), records every step of the farming process – from planting to harvesting – using built-in GPS tracking. Then, it stores and analyzes the info to be used for reference next time around. The fields show up on the GIS devices as color-coded maps, with red showing areas that need more treatment, green showing areas that need less. Read More