Are you tired of tech?

[lbedord]

As I cover more and more ag tech start-ups looking to make their way onto the farm, it had me wondering how seriously farmers take these start-ups.

How do you decide which technologies are worth trying on your farm? 

With so many start-ups moving into ag tech, are you getting tired of being inundated with options?

Thanks for your insight!

Laurie Bedord

Advanced Technology Editor

[JimMeade]

The problem to me is making the stuff pay.  

UAS drones, for example, I can't see the money.  Probably the bigger you are the easier it is to make pay as you spread the cost over more acres and it may not take so much return to break even.

Auto-steer is a great deal to me.  Pays in reduced fatique and better placement.  Clutches are wonderful as they reduce overlap and waste.

Yield monitors - not so much to me.  I never could figure out how to use the information in the feedback loop to make money.  And calibrating is a nuisance.

There is a lot of snake oil in agriculture - we only have to look at the fertilizer products to see that.  One fears there is a fair amount of snake oil in precision ag or tech, as well.

[xapis1779299]

Completely sick and tired of "tech".  Auto steer is a wonderful invention.  The other electronic crap is tiresome and costly for what I think is nothing.  My guess is that there is a lot of money to be made by selling us farmers this junk.

Combines for instance.  How about this?  A 9600 with a 7 foot cylinder.   84 inches across and 30 inch diameter.  Beaters and sieves to match.  Big unload auger.  Hydraulic levers in the cab to lift feeder house, reel, unloading auger, etc.  A THROTTLE LEVER instead of toggle switch!!!   Get rid of the electronic junk as much as possible.  Big bearings and shafts.  Heavy sheet metal.  Balance the machine with rear engine placement on big duals or triples.  Once again.  Get rid of the wonderful "tech" crap that we do not want anyway.  Any manufacturer listening???

[hwr247]

couldnt agree more!  was thinking of somehow making a combine like u mentioned just big with lots of power and can eat a 60’ swath at 5-6 mph!

[xapis1779299]

Lets do it!!!!  🙂