Brian Ryberg, who farms with his wife, Sandy, near Buffalo Lake, Minn., has been on the bleeding edge of precision farming since the 1990s when he first started using a yield monitor in his combine.

Koch Agronomic Services has agreed to provide product research data to The Climate Corporation to use in the development of the data science models that power the company’s industry-leading Climate FieldView digital agriculture platform.

Implement guidance is still an emerging technology in North America, but it is being utilized in other parts of the world to improve agricultural production. This recent article from Ag Contractor & Large Scale Farmer looks at some of the considerations for adding implement guidance to a farming operation.

The Myers began their precision farming journey in 1996 when they outfitted their 1983 Gleaner L3 combine with a yield monitor. That’s when Bill Myers, who farms with his son, John, daughter, Rita, and brothers, Robert, and Ivan Jr., began to understand what adjusting crop inputs could do for their bottom line.

Seeing the need to for more flexibility to map soils, Eric Lund, president of Veris Technologies discusses the features of the new iScan system that mounts to the row unit of a tillage implement or planter. The front coulter and the rear closing disc contain 2 electrodes that inject electrical current and then 2 chromium carbide points detect the electrical array after it’s gone down in the soil about 2 feet. An optical sensor also shines red and infrared light 2 inches deep to measure soil optical properties which relate to organic matter.

Matt Strein with AeroVironment discusses the new Quantix unmanned aerial vehicle solution. The hybrid aircraft combines features of a quadcopter and fixed-wing models. A vertical launch and transition to horizontal flight allows for 400 acres of coverage and up to 45 minutes of flight time.

Kansas State University Extension discusses technology to consider that could help take some guesswork out of determining optimum nitrogen application rates for winter wheat.

Jeff Herrold farms with his brother, Paul, on Herrold Farms near Wanatah, Ind. While they are no strangers to precision farming practices, Jeff says he certainly would like to leverage the data they have collected to better manage inputs and improve yields.

LandPKS combines cloud computing, digital soil-mapping data and the Global Positioning System (GPS) to provide information about the sustainable potential of land under current and future climate, says the USDA.