Lee Nunn says he makes use of quite a lot of precision agriculture on his Georgia farm to avoid wasting assets.

Stephen Fowler/Georgia Public Broadcasting

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Stephen Fowler/Georgia Public Broadcasting

Lee Nunn says he makes use of quite a lot of precision agriculture on his Georgia farm to avoid wasting assets.

Stephen Fowler/Georgia Public Broadcasting

Lee Nunn has the primary tractor his grandfather ever purchased sitting at his farm in Madison, about an hour east of Atlanta: a 1968 John Deere 4020 that is gleaming inexperienced and nonetheless runs like a dream. At the time, it was a technological marvel, with a 90 horsepower engine, a cover roof – and 0 computer systems. “This was the first model of tractor back in the day – Now think, it’s 1968 – that had an automatic cigarette lighter in 1968 and his people thought that was the best thing in the absolute world,” Nunn stated.

But just a few rows down is what Nunn drives immediately, a behemoth John Deere 8360 machine that’s outfitted with air-con, heated seats, tinted home windows and different trendy comforts that make these 10-12 hour days within the subject a bit extra bearable. “Farming’s come a long way, we’re a little bit ahead of the straw hats and the overalls days now,” Nunn stated, noting that his operation is a far cry from his grandfather’s tractor.

Another factor that is come a good distance is know-how that guides a rising subject in ag that marries modern tools with good quaint farming, also referred to as precision agriculture.

“Precision agriculture in most broadest terms would be a system whereby we can deliver exactly what a set of plants needs when they need it, no more, no less,” stated Eric Elsner, who runs the University of Georgia’s J. Phil Campbell Sr. Research and Education Center.

“The precision ag technology can help that farmer make really complex decisions that are better decisions than if we just left it to the human brain and human nature,” he stated.

Precision agriculture helps farmers lower your expenses by utilizing much less water and fertilizer and releasing fewer pesticides into the atmosphere. It harnesses real-time information to maximise their yields.

Practically talking for Lee Nunn, meaning having a GPS that guides the steering of his tractor with sub-inch accuracy, and the tools it pulls has sensors that sends an array of information as much as the cloud and into the palm of his hand. “It records everything that it’s doing: speed, direction, what type of seeds I’m planting, how many seeds I’m planting per acre per foot, the depth of the seeds,” he stated. “I’ve actually got one piece of equipment that measures the soil temperature and soil moisture as I go across the field.”

Nunn grows crops like wheat, soybeans, corn and cotton throughout 1,500 acres and has witnessed firsthand the evolution in precision ag know-how.

“The accuracy of the GPS is one thing that amazes me: This tractor can drive itself within an inch every year on the same line.”

Barriers and burdens to wider use Nunn has been utilizing precision agriculture in some kind for the final decade and is an evangelist of the monetary and environmental advantages it brings. But he stated there are limitations to extra widespread adoption amongst small and medium sized farmers. If you’ll be able to afford the costly tools, spotty broadband could make it exhausting to entry the information created by the machines. And should you’ve bought the web pace, these ag tech improvements do not all the time play good throughout totally different machines or manufacturers, like making an attempt to make use of an Apple cable to cost an Android telephone. In agricultural phrases, that is proudly owning a inexperienced tractor from one firm and wanting so as to add a pink plow from a unique one, Nunn stated, one thing that may’t actually work with out getting a 3rd occasion to assist join them. “To be honest, that’s just another added cost, another added headache, another added piece of electrical equipment on a piece of farm equipment,” he stated. “So what we would like to see is some sort of standard to where all these different manufacturers’ pieces of equipment will seamlessly operate together.”

That’s one thing that lawmakers from either side of the aisle agree on. They’re additionally pushing for grants to make precision ag tech extra reasonably priced. Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune have a invoice that may create requirements for precision agriculture. It additionally has incentives for corporations to ensure these inexperienced tractors and pink plows work higher collectively. Warnock lately met with Nunn and different farmers for an illustration that included auto-steering tractors, drones and different precision know-how at a University of Georgia farm. During a roundtable dialogue they talked about methods the federal authorities may enhance the usage of these improvements. “We saw today the huge difference that this technology is already making, but it could be much better,” Warnock stated to reporters after the go to. “What I heard from these farmers again today is that it’s important that these different technologies, whether it’s drones or robotics or monitors, that they be able to talk to one another.”

Both farmers and lawmakers hope that laws makes it into the omnibus Farm Bill later this yr.