Site-Specific Farming Enhances Farm Resilience
Invest in your farm future by using site-specific farm management technology.
Times of crisis are times of change. In the history of human endeavor, those who survive and effectively take challenges and adapt them into their advantage are the first to profit from the new prosperity that always follows a period of strife. An Elite set of American farmers will profit from the current agricultural crisis including those tinkering with site specific farming using precision-Ag technology.
Federal Census and US Economic studies show that agriculture in the United States is in an economic crisis not seen since the 1930’s Depression and Dust Bowl era. The evidence is seen in the fact that farmers' and ranchers' personal income is less than two third of workers in all other sectors of the economy. Inflation in agricultural inputs and land values, the trend toward topping out of crop yields, and flat commodity prices have wrung out profits from nearly all farm operations. The agricultural producers who can survive and thrive in these extremely tough times have unique personal and management qualities that are key to their survival.
One critical characteristic of these individuals is that they keep personally involved in applying new practices and field level research on their farms. These are individuals that invest personally in testing new crop varieties, different fertilizer blends and levels, new cropping rotations or livestock/crop integrations, different tillage and production practices, and other types of modifications to find the ones that have the most profitable and practical fit to their operational style and constraints. They have maintained the “can do” spirit that built America and served us so well through troubled times throughout our country’s history. They are forward thinkers but more importantly they are committed to and active in making farm management decisions that adjust their practices to cope with external economic and social changes.
Another characteristic is being future oriented. These are the individuals who invest a portion of their time, management and, resources in trying out new technology in their operations. It is this author’s belief that a good percentage of these pioneering farmers are currently applying site specific farm management using precision ag technology on their fields and are profiting from their use. These are the individuals who can best take a research based idea and put it to profitable and practical use on their farm. They are the most skilled in adapting and adopting to fit good ideas into workable practices because they have a lifetime experience of making the mis-aligned and mis-matched work on the farm.
Finally, the producers who will succeed and grow during times of crisis are those who have written down goals and a strategic plan to achieve their goal and then follow up with applying management and effort to accomplish the goal. Strategic planning is simply a series of steps and procedures that today's business manager uses to effectively plan the course of action he would like to follow including changes when potential new situations arise. Strategic planning is about looking into the future -- determining what products/services should be promoted, maintained, or abandoned depending on future conditions. This involves deciding what the market for products/services will be 5, 10, or more years into the future. Strategic planning begins with taking a business and personal assessment focusing on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Creating your place in the future is a matter of taking steps today that insure that you will get there. Having the confidence and optimism to take the first step is to use the will to do so. Confidence and optimism come from succeeding with that step and each following step. Your challenge is to take informed risks so that you learn better how to manage risks. Make site specific farming a reality on your farm by using today's technology.
