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Trends shifting in ag tech space

An official with a precision ag company says there’s been a shift in the ag tech space.

Brian Sorbe with Topcon Agriculture tells Brownfield 10 years ago, autosteer was all the rage.  Now that guidance has become standard on most machines, he says the focus has moved to implements.

“It’s becoming a lot more interesting to see the automation that’s going on (with) seeders, planters, sprayers, spreaders, and all those kinds of things.”

But, Sorbe says automation only goes so far.

“There’s labor savings and input savings, but unless you have the agronomic wrapper around it that delivers the recommendations into it, it’s really just going to be capped as far as the value the farmer can receive.”

That’s why he says the next wave of ag tech involves data management.

“Trying to not only get the let’s say ‘as worked’ data off a field after you’re done working on it, but get that recommendation into the cab so it can be executed accurately and precisely.”

Brownfield spoke to Sorbe at the recent Ag Phd Field Day near Sioux Falls, South Dakota.