The 2023 Precision Agriculture Dealership Survey shows continued growth in technology to streamline and increase the efficiency of operations, such as in sprayer boom section/nozzle control, turn compensation, fleet management and telemetry.
These are possible reactions to input costs and skilled worker shortages, according to Purdue University and CropLife America, organizers of the survey. The enthusiasm continues for applying crop inputs with drones. More dealers will offer drone imagery, but fewer dealers are offering satellite or aerial imagery, and dealers say imagery use is declining on farms. On-farm data continues to be used the most for fertilizer-related decisions and for hybrid/variety selection, but in the last few years, dealers have not increased their use of on-farm data for decision-making.
The survey shows 89 percent of dealers use auto guidance on their application equipment/GPS-guided boom section/nozzle controllers on sprayers, which reduce doubling-up and skips, are used at 82 percent of dealerships, and sprayer turn compensation continues to grow, now at 41 percent.