Monsanto Moves Forward with “Precision Agriculture” Technology
By Graham Dyer, Farms.com
Monsanto Co. announced that starting in 2014 they will be offering a new service to farmers in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana – it’s called “FieldScripts.” The new service technology has the ability to analyse farmers’ fields and recommend a corn hybrid for planting and how deep corn seeds should be planted to produce the highest yields.
How does it work?
FieldScripts will be able to deliver the suggested recommendations for corn planting via an application on Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet. Farmers will then be able to buy the recommended seed and use the control system to plant corn seeds accordingly to the suggested corn seeds per acre.
What is “Precision Agriculture”?
The new technology is part of an effort to capitalize on a new era of agriculture that refers to the use of technology to assist farmers with their basic needs - including the usage of seeds, fertilizer and other chemicals. Monsanto has strategically positioned themselves to be a leader in Precision Farming with the acquisition of Precision Planting Inc., a company that specialized in computer technology and other electronic systems for planting purposes.
Next year, Monsanto plans to start testing the new product technology to ensure that the seed planting aspect of the technology is uniform when working with different soil types.