Deere Dealer's Precision Summit Introduces 160 Customers to New Technologies

Mar 14, 2024

Stotz Equipment, a John Deere dealer with 25 locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming hosted its sixth annual Precision Summit at the Dixie Convention Center in St. George, Utah over the winter. The event was organized and hosted by the company’s precision team and brought in over 160 attendees.

“The summit commenced with a welcome reception and open exhibit, giving customers the opportunity to connect with vendors and learn about the latest technologies,” the company said in a press release. “The following day started with a captivating keynote address by Stotz Equipment CEO, Tom Rosztoczy, setting the stage for attendees to explore the possibilities of integrating technology and data into their farming operations. Through real-life examples, participants gained insights into how farmers are leveraging tech and data to enhance decision-making processes and achieve tangible returns on investment.”

There were several breakout sessions following the keynote presentation, including customer panels that gave attendees the chance to learn how their peers are using precision technologies like drones, smart sprayers and more.

The precision team also debuted DJI T40 drones, which can spread fertilizer at a rate of up to 40 acres per hour. The summit wrapped up with a networking dinner event at a local indoor golf venue.

Stotz Equipment says initial feedback from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive, and their precision team of over 30 people is always looking for creative ways to strengthen relationships with customers.

Source : Farm Equipment

Video: Wheat Yields in USA and China Threatened by Heat Waves Breaking Enzymes

A new peer reviewed study looks at the generally unrecognized risk of heat waves surpassing the threshold for enzyme damage in wheat.

Most studies that look at crop failure in the main food growing regions (breadbaskets of the planet) look at temperatures and droughts in the historical records to assess present day risk. Since the climate system has changed, these historical based risk analysis studies underestimate the present-day risks.

What this new research study does is generate an ensemble of plausible scenarios for the present climate in terms of temperatures and precipitation, and looks at how many of these plausible scenarios exceed the enzyme-breaking temperature of 32.8 C for wheat, and exceed the high stress yield reducing temperature of 27.8 C for wheat. Also, the study considers the possibility of a compounded failure with heat waves in both regions simultaneously, this greatly reducing global wheat supply and causing severe shortages.

Results show that the likelihood (risk) of wheat crop failure with a one-in-hundred likelihood in 1981 has in today’s climate become increased by 16x in the USA winter wheat crop (to one-in-six) and by 6x in northeast China (to one-in-sixteen).

The risks determined in this new paper are much greater than that obtained in previous work that determines risk by analyzing historical climate patterns.

Clearly, since the climate system is rapidly changing, we cannot assume stationarity and calculate risk probabilities like we did traditionally before.

We are essentially on a new planet, with a new climate regime, and have to understand that everything is different now.