A Better Way to Farm

Farming has always been a tedious, time consuming, back-breaking way to earn a living. The farmers of our country have always held a high place of respect and awe from the rest of us pencil pushers who take advantage of the sweat of their brow to make sure that we have enough food on our table. Farming has always been a balance between learned skill and guessing game with regards to the weather and nature, and how to best irrigate and fertilize your crops to make sure you have the best yield possible to keep you in business for the long run. Today’s advances in technology is also doing great things to help with farmers. A recent development by Trimble matches the benefits of GPS technology with good old fashion farming to make sure crops are taken care of.

How it Works

The Trimble Irrigate-IQ works with farmers’ irrigation system to remotely control irrigation and fertilization systems using GPS technology to make sure that crops maintain the optimal level of hydration and fertilization. Among the benefits of this system is a way to ensure that the crops receive just the right amount, which will help produce a better crop each season. There are cost savings galore thanks to the GPS technology involved with this product. A farmer would be able to save electricity and gas from operating the system only when it was needed. The environment would be helped by having less runoff of chemicals and fertilizer. There is also the added benefit of being flexible to handle a variety of solutions from several different companies.

Mobile or Desktop Enabled

The use of GPS technology also allows this product to be paired with an app that is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and Android operating systems. By using the GPS technology, farmers will be able to check on the progress of each pivot for irrigation to make sure they are functioning at optimal levels. They will be able to remotely control the operation of the pivots, while also being able to switch to different levels of fertilizer or water. In addition to the work that can be done using mobile technology, there are also software programs to do the same from traditional desktop and laptop computers. Farmers will be able to acquire the app for free, which will give them greater freedom to manage their irrigation from anywhere.

Balance of International Trade for Agriculture

Year	Result
2005	Exported approximately $4,000,000,000 more than we imported
2006	Exported approximately $5,500,000,000 more than we imported
2007	Exported approximately $17,000,000,000 more than we imported
2008	Exported approximately $34,800,000,000 more than we imported

Narrowing the Farming Gaps

The ability of farmers to use GPS technology allows them to expand everything from the size of their farms to the variety of their crops. With devices like the Irrigate-IQ and others like it, much of the sheer labor is being removed from the profession of farming. As the prices on these devices comes down, it will also allow smaller sized farms to achieve the same kinds of efficiencies that larger farms have enjoyed for years. Using the GPS technology allows for farmers to take more of the guess work out of farming. They still won’t be able to predict the weather accurately (but really, who can?), but the use of this technology will only help to reduce barriers to larger yields.

Virtual Farming

While there will still be a lot of blood, sweat, and tears with farming, the use of GPS technology, satellites, machinery, robots, and so forth is making farming more of a thinking man’s (or woman’s) game. While there is still the need for a lot of brute force and hard labor, the way technology is improving is putting more of an emphasis on working smarter at what you are trying to accomplish. The yield of most fruits and vegetables is growing in leaps and bounds. While the United States continues to import more manufactured goods than we export, we also continue to export more agricultural goods than we import. We have become the breadbasket of the world and with each new advance in technology, our bread basket will only keep giving and giving. Perhaps the amazing part about our increased production is that we are doing it with less land. The amount of land used in farming for pastures or crops has decreased slightly over the past 50 years while we are doing more with the land.

Our nation’s farmers are something to be proud of. The tireless and thankless work they do every day is something to be admired. Using GPS technology for something that is so much more important than finding a faster way to the mall is worth to provide food for so many.

A Better Way to Farm