Ag Leader Technology Blog

With colder temperatures here and the crops out of the field, fall application will soon be in full swing.  Last week, we provided some safety tips for fall application. When transitioning from harvest to fall application, there are also a few things to remember to keep your data in order and prevent downtime in the [...]

Growers talk about their experience with Ag Leader’s DirectCommand system and the benefits they’ve seen on their operation.

It is inevitable that Ag Leader’s products are going to be used in unusual situations around the globe. During our recent training for International Distributors, I got to hear of one such situation from Mac Nel, who currently works for our South African distributor. Mac has been involved in the use of a DirectCommand system on locomotives to apply herbicides. Below is his description of the problem, the solution and the challenges.

Spring is rapidly approaching, and hopefully your equipment preparations are well under way. As technology becomes more pervasive and machines themselves become more complex, the pre-season checklist for machine preparation potentially grows longer and longer.
Products like the INTEGRA display, DirectCommand and ParaDyme have great power to increase in-field productivity, but these products are incapable of [...]

It has been awhile since my last blog post, so I wanted to take a moment to catch everyone up with what is happening at Ag Leader Academy.   Our Technical Support team spent a large amount of time both before and after harvest building equipment for our 2011 Ag Leader dealer training.  Below are a [...]

What are the best applicator options for using OptRx crop sensors?
For optimum performance, OptRx should be used to apply nitrogen when the healthiest corn is between V5-V12 (about 2 foot to 7 foot tall).  When using OptRx sensors on wheat, topdress application can occur anytime between tillering and stem elongation.
The ideal side dress applicator [...]

As a grower, it’s important to take whatever steps needed to ensure maximum yield potential. Variable rate nitrogen application utilizing OptRx crop sensors is one way to reduce the risk of over fertilizing in early growth stages and ensure optimum plant health across the entire field.
How can OptRx help maximize my profit potential?
Organically Speaking
The amount [...]

Crop sensing technology is something growers tend to have many questions about, and most of the questions relate to one main concept – how crop sensors can help your operation. With that being said, I’ve put together a series of three blog posts in an effort to answer some of the common questions regarding our [...]

As harvest season comes to an end, many growers are ready to move into fall application of fertilizer and anhydrous. Your precision ag equipment plays an important role in fall application, and making sure you have everything prepared can help make your fall application go smoothly. Below are a few things to keep in mind [...]

One of the main advantages of precision farming, as we have discussed in previous Lessons, is the ability to base management decisions on site-specific information, making an operation more efficient. Variable rate technology is another way that precision farming can benefit an operation’s bottom line.
Variable Rate Technology (VRT) is the technology used to vary the [...]

Back on May 12th I wrote a blog post about rice farmers in Costa Rica adopting precision farming practices and realizing the benefits of the technology.  Two weeks ago I had the chance to visit Costa Rica and talk with rice farmers about their operations and experiences with precision farming technology.  While talking to the [...]

Since my last post I have had a number of interesting and exciting life experiences.  A few weeks ago I traveled to the UK to visit with sprayer manufactures about using DirectCommand with either an EDGE or INTEGRA display.  It was a good learning experience for all parties involved, for example I was able to [...]

Since my last post I have had to empty out my rain gauge a few times.  It does not happen very often we complain about all the rain that we are getting in mid to late July.  While I do not have the answer to why we are receiving all of this rain now, I [...]

Since my last post I have toured parts of Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.  No matter where you go the big question is rain and how much did you get?  Depending on whom you ask and where they are located you are bound to hear one of the following responses: “too little”, “just [...]

It’s hard to believe that July is almost here and fall harvest is not all that far away.  It won’t be long and the kids will be back in school and we will all be wondering the same thing – where did this summer go?  As I drive by corn and soybean fields on my [...]

This past weekend as I drove home from one of my niece’s graduation ceremony in northern Iowa I was passing the time by thinking about quickly things change.  It seems like it was just last week that her mother, dad and I took her to her first 4th of July parade. I’ll never forget that [...]

In my last post I talked about getting your sprayer ready for another season and some of the common settings used to fine tune your DirectCommand system. This week I will be discussing some additional features to use to get the best possible performance out of your sprayer.
Minimum Flow – This setting is used to [...]

I hope all of you have had a successful spring and the crops in your area are up and looking good.  Now that the spring planting season is nearing an end, it is time to start thinking about post-emergence application and preparing your sprayer.  Here are a few steps to prepare your sprayer for another [...]

 
 “What is the application window for side-dressing nitrogen (N)?” I hear this question a lot from corn growers thinking about using crop sensors for variable rate N application.  Imagine how much better we could answer that question if we knew the weather! Unfortunately we don’t have that luxury.
 
For those who may not be familiar, the [...]

Planting season has arrived.  Time to implement all the things you learned last year into your operation for the 2010 growing season.
If there is one thing I learned while growing up on a farm, it’s that a farmer’s job changes every day.  As an owner and/or operator, farmers are tasked with jobs ranging from electrician [...]