Ag Leader Technology Blog

How time flies when you’re having fun! Since my last post back in August I have been to several countries meeting various existing distributors and also potential new ones. I even made it to the Farm Progress Show in Illinois earlier this year, which I believe is one of the largest farm machinery shows in [...]

For several years now, Ag Leader has been selling precision farming products into China. Over the years the interest in precision farming has increased as China modernizes their farming practices and imports more western made farm equipment. China has been forced to rapidly update their farming practices and equipment for two reasons: 1) the growing demand for food from a rising population (and a population with more disposable income) and 2) a labor shortage.

It seems only yesterday that I wrote my last blog on the Cereals event, but according to my calendar it has been over 2 months. Time flies when you are having fun!
Shortly after the Cereals show, I attended the Boregby field days in Sweden to visit our distributor Datalogisk. This is a very similar show [...]

I am pleased to announce Hans Stiekema has joined the Ag Leader organization as the Regional Manager – EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa).  Hans comes to the Ag Leader organization with over 30 years of experience in business development in the agricultural industry.  He has previously worked for manufacturers such as Krone (D), Argo [...]

Cereals is an annual event that covers more than 64ha (~160ac) and has more than 450 suppliers present covering all aspects of arable production from seeds and fertilisers to recycling and renewable energy resources, and of course precision farming technologies. There are also machinery manufacturers and extensive trial plots of many seed varieties and agrochemicals.

Nick Ohrtman and I attended the AGRISHOW in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil during the first week of May. AGRISHOW is a large outdoor farm show similar in size to Farm Progress Show here in the US. The major OEM’s (both international and domestic) have elaborate booths showcasing their new products, and customers have an opportunity to talk with factory representatives about equipment they are interested in.

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.

p>Traveling internationally for my job is something that definitely has its perks, but there are also some inconveniences in this line of work.  Some of the biggest challenges for me are the language barriers in different parts of the world.  With Ag Leader distributors in over twenty-five countries, we find ourselves working with customers that [...]

The weather has started to warm up and dry up over here in Europe and that can only mean one thing – time to go to the field! This is the time of year when spring crops are sown, vegetables planted and nitrogen applied to the winter crops, and it is the nitrogen application I [...]

Earlier this month, 34 distributors from 18 countries attended the Ag Leader International Distributor training event held in Merida, Spain. This is the second time we have held training for our overseas distributors outside the US. The first was held in the UK two years ago. The week included a mixture of classroom based technical [...]

One of the big draws at auto shows is always the concept cars that manufacturers exhibit.  People get excited to see what cars and trucks may look like 10,15 or 20 years from now.  Most of the time these concept cars never come to market in their original form, but go through various modifications and [...]

In Australian agriculture one of the major concerns each year is the amount of moisture available to grow a crop.  For this reason, much of the grain farming is actually done in the winter months when there is available water and cooler temperatures.  For the past ten-plus years, Australian farmers have been experiencing a drought, [...]

It is not normal (from a weather perspective at least) that I wish I was in Iowa! However, given the recent weather and temperatures here in the UK, Iowa has proven to be worthy of consideration as a destination to warm up a little! With temperatures down to -13°C (9°F) (according to my car at [...]

Over the years, Ag Leader has worked with various universities and research organizations on precision farming projects.  These have ranged from the development of new technology, such as cotton harvesting, to studying the benefits of products such as autosteer and variable rate application.  One of the research organizations that Ag Leader has worked with is [...]

One of my recent trips took me to Poland to meet our distributor Kamil Szymanczak, who owns the company KAM-ROL (www.kamrol.pl), located near Warsaw. I spent very little time in the city but instead headed southeast to the Lublin region. On the way through here, we met with another dealer, Henry Pawelec, who also sells [...]

As you may have heard, Russia suffered a very poor wheat harvest this year due to prolonged droughts in most of its agricultural areas. Eleven of the drought stricken areas saw more than half their sown land destroyed and it affected more than 9million Ha (22m ac) of land overall.  There were also the images [...]

On April 14th I wrote a blog post about the Chilean earthquake and the effect it had on agriculture and promised a follow up.  I recently spoke with Rodrigo Ortega from Neo-Ag, the Ag Leader distributor in Chile, to get his feedback on how the agricultural community is coping.  Below is the update from Rodrigo.
Six [...]

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 [...]

It has been a while since my last post but I can assure you, it has been a busy few weeks. Harvest in terms of small grains is completed in the southern and central parts of Europe. In the northern part it is mostly the wheat that is left. It seemed that to start with [...]

p>The trade show has been a staple in the agricultural industry for over a century.  The popularity of these shows has grown over the years to the point that there is a show in every state along with large national and international shows.  Agricultural trade shows generally cover a wide range of agricultural products for [...]