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 [...]

Now that most of the grain is safely out of the field and in storage bins and the combine is ready to be put away, it’s time to go back to the field and start with fall tillage and application.  More late nights, but at least there are less moving parts and you can let [...]

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.

The corn planter is one of the most expensive implements a farmer can own.  Although the planter can only perform one function, it is a extremely important one, and during the winter months you may want to inspect and service the planter.  Harvest is a great time to take a minute and look at the [...]

All of us have heard the stories from neighbors, friends, and family about someone that has been involved in some type of farm accident. Whether it be grain entrapment, wild livestock, or machinery roll-overs, the inherent risks of agriculture are around us everyday. With some simple precautions and good awareness and state-of-mind, many of these [...]

For the latest and greatest in agriculture, it’s hard to beat the Farm Progress Show. And the 2011 event was no exception. Held in Decatur IL August 30 – September 1, thousands of enthusiastic farmers, students, industry professionals and international visitors came from all over the globe to participate in the industry’s foremost agricultural experience. [...]

Once your display is updated and ready to go to the field, check that the precision equipment on the planter is working correctly as well.  First, make sure you can load your planter configuration. If the display detects out of date CAN module firmware, it will prompt the user to update these modules. All you [...]

I like to think of my father as a good teacher.  One lesson Dad taught me was to always check my vehicle fluids and air pressure before leaving on a long trip.  As I prepared to drive my old truck back to college one fall, Dad reminded me to check the oil before I headed [...]

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 [...]

Ag Leader is proud to announce that Gary Paarlberg of Grant Park, IL, was the winner of the Ag Leader EDGE Display Giveaway at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky.
Paarlberg said his brother Bruce found the EDGE Display Giveaway entry form on Ag Leader’s Facebook page, and gave it to him to fill [...]

Ag Leader had the privilege of hosting NAFB Farm Director Von Ketelsen, host of the KWMT AM 540 Power Lunch, at our booth at the 24th Annual Hawkeye Farm Show at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls, IA, on Thursday, March 3, 2011.
Ketelsen met with Ag Leader’s Russ Mormon to discuss spring planting and all [...]

In recent years, many growers have started utilizing their precision ag displays to log hybrids in the field.  Quite often, these displays are controlling clutches to prevent overlaps, changing population on the go and even monitoring seed tubes and population. (How far we have come since those little, dim blinking lights.)
So what benefits do you [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Last week, we introduced our “Value of Data” series where we will discuss topics to show how data has the potential to help you increase yields and profit on your operation. One such topic is your nitrogen use efficiency. Does your car or truck have an electronic miles per gallon readout?  Have you ever compared that [...]

Reflecting is a good exercise, so I wanted to start the New Year recapping the new products and features that Ag Leader introduced. As I began to do so, I found myself asking the question, “why do we do what we do?” This made me realize that just as important as what we’ve done is why [...]

In precision ag, we are continuously discussing the importance of analyzing data in order to make management decisions regarding your operation. One of the key pieces of data in an operation is yield maps. Yield monitoring and yield mapping have been around for many years (in fact, Al Myers developed the first practical and applicable on-the-go [...]

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 [...]

Today’s crop growers find themselves reaching for higher yields in many ways – from seed selection, nutrient programs, pest management and increasingly through the use of new technologies allowing them to control other factors impacting yield, such as soil compaction.
One way farmers are using the ParaDyme® automated steering system is for controlled traffic tillage systems [...]

Harvest is progressing nicely here in southeastern Iowa. The bean crop is all but finished and corn harvesting is in full swing. It was a very rainy growing season but the yields are still respectable. Earlier in the season, when crop scouting, it appeared that yields were going to be below the normal county average, [...]