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 [...]

What are the most cutting edge farmers in Western Canada doing this week? Implementing all of the new practices they learned about at the 2011 Western Canada Farm Progress Show!
Regina , Sask., was buzzing with activity June 15 – 17, 2011, as nearly 40,000 visitors descended upon the city to enjoy the industry’s leading agricultural [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In my last blog post I mentioned that I was in the UK preparing for the Cereals Show and having a bit of trouble with my sleep.  Since then, the Cereals Show has come and gone and I have been able to catch up on my sleep.  The show provided a great opportunity to talk [...]

As we discussed earlier this week, the acronym “GNSS” encompasses all satellite navigation networks currently available and in development. The most advanced GNSS networks are GPS and GLONASS.

GPS (Global Positioning System) is the United States’ constellation of 24 satellites, developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. Traditionally, GPS has been the most commonly used [...]

 As I write this post I am back on the road again after a short week at home.  I am currently in England preparing for the Cereals Show that starts today (Wednesday, June 9th).  I have been traveling a lot in the last two months and while I’ve enjoyed it, I’m also   looking forward to [...]

As I write this I am at the end of my second week in South Africa. During my second week here, I have been travelling around meeting some farmers.  We’ve been discussing their thoughts on precision farming and why they have adopted it. Coincidentally, I was also present during the installation of the first ParaDyme™ [...]