Increasing crop yields and profitability…I have your attention now, don’t I? That’s what many farmers were exploring at the recent Indiana Farm Equipment & Technology Expo in Westfield. One way to increase yields and profitability is through the use of technology in precision agriculture.
“It’s becoming more of a strategic chess game when it comes to farming now than just, ‘Hey, we’re going to blanket it with this population,’” says Eric Frank, owner of Performance Ag Indiana in Frankfort and Whitestown. “And I think we’re seeing as the yields that we’re getting off of some of these farms now whether it’s planting earlier or adding equipment to our planters now, it’s just taking it to a whole new level.”
Performance Ag Indiana had a Harvest International planter on display that they had built and completely decked out with precision planting gear as they are one of the larger precision agriculture dealers in the state.
Frank says the conversations, and sales, surrounding precision agriculture are growing.
“I think one of the biggest things we’re seeing is liquid fertilizer starting to go on planters more. They’re seeing benefits of that. And the other one we’re doing a lot of is bean planters. We used to be so used to doing more of a controlled spill on a bean planter to now where we’re actually singulating soybean seeds, where it allows the grower to decrease the populations or planting and decrease the amount of seed they’re buying, but do a better job planting it.”
Frank had much more on display at the show from Performance Ag Indiana and his other company, Performance Powersports of Indiana. One thing that garnered a lot of farmer interest was a new Altoz mower.
“It’s a mower on tracks… it was a bunch of engineers from Arctic Cat that ended up working for this company, and so they knew with the track system how to build that on snowmobile, they decided they’re going to put it on a lawn mower, and we’ve had a lot of really good interest on that mower. Up in Reynolds where they’re building that solar farm, they’re figuring out what they’re going to mow with on 2,200 acres and they can actually put a Bush Hog deck on that too. So, the municipalities like it, a lot of farmers like it because they can mow the side ditches too. It can hold an incline really well, and it can really do well in like a little boggy or wetter terrain, too.”
You can learn more about their precision planting offerings at PerformanceAgIndiana.com.
