Forecasting The High-Tech Horizon

A forgettable 1996 made-for-TV movie tried to capitalize on the box office success of “Twister,” the movie glamorizing storm chasers. The TV version, “Tornado”, featured a grizzled, veteran actor, L.Q. Jones.

His contribution to the movie consisted of peering out over the prairie and squinting. He could “see” tornadoes coming. Or something like that. At any rate, he had a great squint.

Jones’ character reminds me of more than a few of the veteran farmers I grew up around.

My mind’s eye can see my uncle, S.P. Schwarz, looking off toward the west as clouds gathered in the distance. The hope that those clouds would rain down upon our thirsty fields was often palpable.

S.J. Bornhoft was the same way. He could “smell” rain coming. He had a pretty good squint, too.

Over the years, I found myself growing better able to look at the thunderheads as they developed over White, Independence, Cleburne and Prairie counties and predict whether the rain would reach us or pass by.

To be sure, beyond the local weather forecast, there wasn’t a lot of technology brought to bear in regard to our meteorological concerns.

Today’s farmers, though, are using technology in a big way, and not just to study the weather.

And even though farmers are increasingly arming themselves with all kinds of information and data, Arkansas producers have never been a homogenous group.

For every salt-of-the-earth type who never considered college, there is an engineer creating the next generation of equipment. For every sun-weathered amateur meteorologist, there is a multi-faceted business owner equally at home with national leaders and seed dealers. For every fifth-generation farmer who made a life on hard work and intuitive thinking, there is a sixth-generation son or daughter who relies more on brains than brawn.

There is nothing wrong with either side of the equation, mind you. Times change. People change with them. In today’s fiscal climate, they change, or they go out of business.

It’s amazing to consider how farming has changed in one generation.

Back in the day, there was no easy way to ensure that a grain drill was putting out the prescribed amount of seed or if all the rows were planting evenly or at the proper depth. Monitoring those things required stopping every few passes and digging around in the dirt.

Now, equipment sensors tell you everything you need to know. There is no guesswork, and any problem becomes immediately apparent. The efficiency emanating from such automated systems is demonstrable.

Monitoring fields used to be a manual process, too. As rice grew during the summer, the plants blocked a field side view of flood levels. Checking the water required slogging out into each levee. In a field situated on a hillside, that process could take an hour. Every day.

Checking water levels while irrigating a soybean field was an even more time-consuming process.

Today, a farmer can send up a drone to give a bird’s eye view of what’s going on.

And that’s not all the information a drone can share.

Of course, the simple surge in equipment size and power is in itself a game-changer.

With a John Deere 4840 and an International Harvester 480 disk, one person could manage to break ground on maybe 10-15 acres per hour. Today, one person in a 300-horsepower behemoth pulling a disk 45 feet wide can get across the better part of a section in a day. And don’t even get me started on what today’s combines can do …

The fact remains, though, that taking advantage of the available technology not only requires a willingness to change but also a basic understanding of how new processes and activities can increase efficiency and profitability.

There is no shortage of geniuses creating technology to help farmers produce more with less. It is incredible to learn more about what services are available to the agriculture sector. What there is not, though, is a robust universal way to share that information and ensure that all producers have access to the latest tools of their trade.

To be sure, agricultural organizations such as Farm Bureau, the Arkansas Ag Council, the federal Department of Agriculture, crop-specific organizations and others are helping spread the word, but there remains an information gap that needs filled. Publications such as this can help share information, and there is no doubt that informal networks of individual producers are helpful. But to date the need is greater than the response.

What would the answer look like?

Envision an online portal consisting of information submitted by trade groups, technology innovators and producers. This resource would pull historical and real-time data from the various tracking groups. It would compile the latest industry-vetted digital applications, software and hardware solutions. Finally, it would give producers a common forum to discuss issues related to their situations and circumstances.

In other words, this one-stop-shop would be a marketplace of ideas for the agriculture community. Such a portal would benefit producers and the businesses supporting them, and it would also benefit the rest of us who need the most efficient and effective agriculture sector possible.

Who might consider putting together such a venture?

In some ways, the frameworks already exist. Websites such as those created by Farm Bureau, Southern Cotton Ginners, University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and others contain lots of good information.

What is lacking is the entrepreneurial component, the facet that would allow emerging technologies, processes and activities to reach critical mass, and then the producer-level communication that could foster best practices, answer questions and improve results.

In some ways, this comprehensive platform would include competing interests, and that may well be why it doesn’t exist. But as producers must change and evolve to remain competitive, so should the parochial interests of long-ingrained segments of the overall agriculture economy.

So, who wants to step forward and create ArkansasAgriculture.info/biz/com?