The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

(MON/DE)—New technology enables growers to plant crops precisely at warp speed:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304908304579566043904022508

Jim Walter's tractor steered itself as he sat in the cab, scanning a computer screen showing corn seeds pumping into his soil. By the time his 16-hour workday was over, he'd planted 310 acres—the rough equivalent of 250 football fields.

Such planting feats weren't possible even a decade ago… Today they are being repeated across the Midwest, as growers invest in more-sophisticated machinery to rapidly sow crops in narrow windows of favorable weather.

Mr. Walter spent $15,000 to retrofit his John Deere 8300 tractor with a Global Positioning System that uses satellites to steer automatically, monitor seed rates and gather and store planting data. His is one of the new high-tech tools that helped corn farmers sow 30% of this year's U.S. crop in a single week, covering an area roughly the size of New York…

…Deere began with auto-steer about 15 years ago… Now, farmers can upgrade to software that steers equipment to within an inch of its desired route, tells planters how much seed to put in the ground and broadcasts all the information using cloud technology.

When Mr. Walter, the DeKalb grower, began farming 44 years ago, he had a four-row planter that would do its best to plant seed every few feet. Now he plants 24 rows with seed falling into the ground at exact intervals set and monitored by a computerized planter—intervals determined by soil type, quality and moisture.

Along with the Deere system he bought to steer and monitor seed rates, he outfitted his tractor last year with a computer made by Precision Planting, a division of seed maker Monsanto Co. [see footnote below], that ensures the seed is dropped in the right place and spaced evenly. The computer runs about $4,000; adding software and components to retrofit it to older farm equipment can double that cost.

…GPS not only lets farmers plant at night—helping them get the job done faster—but it also ensures they're not sowing two seeds where only one is needed. Conversely, it prevents them from leaving narrow swaths of valuable land unseeded.

MON’s Precision Planting Division is an outgrowth of the 2013 acquisition of The Climate Corporation (#msg-97976090, #msg-92614073, #msg-92619988).