Precision agriculture powered by GPS technology — at first a novelty — has now become the norm, driven in part by economic necessity. Putting fertilizer where it is most needed, in the precise amounts required, improves both input utilization and final yields. That variable-rate technology, first applied to dry fertilizer application, is now beginning to […]

A nearly $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is helping University of California researchers refine collaborative robotic technology that could change the way crops are maintained worldwide, saving millions of gallons of water each year and taking precision agriculture to a whole new level. The three-year Robot-Assisted Precision Irrigation and Diagnostics (RAPID) project is […]

    Sensors that measure a variety of essential soil properties on the go are being developed. These sensors can be used either to control variable rate application equipment in real-time or in conjunction with a Global Positioning System (GPS) to generate field maps of particular soil properties. Depending on the spacing between passes, travel […]

     Sensors that measure a variety of essential soil properties on the go are being developed. These sensors can be used either to control variable rate application equipment in real-time or in conjunction with a Global Positioning System (GPS) to generate field maps of particular soil properties. Depending on the spacing between passes, travel […]

      Auto-steer technology has taken the farming community community by storm in recent years.  This technology is more frequenlty referred to as auto-guidance, the guidance of agricultural vehicles using satellite-based positioning equipment (e.g., GPS receivers).       Rising energy costs and more reasonably priced auto-guidance systems have made a clearer cost justification […]