Embracing Precision Ag Makes a Difference

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Precision agriculture is not new, but it is still catching on among the majority of farmers. Some local cooperatives and service providers have developed their own precision ag programs that combine the latest in technology with local ground-truthed knowledge. Central Farm Service is one great example, where KC Graner leads the agronomy division.

Graner… “We're actually going on, you know, darn near two decades worth of utilizing precision programming. We've got, you know, almost 300,000 acres in our precision program called Central Advantage with, you know, we've got 10 full-time staff that manages the data for people. And so I think there's about 250 operations across Southern Minnesota that recognize the value in leveraging data to make more insightful decisions on inputs and therefore yield and profitability that, you know, we're humbled to have the chance to do that for. Growing much more rapidly, actually the last couple of years, as I think a lot of growers were challenged on their own farms for making decisions about their profitability or lack thereof. What we've seen is the outperformance of growers who do leverage data. And do look to it first to making their decisions. Those are the ones that are outperforming the rest and it goes back to that consolidation piece. Those are the growers that are picking up acres more rapidly.”

This Central Advantage program enables their farmer owners to make more data-driven decisions.