Farmers Will Adopt New Technology...IF It Proves Its Value

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Industry outsiders sometimes misperceive farmers as late adopters of the newest technology in agriculture, but Arable’s Jim Ethington says it’s actually just dependent on the value a product or service brings to the farm.

Ethington… “The question of why does it sometimes appear that agriculture or farmers are slow to adopt technology? I actually don't really believe that. I think that the big challenge is technology companies have been slow to build great products for farmers. And when we do do that, they take off. You know, you see a technology adoption curves that outpace consumer adoption curves when the product's really right. And so I think that's what we'll see in agriculture. And I think we'll be seeing more and more of that in the coming years.”

Ethington says the only way for startups and businesses to see adoption is through iteration and real-world, on-farm interactions.

Ethington… “The path to an excellent product is through iteration. You have to get out there in the field, be working with customers, listen to them, learn from them, interpret what they're asking for, maybe not exactly what they're asking for is what you want to build, but really to start with the customer and work backwards mindset in all that you do. And you know, it can be very different between hardware and software. What we've learned is just, you know, to focus on the number of loops and reps that you get with the customer and how to really sort of listen to what they're asking for and sort of interpret that into the product itself.”

Again, that’s CEO of Arable, Jim Ethington.