Technology is a driving force that has changed farming in many ways. Every year new techniques are introduced that challenge the old way and make way for the new way. Farming involves a number of engineering disciplines from Agronomic, Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical and many others as it strives like most other companies; to do more with less. Technology advances along with engineering prowess have delivered quite a few technology advances from Precision Ag where variable rate application process handle slight variation in land chemistry to auto pilot tractors that tie into GPS satellite systems, reducing field skips and ultimately improving yield. The demand for engineering and technology within farming has never been higher; just take a look at the inside cab, or should I say cockpit of some of the new John Deere tractors:

There are switches and sensors for about everything you can think of…and this is just the tractor. Attachments such as sprayers have their own complicated panels of software and hardware to allow precise control and monitoring of your application.

With all the technology comes data. The buzz words of late is all the big data associated with farming. In order to continue to move forward, farming needs specialized software to manage, combine and mine the data to look for trends and opportunities to change the way business operates. 

It is no secret that the size of farms is getting bigger as smaller farmers can’t keep up with technological advances.  One thing that separates the larger farms is their ability to adapt and use technology to solve problems and ultimately improve their bottom line.  This can only be accomplished with skilled engineers from multiple disciplines along with savvy software and technology engineers to harvest the data into meaningful business insights.  This trend will continue in farming just as it has today and those that survive, will be those that embrace technology.