Why precision ag is going to change the world

Here I am parked on my recliner surfing the web again on my iPad.  I've been bouncing between Evernote, Twitter, LinkedIn and Safari compiling thought after thought to myself.  All this got me thinking... "man, I really should write a blog post."  So, here it is.  (I'll warn you that my company, Advanced Ag Solutions is cooking up some really cool social media stuff right now so this blog is totally not authorized by my team or Director of Marketing, Erika McCloud... nonetheless, I'm compelled to write so I think I will... back to precision ag saving the world.)

Did you know that the world population is expected to grow to 9 billion people by 2050?  Yep, it's true... or at least that's what "they" say.  I'm sure I could look up a really amazingly authoritative web site to prove this is true but it's a mute point.  The real punch line is that since creation there have been an increasing number of people on this planet and this trend does not appear to be slowing.

Everyone eats. Yep, everyone.  (energy inputs are required of our bodies... thanks for that Mr. Obvious.)  This consumption habit we have is not going to decrease... not as an individual, nor as a society.  In fact, it is likely to increase as we regularly try to do more and be more than our predecessors and neighbors... locally and worldwide.

Plants are terrific sources of efficient renewable energy.  Plants harvest the sun and convert water and soil nutrients into useable sugars very efficiently.  This is important because we need maximum efficiency to feed people very cheaply.  Sometimes pests encroach on our crops... weeds, insects and diseases.  Biotech has played a tremendous role in reducing yield robbing pests and adding/preserving efficiency in commodity crops like corn and soybeans.  Biotech in my opinion has also enable huge gains in soil conservation through greater and easier adoption of notill farming practices (but that's another post.)  

However, biotech seed and herbicides are not the end all solution to our looming food shortage.  Remember, the sun is free (for now), water is recycled (we hope), and biotech seed must be developed and sold/purchased.  What is still required?  The soil... also not free.  So, biotech has a role, but so does soil and operational management on the farm.

Farmers have heard for years, "The highest potential is in the bag (before you plant it.)"  Although there is an element of inspiring truth, I'd like to add a follow on statement... "the highest potential is in the bag, but you've got to have my soil before it'll grow anything!"  Please feel free to use this Mr. Farmer.

Given that seed, soil and weather make up primary elements of crop growth for majority of the world's food production I think it's utterly imperative that we consider our soil more quantitatively.  From my point of view (and I help several hundred thousand acres of farmers), the management of soil variability and efficiency is pretty sad.  There is tremendous room for improvement in streamlining the inter-related aspects of seed, soil and weather through data streams previous never known to mankind. (see myself posting blog via Wifi iPad that you are reading.)    Precision ag provides a perfect wave of opportunity for farmers, their suppliers and ultimately the consumers to inject our intelligence, our creativity and our passion into a system to feed the growing world population.  Precision ag can help all of us maximize yield potential and grow closer to the potential in the bag more consistently by automating decision making protocol much like major industries do in streamlining their production systems to meet growing demand... and even more so in a seasonal business!

So, what is precision ag then?  For most crop farmers, it's anything with the letters GPS attached to it.  Perhaps that's true but when I get fired up, I think PRECISE AGRONOMY.  And that requires you-have-to-measure-it-to-manage-it mentality and a fondness for how plants grow (aka agronomy.)

So, although I spend time tracking Google Alerts, creating Google Blogger sites I'm not poised to post to often enough, sketching thoughts in Evernote and checking on my wife's posts on Facebook, I'm really enthralled by the notion that my business and my team are working to feed the world.  And I'm not just saying that, I'm actually passionate about that.  It's crazy to think that no one else seems to care about what we're going to eat.  Oh, that reminds me, I'm hungry.  Lata!