“Farming’s come a long way, we’re a little bit ahead of the straw hats and the overalls days now,” [farmer Lee] Nunn said, noting that his operation is a far cry from his grandfather’s tractor.
Another thing that’s come a long way is technology that guides a growing field in ag that marries innovative equipment with good old fashioned farming, also known as precision agriculture.
If you can afford the expensive equipment, spotty broadband can make it hard to access the data created by the machines. And if you’ve got the internet speed, these ag tech innovations don’t always play nice across different machines or brands, like trying to use an Apple cable to charge an Android phone.
In agricultural terms, that’s owning a green tractor from one company and wanting to add a red plow from a different one, Nunn said, something that can’t really work without getting a third party to help connect them.
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“So what we would like to see is some sort of standard to where all these different manufacturers’ pieces of equipment will seamlessly operate together.”
That’s something that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle agree on. They’re also pushing for grants to make precision ag tech more affordable.
