Abstract

A survey of agricultural service providers was conducted to help identify adoption rates and the status of precision farming techniques in Missouri. Results of the survey provide useful information to agribusinesses designing precision farming business strategies and to University Extension educators assisting farmers in making decisions about precision agriculture. The survey revealed that precision farming activities have developed in clusters around agricultural service providers. Established precision farming service providers offer technical support, services, and educational opportunities for farmers in the community. The survey also revealed that agricultural service providers add precision farming services because they predict a growing demand for the services and determine that they must be equipped to meet that demand to remain competitive, especially in fertilizer sales. Guidelines for estimating the costs of precision agriculture services were developed. Although many similarities exist in pricing structures for precision agriculture services, prices were more similar among service providers within geographic locale such as the bootheel or the West Central regions of Missouri. While the return on the investment in precision agriculture tools and services depends on the influence of many variables, the farm level costs can be predicted with confidence.

Copyright © 1999. . Copyright © 1999 American Society of Agronomy, Inc., Crop Science Society of America, Inc., Soil Science Society of America Inc., 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA