Agtech is creeping onto the farms at a steady pace, and while many options are a worthy tool on the farm, adoption by growers can be slow.
Then, there are those who can’t wait to try the newest thing. But does it make sense to give it a shot?
At a panel at the recent FIRA USA 2023 farm robotics conference in Salinas, California, panelists addressed questions and factors that growers consider before jumping in on a piece of equipment.
“I always ask farmers, ‘What are the big three things that you’re concerned with?’ It’s always been water, regulation, and labor,” said Bartley Walker, president of Pacific Ag Rentals. “Interestingly, when I talked to a farmer in Yuma just a few weeks ago, he said it was water, regulation, and energy. That was the first time I’ve ever heard a farmer say energy was concerned.”
It’s these concerns that determine which technologies will be a viable financial benefit to the farm. Whatever tech a grower considers must improve profits or productivity, thus lowering the cost per unit.
Otherwise, why use it at all?
Sometimes, however, it’s simply about controlling costs, such as for Josh Roberts, president of Triangle Farms, in an environment where critical costs continue to increase. Tight budget management is a fundamental piece of the puzzle.
“The only way to be profitable in the space that we’re working in … is to know our cost, number one. And secondly, to mitigate the cost increases,” said Roberts.
This may require a large initial investment, and if the long-term ROI is accurate, the costs can be controlled and start to bring profit from what may have been just a straight cost component, Roberts said during the panel.
Scale is as important a factor as it is an obvious one: It’s far easier for a larger farm to make an immediate call on an agtech purchase than it is for a smaller farm. Triangle Ag farms 10,000 crop acres in the Salinas Valley, and is a part of 35,000 acres across the Western U.S. and northern Mexico. The capital investments can come easier, and the risks can be made smaller.
“It’s really important to understand what your true problems that you’re trying to resolve are, and what value you’re looking to bring back,” said Roberts. “[Farmers] need to leverage those technology firms as much as you possibly can before you pull the trigger. The most important is understanding the ROI from your own perspective; it’s not what they tell you. You need to do the work yourself.”
But none of this matters if it doesn’t solve a problem the farm actually has, and growers aren’t going to pay much attention to new tech unless it addresses an actual, present pain point.
“You need to make sure you actually have the problems that they tell you you do,” Roberts said.
Does it work … on my farm?
Bottom line: Does it work for the grower’s specific field conditions?
Though conversations shouldn’t move forward without this piece of information, farmers are often pitched products — whether various new monitors, dashboards, automated equipment, chemical inputs, etc. — that are more exciting than practical.
How one farmer farms isn’t how all farmers farm.
The concept of “working” isn’t only relegated to actual mechanical function, either. Working in a financial sense is a second key point.
Once the machine does what everyone claims it does, only then does Josh Ruiz, senior director of ag technology and innovation at Duda Farm Fresh Foods, move the conversation forward regarding ROI.
“If you’re talking about a new technology, and you want me to buy it based on a 10-year ROI, and it’s all computer driven, well, 10 years from now that’s probably not going to be the same computer driving that thing. So you’ve got to put it in perspective: Is it realistic for what we’re looking at?” said Ruiz.
More importantly, how does it compare to what a farmer is already doing? Does the new tech actually improve things on the farm, e.g. save labor or time, or improve efficiency?
The initial response may be ‘yes’, but it’s imperative that, once machines are being trialed in the field, the data is captured and analyzed before making a firm purchasing decision.
Is the data actionable?
“A lot of farmers right now are drowning in data,” said Walker. “And I believe that what they need is information. They need actionable information.”
Data overload is becoming a growing issue, and the information is often only as useful as the money it saves or generates. More so, with machinery in particular, there is depreciation in addition to the cost of capital.
If the equipment has to run 24 hours a day every day for the year, and cover thousands of acres, in order to hit a reasonable ROI milestone, there’s a misunderstanding happening by the tech company, the farmers, or both.
“If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense,” said Ruiz. “I would love to have everything that’s out there, but if I can’t financially justify it on paper, I can’t do it.”
Main photo: Autonomous weeder and tractors in a demo field at FIRA USA 2023.
Photos: Modern Ag Media
