Examine how farmers utilize soil tests, crop yield and affiliated data in decision making. Identify the required investment in durable capital equipment for a variable rate application farming system, calculate variable and fixed costs for this production regime, and estimate the profitability of adoption of VRT farming systems. S ummary Site-specific farming is a new technology with promise to aid both farmers and society. This research considered economic and environmental impacts of site-specific farming. Preliminary results of a survey of a random sample of Ohio farmers suggest that adoption rates for various precision farming technologies including variable-rate applciations of fertilizer, insecticides, and herbicides are still quite low.
Adoption rates are higher for larger farms and for farmers with greater formal education.
Researchers held small group discussions with farmers who had adopted site-specific farming practices. They found that many farmers with large farms have opted to adopt precision agriculture for the entire farm while smaller farmers tend to experiment with portions of their acreage. All farmers felt precision farming technicques improved profitability but none were able to provide support data. The large farmers reported that precision farming investments were recovered within the first year whereas farmers with smaller acreage expected to recover investments over a four to five year period. C hallenges Successful implementation of precision farming techniques requires detailed information regarding the production response of the many agricultural inputs used in production and the interaction among these inputs.