Precision Alliance with McKnight Farms of Roland, MB collected the first geo-referenced yield data in the Province in the fall of 1995 or two years ago. It is estimated that there were 25 combines equipped with GPS yield monitors in operation this past fall in Manitoba. A tremendous amount of technological, agronomic and developmental resources have been and are being poured into Precision Farming in mid west North America. The definition and purpose of Precision Farming is to detect and manage variability for profit. Every farmer knows some areas in each field yield better than others and many will have a pretty good idea where those areas of variability exist.
Farmers do want to make money on every acre of every field.
Typically though, mid western commercial farmers have had few opportunities to response on the inputs side to this knowledge of variability in yield. In fact, uniform applications of seed, fertilizer, crop protection, and other field operations on a field basis have been prized farming practices. The necessary technology has not been, until recently, either available or economic for use in commercial farming. On the other hand, typically, a greater effort has been made to respond to yield variability from such landscape variables as drainage, but these efforts have up until now been crude and again hampered by a lack of good, cheap, technology. Most farmers would manage variability in yield if they could because most farmers recognize that if successful, net incomes will go up quickly.