Farmers in the top corn, wheat, soybean, and hog states are twice as likely as farmers in smaller-volume states to use precision agriculture practices, such as GPS guidance, said the USDA’s farm computer report on Thursday. Usage often topped 50 percent in the top row-crop states, while the U.S. average was just 27 percent.
According to the Technology Use report, produced every two years, a slowly growing share of farmers use the internet to buy inputs and sell their products or to conduct other business. Some 85 percent of farms have an internet connection. Farmers are more likely to own a smartphone (82 percent) than to have a desktop or laptop computer (69 percent).
The use of precision agriculture practices is expanding slowly. The U.S. average was 25 percent in 2021, when the USDA first asked about the subject, rising to 27 percent this year.
In Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, half or more of producers said they had made use of precision agriculture, meaning that in the previous 12 months they had used such practices as GPS steering; GPS yield monitoring and soil mapping; variable rate input applications; drones to scout fields or monitor livestock; electronic tagging; precision feeding; or robotic milking. The report did not specify which practices were used. Use was highest in North Dakota, at 57 percent.
Iowa is the No. 1 corn and hog state, Illinois is tops in soybeans, and Kansas and North Dakota vie for No. 1 in wheat. Nebraska is a major cattle and grain state, while South Dakota is a key producer of sunflowers, wheat, corn, and soybeans.
Adoption has lagged in some major states. It was just 13 percent in Texas, the leading cattle and cotton state; 32 percent in Indiana and Minnesota, high-ranking corn and soybean states; and 40 percent in California, leading producer of fruits, vegetables, and milk.
The lowest use rates were in West Virginia, at 8 percent, Kentucky and Virginia, at 11 percent, and Florida, at 12 percent.
The report was based on a June survey of 14,000 agricultural operations. There are roughly 2 million farms in the United States, defined as places where $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold annually, or normally would have been sold.