How AgTech Helps Farmers Scale Up their Operations

Jun 1, 2023

Want to pick up new ground, but aren’t sure you can manage it?

As rising input costs squeeze producer margins, there’s a lot of appeal to expanding your farming operation. But there’s always the concern that you may not be able to handle the additional farmland you pick up.

For small- and medium-sized farm operations, AgTech has opened the door to greater scalability in farming:

  • Precision Agriculture enables customized applications per field, and multiple sections within a field

  • Soil sensors enable early detection of problems, even if you’re miles away

  • Drones enable you to examine the field without walking the entire acreage

  • Aerial imagine helps you keep tabs on all your fields from your tablet or computer

As you look to pick up new ground, consider how AgTech can help to support your expansion efforts. In this article, we’ll walk through some of the benefits that this technology provides growing farm operations. 

Why should you look to pick up new ground?

In the face of mounting input costs and low profitability in 2023, many farmers are realizing that they need to expand their operations and pick up new ground. Expanding your operation can provide a number of benefits:

  • Enabling economies of scale

  • Distribute risk across multiple fields

  • Diversify your operation with multiple crop types and revenue streams

  • Improve utilization of current assets

  • Bring on new family members, help family or friend with their farm

Despite the clear economic benefits of farm expansion, it can be a daunting prospect. Managing additional land may seem untenable, especially if you already feel spread too thin.

But the good news is that this is 2023. Just as the market demands expansion, it also provides you with the tools you need to succeed. AgTech advancements make growth and scale more accessible than before. 

How can AgTech help farmers expand their operation?

Many people in the industry talk about AgTech as some kind of mysterious thing that no one quite understands. But as more farmers adopt these platforms, the benefits to the operation are becoming more clearer.

Different platforms work in different ways, but here are some of the common traits among all of them. 

More data

Bottom line, this is the best value that AgTech gives to farmers. Physically, you can’t manage a hundred acres at a single moment. But with the right AgTech platform, you can keep an eye on all your crops and fields, even if you’re miles away.

What’s more, AgTech enables you to go deeper than what you can see with the naked eye. Soil sensors, thermal imaging, crop image analytics, and more collect information otherwise inaccessible.

Faster decisioning

When a crop problem becomes visible, it’s too late for prevention. At that point, everything is damage control. 

AgTech enables you to spot issues early, before even the naked eye can register it. This enables you to make decisions faster. Some advanced predictive analytics can also help you anticipate problems before they arise, so you can take preventative action. 

Precision planting

The more ground you pick up, the harder it can be to devote personalized attention to each parcel. AgTech tools, however, enable you to tailor your planting, tillage, application, and irrigation decisions to each individual plot. 

As a result, you can not only scale up the quantity of crops you produce, but you can improve the quality on an individual level. 

This enables you to increase yields and reduce input costs. It also makes adoption of sustainable planting practices easier and more effective. 

4 examples of AgTech tools that help farmers manage more farmland

Now, let's take a closer look at some specific AgTech tools and how they can optimize your operation and improve the quality of your crops. 

1. Precision Agriculture

Precision Ag uses GPS technology, drones, and sensors to gather data on soil conditions, crop health, and weather patterns. By analyzing this data using machine learning algorithms, you get actionable insights to help optimize your decisions. 

One of the key benefits of Precision Ag is the ability to tailor crop management practices to the specific needs of each field, and even each plot. The data gathered helps make better-informed decisions to adjust fertilization practices, irrigation schedules, and pest control methods to maximize yields and maintain crop health. 

This level of precision is especially valuable when expanding operations to new areas with different soil conditions and weather patterns. Precision Ag quickly gathers the necessary data to adjust practices accordingly, ensuring successful crops and sustainable farming practices.

Specific Precision Ag tools can include:

  • Computer queries. If you have enough historical data at your disposal, you can drill down to find the best planting decision for a particular crop. 

  • Auto-guidance equipment. Cover fields faster and more accurately by eliminating overlaps, gaps, and skips from the products you apply. 

  • Variable-Rate Technology (VRT). Different pH levels in the field require different levels of treatments. VRT enables you to customize treatments to specific parts of the field. 

  • Yield maps. See performance in real time so you know where to make adjustments and improvements. 

2. Soil sensors

Soil sensors are another powerful tool in the AgTech arsenal. With the ability to measure soil moisture, temperature, and nutrient levels, these sensors provide valuable information for making informed decisions about watering crops. 

With soil sensors, you can optimize irrigation practices and reduce water waste. This not only saves resources, but also improves crop health and ultimately leads to higher yields. Soil sensors empower you to expand your operational capabilities and make data-driven decisions that enhance your overall efficiency and profitability.

3. Drones

Drones have become increasingly popular in the agriculture industry, as they can quickly and accurately gather resourceful data. Equipped with multispectral cameras, drones offer farmers efficient and precise means of collecting data on crop health, soil conditions, and weather patterns. 

You can obtain detailed images of their crops and quickly identify potential issues before they escalate. This capability enables you to expand operational capabilities and cover larger quantities of ground with more ease and efficiency. 

4. Aerial imaging

As powerful as drones are, they’re still limited in what they can capture. This is where aerial imaging, most of which comes from satellites, can help. You can use high-resolution images of fields to identify underperforming areas and make decisions customized to each field and plot.  

Additionally, aerial imaging can monitor soil erosion and water runoff, enabling you to develop more effective conservation strategies. As a result, you can maximize your land use and ensure sustainable agricultural practices across their entire operation.

Final thoughts on using AgTech to scale your operation

AgTech is a game-changer for the agriculture industry, offering solutions to many of the challenges farmers face today and further playing a huge role in farmers' ability to expand their operational capacities. 

If you’re looking to pick up new ground, consider how the AgTech tools listed above can help ensure you aren’t sacrificing quality for quantity.

And when you’re ready to look for available listings, be sure to check them out on the CommonGround marketplace.