Ag Tech’s Third Wave

By: Marcia Taylor

Steve Hess may be the grandfather of nine, but when it comes to farming, he is a millennial at heart. In fact, Hess, his wife Phyllis and their son Marcus are adopting cutting-edge technology this season they hope will help lift their Bushnell, Illinois, grain yields and profit margins through 2016 and beyond.

This spring, the Hess partners spent $70,000 rebuilding a five-year-old planter to make it capable of seeding multiple hybrids or varieties in the same field. Software glitches were a headache during late nights planting, Steve admitted, not unlike the pioneering days of GPS. But he remains hopeful that Beck’s Hybrids’ research showing 13-bushel advantages in corn yield will make the effort worthwhile.

“I wish I’d taken a picture of all the planter parts I’ve replaced in my career. But if we capture just half of the $40-per-acre advantage Beck’s found in corn, plus some benefits in soybeans, we should pay for the upgrades in two years or less,” Steve said.

For $500 per year, the Hess family also became members of Farmers Business Network (FBN), a two-year-old cloud-based data service backed by Google Ventures. Already it has enrolled members with more than 7 million acres. By sharing actual data from those fields, the company can independently assess yields, plant populations and return on investments for hybrids planted on similar soil types.