My first thought in relation to agriculture is that this proposed merger points out the importance of technology companies becoming vertically integrated.   When the "tech age" started in the 1990s, there were a lot of small "mom and pop" companies...

The proposed merger of Microsoft and Yahoo! did not come as a surprise to the business community given the predominance of Google. Google has been the dominant force in the public access to information. First, with its popular search...

Beyond Yahoo the search engine, Yahoo has a major business being the portal service provider to AT&T's Dedicated Service Line (DSL) service. When you sign up for AT&T DSL, your PC gets pre-set to enter the Web via Yahoo...

There was a time when the personal computer was a novel tool, and we all wondered how it might shape the business we do. The merger between Microsoft and Yahoo! may signal that the real benefit of personal computing...

Manufactured by Trimble and co-marketed by Ag Leader Technology, the EZ-Guide 250 system allows vehicle operators to steer tractors, sprayers, fertilizer applicators, harvesters and other farm vehicles with consistent pass-to-pass accuracy to help save fuel, increase efficiency and reduce...

Q. What improvements have been made recently in the signal technology? A. One of the things that they used to talk about in the early days was how long it would take a high accuracy satellite signal to converge. It...

PineCreek Precision Product: Unmanned Air System (UAS) Unmanned Air System is a revolutionary, hand launched plane that contains an autopilot UAS that flies autonomously along a preprogrammed flight path, which is set up in advance of the...

BoomPilot records the GPS location and the location of the applied areas in a field. When a section of a sprayer boom overlaps one of the applied areas, BoomPilot automatically switches that boom section off. When the boom re-enters...

The Agriculture Manager system is expected to be available in March 2008 from Trimble resellers. The new Trimble Agriculture Manager system is designed to help farming operations, agriculture retailers and others automatically track their fleet's precise GPS location, operating status...

Designed for professional growers and custom applicators, FarmPRO combines the Viper PRO display and control system from Raven with sub-inch accurate RTK AutoSteer from AutoFarm. FarmPRO offers a full-feature steering and application control system, all at the operator's finger...

Well, I just checked the reader poll this morning, and it's pretty clear: people still like to talk to each other. In person, that is. As an agriculture media wonk, I get lots of solicitations from vendors telling me that...

My partner on the sales side of PrecisionAg, Dan Bellanger, is a true technology enthusiast. Virtually every time we travel together, he has a new toy to show. Several years ago when iPods were still a glint in Steve...

As I write this, I am winging my way back to the home office after a couple of days in Nashville at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences. This event is a terrific opportunity to immerse myself in the cotton market...

From Japan comes a possible solution for the all this heavy lifting — the wearable robot. The concept comes courtesy of Shigeki Toyama and colleagues from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. The aptly dubbed "farming robot suit" is...

Simply defined, it's the transmitting of data via wireless communication links. The idea is to allow in-the-field equipment to transmit and receive data from a home base or another field communication unit. For several years in the U.S., farm site...

Look out ... RFID is slowly creeping into the spotlight. A recent announcement from Monsanto about a test they're doing with RFID chips -- short for Radio Frequency IDentification -- and seed bags is a hint that we're going...

GPS Steering Fully Matures. When GPS steering first debuted in 1999, it was largely reserved for folks who could generate enough profit to pay the hefty entry fee. Today, there's something for just about every level of use, and...

As the release from its manufacturer stated with deadly accuracy, "no longer are you obligated to use the ineffective, often torn (often cursed) grommet." Offered in three sizes (20" Long Grabbit, 6" EZ Grabbit and 1.5" Mini Grabbit), Grabbits allow...

BoomPilot records the GPS location and the location of the applied areas in a field. When a section of a sprayer boom overlaps one of the applied areas, BoomPilot automatically switches that boom section off. When the boom re-enters...

In quick succession this month, I got exposed to a bunch of cool ideas, each relating to the power of telemetry. A fairly simple definition of telemetry is "a computer-based means of monitoring and communicating with remote sites." The...