Innovation is more important in agriculture than ever before. Due to our world’s rapidly increasing population, unpredictable weather, the ongoing loss of arable land, and the demand for more sustainably grown food, further innovation is essential for producers to keep up.
Big players in agriculture push large amounts of money into creating products that help producers persevere throughout these challenges, however many are focused on only one type of yield — a crop yield.
As a producer, you’re probably familiar with the term crop yield. But are you familiar with financial yield?
There are two types of yields in farming
Crop yields are an indicator of how much crop you’ve produced. They’re measured by the amount of agriculture you harvest per unit of land area and include crops such as cereal, grain, or legumes
Due to new technology, crop yields (and a farm’s overall efficiency) have increased substantially.
Crop yield technology advancements have largely focused around areas including:
- Size/efficiency of heavy-duty farming equipment
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Internet of Storage (IoT)
- Radio-frequency identification (RFID)
- Biologicals
- Fungicides
- Insecticides
While it’s important to think about your crop yield throughout the year, it’s also important to think about your financial yield.
Financial yield technology focuses on smart grain marketing. Through market analysis and help from grain marketing advisors, producers can increase their financial yield to reap higher profits.
Many companies have pushed boundaries to help producers increase crop yield, but technology related to financial advice for producers has lagged. FarmLink fills the gaps in financial advice technology.
What are three ways technology can help your yields?
1. The innovations in farm equipment and precision agriculture
Through technological innovations, precision agriculture helps producers grow crops more efficiently. With the help of GPS guidance, drones, sensors, soil sampling, and precision machinery, producers can make more informed decisions about their fields. This technology shows producers exactly what each field needs and when it’s needed.
The bottom line — precision agriculture helps producers grow more crops and better crops with less waste. This means they can increase their financial yield while doing so in a way that’s better for the environment.
2. Advances in crop inputs and storage
There have been many recent advances in crop input and storage technology, helping producers globally. Some advances include including:
- Radio-frequency identification (RFID)
While RFID is commonly used to identify livestock animals, global futurist, Jack Uldrich predicts improvements in technology will lead to the use of RFID in crops. Uldrich says there will be a demand from consumers who want to know how producers grow crops and the farm’s environmental effects. RFID is predicted to eventually give consumers access to this information.
- Soil and crop sensors
To enable the on-the-go application of inputs, there has been an increase of built-in smart sensors on farm equipment. These sensors can measure plant health, water needs, nitrogen levels in the soil, and more. Soil and crop sensor experts predict a boom in sensor technology use over the next five years.
3. Innovations in financial tech to help producers sell grain better GrainFox powered by FarmLink
At FarmLink, we’ve made the next step in financial tech with the first-ever smart grain marketing app, GrainFox. We took over 20 years of experience and built a powerful platform to put producers in control of their grain marketing. GrainFox combines data and the support of grain marketing experts to provide producers with real-time marketing insights and personalized recommendations.
Other financial tech innovators include:
- Conservis – This Minneapolis-based software company helps producers control their farm operations through planning, work orders, tracking, inventory management, and more.
- Agri Authority – This agricultural consulting company helps producers with debt management, financial management, and growth consulting.
Achieving your financial goals means maximizing both types of yield – crop and financial. Our world and industry is changing every day and it’s not always easy to prepare for the future. Thanks to recent technological advances, our number of options is growing. And with more and more innovation on the horizon, we can help you be prepared. Reach out to learn more here.