Can spending 99 cents on an app potentially save you thousands of dollars in crop inputs? Precision Laboratories Inc. thinks so! Their tank-mix app helps growers combine trade names of chemicals and will determine whether or not they are tank-mix compatible.  Check out the link for this and other agricultural apps(http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mix-tank/id417355581?mt=8).

With your iphone doing your tank-mixing, and your tractor applying different fertilizer rates across the field without your help, what could be next? Presently there are many technologies available to farmers to improve their businesses, and more are evoloving daily. In Western Canada, it is no longer uncommon to see sprayer booms shut off and on without the diriver lifting a finger, or to hear the beeping of a variable rate liquid cart in the background when you are talking to a neighbour on the phone, and these technologies are only the beginning.  As growers learn to collect accurate yeild data on a consistent basis, we are able to work more accurately and really utilize the technology that other countries have been doing for decades. This also allows Canadian tech companies to develop what Canadian growers need, specific to their operations.

Here at the Andrukow Group, along with our partners, we know precision agriculture pays for our growers. To us, and to you, precision ag is more than some fertilizer here and more over there, it's about improving your efficiencies, maximizing your yield potential and improving your farm as a business.

Precision ag technology helps growers reduce application overlaps and target crop inputs to where they are needed the most, as determined by the field itself. This approach allows you to increase your efficiency in the field, maximize crop yields, improve environmental stewardship, and compete more effectively in global markets. However, as with any successful business, the bottom line must be considered before adopting anything new. As the AGSI group launches its precision ag program and more growers move to adoption of this technology, questions from producers on payback period and profitability continue to be asked.