Autonomy could create ‘competitive divide’ in ag

A Purdue University ag economist says the development of automation in agriculture has the potential to cause an economic divide in the industry.

“We’re moving into a period now where this precision agriculture technology is going to be valuable enough, that I worry that people that are skittish about adopting this technology are going to have a disadvantage from a financial standpoint,” Michael Langemeier said.

Langemeier tells Brownfield smaller farms or those unsure about technology adoption don’t need to hire full-time employees to manage emerging technologies.

“If there’s someone outside of the farm that could help them with that, that may not necessarily be a competitive disadvantage,” he said.

Langemeier points to autonomous tractors and grain carts and drones used for spraying as emerging technologies.