In an age of rising costs, tech is helping make farming an exact science

Scientists agree that climate change is causing more severe and frequent extreme weather events, like hurricanes and droughts, threatening global food supplies and the agriculture industry that produces it.

Those farmers are also dealing with war and weather-related shortages in seed and fertilizer.

Many, like the Chase family, are turning to technology to manage those costs and labor shortages, to make the most out of limited resources.

The Chase family has been planting peanuts and corn and raising chickens on land in Oglethorpe, Georgia, for seven decades. Donald Chase kneels down to inspect this year’s peanut crop.

“We had some challenges early on with the heat and everything, but they did very well,” Chase said. 

A few years ago his father, now 85, came back from a farm convention with an idea to plop down $50,000 for two GPS-guided tractors. 

“And I was like, ‘How do we pay for that, Daddy?’” Chase remembered asking. 

But that skepticism was short-lived. 

“I was wrong about that not being able to pay for itself, OK,” Chase said. “It actually has a pretty quick return on investment.” 

Technology is one way farmers are managing the rising costs of seed and fertilizer, and labor shortages.  “Precision ag” as it’s known, is being used to get the most out of limited resources. 

And Chase said it was particularly helpful this year with inflation driving up costs. He said technology now touches almost every part of his operation, including planting seeds in just the right spot and applying fertilizer and water in just the right amounts. 

“We needed to know, well, are we going to get our return for putting out X number of units of nitrogen?” Chase said. 

After the harvest, yield monitors tell Chase what work worked and what didn’t.  

“Those are the kind of technologies that I really like,” Chase said. “Something that I can save money, save a resource and actually increase yields. That’ a win-win. You don’t get many of those.” 

Precision ag is on display at the University of Georgia’s campus in Tifton. That’s where professor Simer Virk surveys farm fields in his truck. 

“You know, it’s not that we can just throw some seed in a planter, fertilizer and a spreader and apply the same amount throughout the whole [field],” Virk said.  “That’s very inefficient today if you think about it.” 

Both Virk and Chase said corralling the full power of tech and farming isn’t possible without reliable access to broadband internet. Chase said he’s been using cellphone technology to operate his equipment 

“I’ve got a cellphone contract for that monitor, I’ve got one across the road, I had them in the corn fields as well; I’ve got two for the chicken house,” Chase said. “You can get the idea.” 

But he said that technology is not always reliable. Chase said he’s eager for his electric cooperative to install fiber cable, and expects that to happen by fall of next year. He said technology is now a necessity to keep future generations involved in farming. 

“If we don’t do something, I don’t know who’s gonna farm,” Chase said.  “I really don’t.”