NASHVILLE, TENN. (RFD NEWS) — Precision agriculture technology is not consistently improving farm profitability, with most tools delivering limited measurable efficiency gains.
Research from Purdue University agricultural economist Chad Fiechter shows that across seventeen technology combinations, only automated guidance and the combination of yield monitors with grid soil sampling produced meaningful efficiency improvements. Most other technologies added costs without generating enough additional revenue to offset them.
Farm-Level Takeaway: Technology returns depend on management, not just adoption.
Tony St. James, RFD NEWS Markets Specialist
The results highlight a key challenge for producers. Automated guidance provides immediate benefits with minimal learning, while data-driven tools require time and management skill to turn information into better decisions. Without that, financial returns are difficult to capture.
Farm-level impacts vary significantly. Less efficient operations saw the greatest improvement, suggesting technology can help close management gaps. However, highly efficient farms showed little additional benefit from adoption.
The findings reinforce that technology alone does not guarantee better performance, with management and cost control remaining critical drivers of profitability.
It is in there, the mold — those rich blue veins in creamy blue cheese that make you either love it or loathe it — but how does it get there? This bonus scene from “Clemson Dairy,” Season 4, Episode 4 of
Where the Food Comes From, explains how and why that happens.
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No, it is not some new college course — Clemson has been making blue cheese since 1941, and the product has developed a worldwide following and won some pretty big awards. With good reason — it is fantastic stuff. It is also fascinating to see how it is made. Check out this sneak peek look at the latest episode of Where the Food Comes From, “Clemson Blue.”
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The machines do all the work at Hickory Hill Milk in South Carolina, and the pampered cows get on-demand service. The team at Where the Food Comes From shares a special, behind-the-scenes account filming the show’s newest episode, Robot Dairy, premiering this Friday, Oct. 20, 2023, at 9:30 p.m. ET on RFD-TV!
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How does a robot milk a cow?
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The machines do all the work at Hickory Hill Milk in South Carolina, where the pampered cows get on-demand service. They make a premium cream line of milk you still have to shake. It is so good it is used to make the world-famous Clemson blue cheese.
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Today’s blog post by RFD-TV Agri-Legal Expert Roger McEowen takes a look at the “preferential payment rule,” a unique bankruptcy provision that can come as a suprise to farmers in financial distress.
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