3 dealers outline the training programs, customer service strategies and financial benchmarks they use to effectively manage their precision departments.
Whether your precision team consists of 2 people or 20, a commitment to excellent customer service, a solid training program and measurable expense benchmarks will put your precision department on a path to profitability.
Workforce development is not a new topic in the ag equipment industry, but it’s becoming more relevant every year. That’s according to Michael Piercy, vice president of dealer development at the North American Equipment Dealers Assn. (NAEDA).
As we’ve all learned, the skillset possessed by a really good precision ag technology specialist is hard to find. They are in high demand and thus expensive, and they take extensive training to develop.
As the NCAA’s wrapped up and baseball’s opening days took place, we went to farm equipment leaders about the lessons learned from their sport-playing “glory days.”
From cultural cohesiveness to drilling into the component tracking data and assessing store needs, integrating precision teams is an increasingly critical part of successful dealership mergers.
When an acquisition or merger of a farm equipment dealership takes place, the focus is usually on appraising used equipment, evaluating parts inventory and transiting assets.
The new portal helps dealers manage their inventory more effectively, seeing stock availability and delivery times and monitoring deliveries through the new order tracking feature.
The University of Mount Olive has launched a new Precision Agriculture minor for spring 2023. Dr. Sandy Maddox, Dean of the UMO School of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, discusses how the minor fills a critical need in the industry and whether more universities will begin offering precision ag courses.
LandPro precision specialist Ike Vorisek says one of the biggest game changers in 2022 was the increased adoption of JDLink and other remote support options.
The 2023 recipient of Precision Farming Dealer’s 11th annual Most Valuable Dealership is LandPro Equipment, founded in 2017 with 20 locations across western New York, eastern Ohio and northwest and central Pennsylvania.
Precision Farming Dealer goes 1-on-1 with LandPro precision specialist Kelsee Soule, who says no two days are alike on the job. “The plan aways changes as soon as you step foot in the door,” she says.
It’s planting season, which means a lot of the technology we spotlight on this program is being used in the field as we speak. I paid a visit to Eagle, Wis., farmer Tyler Troiola who’s using John Deere See and Spray for the first time this growing season. He says it took his dealer about 2 solid weeks to install the system on his 2018 John Deere sprayer.
The college offers an associate degree in Applied Science in Agriculture (60 credit hours). Students enrolled in this program may specialize in precision farming technology by selecting up to 15 credit hours in this area and agriculture business, sales and agronomy.
The college offers an AAS in Precision Agriculture and customized precision ag- related training for agricultural producers, insurance underwriters, equipment dealer and agricultural cooperative employees and others.
Offering training on Ag Leader, Trimble, Reichhardt, Norac and Integris Systems in twice yearly customer training events (spring/fall). Also offering individual training opportunities on any HTS Ag products and SMS software, year round.