The Precision Farming Dealer and Farm Equipment crew racked up nearly 100,000 steps combined Tuesday and Wednesday at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Ill., tracking down the latest equipment and technology innovations. Here are 5 things that stood out during our trip around "Progress City USA."

Drones are Hot

When talking with a manufacturer, he said there's no sugarcoating it — it's been a challenging economic year. But he pointed to the drone industry as one that appears to be doing better than others. That seemed to be the case as Agri Spray Drones founder Taylor Moreland was a popular guy at his company's booth. 

Attendees got an up-close look at the new EAVision J150 drone. It has a 20-gallon tank, 180-pound spreader capacity and can cover 65-plus acres per hour at 30 MPH max speed. In the video below, Moreland explains why he brought a drone with over 11,000 acres on it to the show, and also details a unique drone starter kit giveaway. 

Something That's Never Been Done in the History of Agriculture

"We had the world's first detection of an active fungal infection in real time, first time in 10,000 years of agriculture that's happened, and we detected it in July in northeast Nebraska," InnerPlant's Sean Yokomizo told us when describing the company's CropVoice technology. "We notified the farmers and we actually have control plots in that area, so those farmers had a 4.5-week head start to take action in their field to preserve their yields." 

InnerPlant's CropVoice is a first-of-its-kind platform, powered by a network of plots featuring InnerSoy — a soybean engineered to signal when it’s under attack from fungus, giving farmers and agronomists access to stress signals directly from plants. Pretty cool stuff, see for yourself in the video below.

OEMs Place Emphasis on Precision Technology  

Precision technology was in the spotlight at the John Deere, Case IH, AGCO and New Holland booths. Deere put together a visual display of "autonomy building blocks," which did an effective job showcasing the realistic path to autonomy in everyday farming. 

The Case IH booth was also jam-packed with people getting an up-close look at the company's SenseApply and Harvest Command technology. 

With so much technology coming to the market, dealerships will need all hands on deck in the service department. There appears to be some quality talent in the pipeline, judging by the fierce competition we saw during AGCO's NEXTECH young technician challenge (see video below). 

What It's Like Being the First...

Cody Boeck's Exeter, Neb.-based Boeck Farm Outfitters became the first U.S. dealership to sell and service Greeneye Technology. We caught up with Boeck at the Greeneye booth to discuss the benefits and challenges of the smart spray system and the preparations his dealership made to handle the cutting-edge tech. 

“We’ve had a lot of amazing feedback,” Boeck says. “With a technology like this, you have one idea of how you’re going to use it. Then when you get through a season you see some different opportunities, so that’s been cool to see how customers are using this in different ways.

“We started our business in the planter space, and we saw planters go from chain driven, dumb machines into electrically driven smart machines. The next machine on the farm to be able to do that is going to be the sprayer. We met with the guys who developed Greeneye Technology — a great group of guys with great vision. The combination of the people, the technology and where we think the sprayer space is going, this was a no-brainer for us.”

Autonomy on More Farms 

Autonomy was once again a big theme at this year's show and will continue to be in the foreseeable future as the technology continues to evolve and grow.

Solinftec announced it's expanding its footprint to Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Texas after establishing strong operations in Illinois and Indiana. 

“For the third consecutive season, our Solix robots are delivering outstanding results in reducing herbicide and water use while enabling real-time agronomic insights,” said Guilherme Guiné, COO of Solinftec North America. “By expanding to new regions, we’re helping more producers improve their operations while preserving valuable natural resources.”

In the video below, Solinftec's Taylor Wetli gives us a look at the Solix ag robot and new Refill Station.

Stay tuned for more coverage from the 2025 Farm Progress Show in the coming days!

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