Strip-tillers remain ahead of the curve with technology adoption, according to Strip-Till Farmer’s 13th annual Strip-Till Operational Benchmark Study. 

Just over 95% of survey respondents use GPS tractor auto-steer, 73.8% use field mapping and yield monitor data analysis, 67.2% auto-seed shutoff, 59% auto-boom/nozzle shutoffs, 47.5% variable-rate seeding, 44.3% satellite aerial imagery and 39.3% GPS implement guidance.

Nearly 95% of survey respondents use some form of GPS correction for strip-till. About 51% use satellite-based RTK, 22.2% land-based RTK, 15.3% cellular-based RTK and 5.6% WAAS. 

“RTK is a must to make sure the strip-till tractor and the planting tractor are running good guidance,” says Luke Koffman, who runs a custom strip-till business across 6 counties in central Illinois. “From a convenience standpoint and idiot-proofing the whole thing, RTK would be the one big piece of technology you need for strip-till.”

Other popular precision technology choices include variable-rate fertility (39.3%) and drones (survey record-high 37.7%). Drone utilization plans for 2026 include fungicide applications (38.1%), cover crop seeding (35.7%), crop scouting (33.3%), and herbicide and insecticide applications (both 14.3%). 

Precision ag expert John Fulton and his colleagues at Ohio State Univ. have studied the practicality of new technologies through the eFields on-farm research program. Drones, which have become increasingly popular for fungicide applications and cover crop seeding in Ohio, were put to the test in 2025.

“From a spraying perspective, I’ll give you 3 things we learned,” Fulton says. “First, the higher we fly, the more opportunity there is for the product to miss the target. Our data indicates the lower, the better. Speed and height are a big deal. When comparing flying at ground speeds of 15 mph to 20 mph, coverage reduced when going faster. And finally, we found that reducing the pass-to-pass swath width helps maintain uniform applications. For example, if you buy a drone and the recommendation is 40 feet pass-to-pass swath width, you probably need to be in the 30–34-foot range.”

On average, strip-tillers plan to spend about $9,246 on precision technology services and equipment in 2026, about $1,500 more than they spent in 2025.