Planting season is here, and with it comes “busy season” for precision specialists. In today’s Technology Corner segment, we pay a visit to Patrick Johnson, who was planting into a strip-tilled field for the first time in Clinton, Wis.Patrick ran into some trouble with his planter, but luckily his precision specialist was just a call away, ready to save the day. 

Noah Newman: Patrick sees a problem, so he gets out of the cab to investigate and appears to have everything figured out.

Patrick Johnson: We had a little fault saying that we were out of range on one row. It looks like we're good now.

But after further review, something's still off. It's time to call in Jason Pennycook, precision specialist with the family dealership, Johnson Tractor. 

Patrick Johnson: And then it's given me a planter stop. And before and  now when I was going, it gave me an error on just that row. It said population out of range. And I went back and checked it and it was clear and everything looked like it was hooked up, but I'm a bit at a loss. 

Jason Pennycook: Okay. Let's go back to diagnostics.

Patrick Johnson: But I'm not getting the planner to engage. 

Through FaceTime, Jason's able to see everything on Patrick's monitor and talk him through the problem.

Jason Pennycook: Yeah, the planner system is on because it says stops.

Patrick Johnson: Okay. Yeah, it was blinking at the same rate as all the rest of them.

Jason Pennycook: Okay. Give me one second. I'm going to call you right back. I got tech support calling me.

Patrick Johnson: Sounds good. Yep. 

There appears to be something wrong with a sensor on one of the rows. Patrick suspects a bad connection. As he waits for Jason to call him back, another technician from Johnson Tractor helps him jiggle the row unit around and get the planner up and running. Back in the cab, Patrick scarfs down a sandwich as he wraps up his conversation with Jason. 

Patrick Johnson: It was calling for a massive amount of seed. It would always go to the max. Oh, okay. Yeah. And don't touch too much because I was the one who imported the prescriptions.

Crisis averted. Just another day at the office as planning season rolls on at the Johnson's farm, Pennycook to the rescue.