The group of precision farming professionals who participated in the roundtable covered a lot of ground, but a few key takeaways stood out. “The majority of our time was spent discussion optimization packages, specifically proactive optimization packages,” says Jaime Paquin, general manager of Reichhardt Electronic Innovations, who moderated the roundtable.

The unmanned aerial vehicle market exploded in agriculture roughly 3 years ago, but a dip in the ag economy along with regulatory changes regarding drone usage influenced the short-term popularity of the systems.

Moderated by John Schmeiser, CEO, Western Equipment Dealers Assn., the roundtable on lessons learned from the recent tough times received good and candid participation from dealers of many types, colors and sizes throughout North America.

Executing a polished and professional precision ag field day requires combination of planning, marketing and persistence. Here are 9 takeaways from the roundtable discussion at the 2017 Precision Farming Dealer Summit.

The short answer is yes. Whether your dealership has multiple locations, is a single store, or just a single person, using a CRM (customer relationship management system) makes doing business easier both now and in the future.

Read full coverage of the Precision Farming Dealer Summit presentations, from how to recruit and retain precision employees, to developing a standalone precision business, to managing customers’ data, in the March 2017 issue of Farm Equipment.

Precision farming specialists tend to work with a certain independence and freedom — troubleshooting technology problems on a fluid timeline few others can solve.

Mixing and matching precision farming equipment and components can, in many cases, produce a superior system for some operations. On the other hand, compatibility issues with such systems have been known to create major headaches for precision farming technicians whose job it is to make them operate properly.

Putting together a precision farming service plan can be a messy process. What to include — and exclude — how to bill and of course, what to charge, are key decisions that need to be made prior to launching a package.

In an engaging session of the Summit, Matt Eldridge, director of aftermarket sales, Smith Implements, Greenfield, Ind., shared how their 5-store dealer group turned course and loaded up all its “precision chips” into traditional departments.