In 2010, Doug Gronau — who farms with his son, Greg, and wife, Judy — decided to give row clutches and auto-steer a spin on his hilly Iowa farm.

Deeper rooting corn and reduced fertilizer usage where the main goals when Floyd Koerner III and his father, Floyd Jr., made the switch from no-till to strip-till in 2004. It was also an opportunity for them to start variable-rate application of their spring potash, potassium and nitrogen.

There was no dabbling in precision technology for Bill Darrington. He researched, observed, picked the right system and jumped in with both feet. An AgLeader system allowed him to install and control row clutches or section shutoffs on his Kinze planters, Blu-Jet fertilizer applicator and Hagie sprayer and serve as a yield monitor on his Lexion combine.

Chris Breen, who farms with his father, Pat, is in charge of most of the precision technologies used on their South Dakota farm — which encompasses most all of their equipment.

A recent survey of No-Till Farmer readers revealed that while a good knowledge level of precision farming product exists with their local equipment dealers, almost all of that knowledge resides within one specialist’s head.

Mike Zimmerman uses auto-steer to take stress and waste out of his field operations. For the past 8 years, auto-steer has kept his lines straight and given him the ability to better monitor seeder and sprayer operations instead of focusing solely on driving the tractor. He has auto-steer in two tractors and his sprayer.