Agronomic service is still a push-pull offering for dealers. Some have proactively embraced and invested in providing robust support options to customers that include soil sampling, data analysis and field prescriptions.

Are you having conversations with them to see what can be accomplished and implemented?

The more things change, the more they stay the same, at least in terms of how dealers are selling and servicing precision farming products. While strides have been made establishing precision as a standalone business, dealerships continue to seek a better balance between revenue generated by hardware sales and service.

Despite the downturn in the ag economy, precision farming dealers have largely maintained an ambitious sales outlook, banking on their ability to increase billable service and capture ROI-based revenue from new products.

Strip-till farmers have typically been among the most progressive adopters of precision technology, embracing tools including variable-rate seeding, implement guidance and unmanned aerial vehicles. But RTK-level correction is often referred to as the most essential technology in a successful strip-till system, given the importance of accurately planting into a narrow strip of soil.

The market share realities and logistical hurdles a single-store mainline farm equipment dealership must clear to compete in an era of consolidation are real.

I’ll admit to being conflicted by the convenience of Google as a research tool. It’s a broad and seemingly bottomless resource for everything from DIY projects to settling bar bets.

Talking with precision dealers about their revenue outlook during the last several months, most have shared variations of the same story — cautious optimism with a caveat. A challenging spring in many areas is compounding the prolonged effect of the slumping ag economy, a combination precision dealers cited as a concern.

Engineers with 68 different ISOBUS components — from virtual terminals to a programmable tractor chair — were scattered across nearly 35 tables during the 3-day Agricultural Electronics Foundation (AEF) Plugfest, May 7-9 in Lincoln, Neb.