According to the USDA, a significant 68% of large crop farms are leveraging precision agriculture technology. This technology generates vital information that assists operators in decision-making, such as yield monitors, yield maps, and soil maps. The annual “Farms and Ranches at a Glance” report reveals that high-volume farms are heavy users of this technology, contrary to earlier reports suggesting a low usage rate nationwide.

Motivations for Adopting Precision Agriculture

Large operators have adopted precision agriculture (PA) technology for multiple reasons. They aim to increase yields, reduce input costs, and alleviate operator fatigue. By contrast, only a few small farms have employed this technology. The Economic Research Service explains that adoption increases with farm size as larger farms can derive more benefits from using these tools compared to smaller farms.

Usage Rates by Farm Size

Last year, the USDA reported that 27% of crop and livestock farms used at least one form of PA. This includes yield monitors, drones, and robotic milking. The equipment has been available since the 1990s but is often expensive. PA enables row-crop farmers to track production from small plots rather than entire fields and adjust inputs accordingly. The “farms at a glance” report examined PA by farm size and found high usage among large operators. In contrast, other reports have focused on adoption by state or crop. The 2023 Technology Use report stated that 27% of farms used PA, with rates exceeding 50% in major grain states.More than 8 out of 10 U.S. farms have gross cash farm incomes of less than $350,000 a year and are classified as “small” farms. “Large” farms have incomes above $1 million a year, and mid-size farms fall in between. Gross cash farm income encompasses revenue from crop and livestock sales, government payments, other farm-related income, and production contract fees. Since the 1970s, the USDA has defined a farm as any place that produced and sold, or could have produced and sold, at least $1,000 in agricultural products in a year. Large farms account for half of the value of agricultural production.Among large farms, information-generating technology and auto-steer systems are the most common forms of PA, used on approximately seven out of ten farms. Variable-rate technology is used on 45%, and drones on 12%. The ERS report stated that robotic milking was adopted by 19% of large-scale milk-producing farms. More than half of mid-sized farms use auto-steer or yield monitors, yield maps, and soil maps. Thirteen percent of small farms use yield monitors and similar equipment.

Benefits and Motivations

The motivations for farmers to adopt PA technology are diverse and in line with the stated benefits. For example, among the farms that adopted yield monitors, yield maps, or soil maps, many did so to increase yields (55%), reduce purchased input costs (41%), and/or improve soils or reduce environmental impacts (40%). On the other hand, reduced labor time and operator fatigue have also spurred farmers to adopt PA technologies with significant labor-saving potential.Earlier this year, a congressional report highlighted obstacles to PA adoption besides cost, including poor internet service and device incompatibility. The report stated that technologies that are relatively easy to use are generally adopted more quickly and widely than those that are more complex or require a large investment of farmers’ time and resources. Stakeholders also indicated that data-intensive technologies that require farmers to collect, collate, analyze, and respond to data have a higher barrier to entry and are less widely adopted. Among corn and soybean farmers, the use of auto-steer for tractors and combines is twice as common as the use of soil maps or variable-rate application of fertilizer and seeds.