Could 3-D printing revolutionize the parts and service department in the dealership of tomorrow? Robert Saik, author of The Agriculture Manifesto and founder and CEO of The Agri-Trend Group, thinks 3-D printing is one of the drivers that will shape agriculture in the next decade. Saik writes, I think this is going to revolutionize the parts and the equipment industry going forward and it's going to drastically change how we handle our inventories and the delivery of repair parts to farmers.

Tapping Drip Irrigation Efficiencies as a Sales Opportunity

The current CJ-4 oil category of oil for diesel engines that farmers and dealers are familiar with is living on borrowed time under new fuel economy demands and CO2 mandates.

Take 5 minutes to visit www.dorhoutrd.com and click on “Prospero Robot Overview" (or see video below). In the short video you’ll see a one-off, 6-legged robot that’s capable of walking in a farm field, planting corn in ground not already-seeded, marking the seeded spot and moving on to plant again.

Properly used irrigated acres are roughly twice as productive as dryland fields, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, but only 20% of the world's cropland is irrigated.

Freeing planter mechanisms from chain/clutch drives has opened up a new frontier in variable-rate technology, one which sees several planters going afield this year capable of carrying more than one hybrid and planting them in specific parts of the field according to soil maps and planting conditions.

Whether they’re banding with a stream of air or broadcasting off the blades of a spinner, growers and custom applicators working with granular and bulk dry products are looking to cover more ground faster and with more accuracy — it’s all part of increasing productivity and precision.

Bigger farm sprayers with wider booms continue to generate sales across the U.S. and European farmscape, but farmers and engineers in the nutrient and chemical application business are increasingly taking a serious look at "what comes out of the sprayer" and how best to maximize the effectiveness of that output.