Computer use by farmers becoming more ubiquitous

Seventy-four percent of Iowa farmers own or lease a computer, 3 percentage points higher than the national average, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Seventy-six percent of Iowa farms report having access to a computer, up slightly from 2013.

That comes as no surprise to John Lawrence, Iowa State University associate dean for extension programs and outreach.

'We've been talking about computers in agriculture for 30-plus years,” Lawrence said. 'I think farmers are using computers for a variety of tasks, such as checking the markets and getting the weather forecast.

'More and more of our extension information can be downloaded from the Internet, rather than picking up a hard copy at the county extension office. I think the USDA report is a snapshot of an ongoing trend.”

The 74 percent of Iowa farms with Internet access is up 3 percentage points from 2013.

A wireless connection is the most common method of accessing the Internet, with 28 percent of Iowa farms with Internet service using wireless.

Greg Carson, who farms northeast of Marion, said his equipment is linked by a wireless network to facilitate the flow of information to help with planting decisions.

'Each of our combines, sprayers and tractors have a Deere 2630 computer screen,” Carson said. 'It tracks our yields, moisture, populations and other information on a coverage map.

'We transfer that data to our home computer and upload all that information to my iPad. I can physically walk out to that spot and see what that area is doing.”

Kraig Hunter, integrated solutions manager at agriculture equipment dealer P&K Midwest in Mount Vernon, said farmers are using smartphones, tablet computers and other devices that can be linked to provide data needed make good decisions.

'I think more farmers are becoming tech savvy, but there also are people who are saying ‘Now that I have all this stuff, what do I do with it?'” Hunter said. 'They want to know more, but they're easing into it.”

Hunter said age is not a factor in terms of who is embracing computers.

'I've got guys who are 70-plus sending stuff back and forth, and I've got younger farmers using older equipment who do not see the value of it,” he said. 'You can't pigeonhole ‘Mr. Farmer' and say ‘this is how it's going.'

'It's how they see their business and a lot of other influences in their world that are bringing them into it.”

Nationally, 70 percent of farmers report having access to the Internet, up 3 percentage points from 2013. A DSL (digital subscriber line) connection is the most common method of accessing the Internet, with 30 percent of the farms in the United States using it, down from 35 percent in 2013.

Forty-seven percent of crop producers in the United States use the computer for farm business, compared with 39 percent of the livestock producers.