There was a new category in the latest edition of the USDA's farm computer and technology use survey, taking a look at how producers nationwide use precision agriculture practices.

"Precision agriculture is a very broad question. It includes anything from GPS monitoring, guidance of tractors, yield monitoring, irrigations systems, electronic tagging of livestock, robotic milking, all of that," noted Adam Peters is with NASS. "If it has a computer, then it's precision agriculture."

And Peters noted, just as broad was the responses on the number of farms in each state that use precision agriculture to manage crops or livestock.

"The highest responses, North and South Dakota in excess of 50%. And then at the opposite end we saw places like Virginia and West Virginia down in to the single digits. On average though in the United States we did see about a quarter of all farms using precision agriculture in some form."

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