Do-It-Yourself or Network RTK?

As precision farming technology matures and becomes pervasive, innovators and FBS clients like Blake Hollis, Waterloo, Iowa, are walking away from their own RTK (real-time kinematic) towers and subscribing to commercial GPS-correctional signals according to the March 2010 issue of Prairie Farmer. Hollis has been strip-tilling for 12 years, has begun raising seed corn and is moving to 20-inch rows, all of which benefit from RTK.

We see this cycle repeated each time a new innovation is introduced, perfected and mainstreamed in agriculture. Even IF the first-generation technology proves reliable (note a big "IF") innovators rarely receive a full return on their investments in money and time before the technology becomes obsolete. The early adopters who follow receive the best ROI (yet it's sometimes hard to distinguish an early adopter from an innovator when technology evolves so rapidly). After a technology is "mainstreamed," a "do-it-yourself" approach makes no economic sense, regardless of whether it's precision farming or farm financial records.