Farm Tender

Is there resistance to tech?

You can now buy the FarmTender2023 - The Business of Farming video. Click here. All the interviews and presentations. Five and a half hours of Farming related takeaways for your business.

By Dwain Duxson

Is there resistance to tech? -- I was speaking to a Farmer the other day who also buys and sells a few 2nd hand Airseeders and the like on the side. What he is seeing is resistance to some of the sensors and stuff that is part of a modern-day Airseeder that is not really necessary. Stuff that breaks down, and you need the Dealer tech out to fix it.

 

He said, "all they want to see is the lever going round, and they know that the machine is working. And if something breaks, the lever stops. Simple as that".

 

In all the right-to-repair debate, I read that Farmers only use something like 40 percent of the technology that's in a new John Deere Tractor. Farmers get frustrated in the onboarding period after a new Machine is delivered. The period where they have to learn all the new tech.

 

So perhaps there is not a resistance to tech as such, it's more a resistance to complex tech, stuff that is there but not necessarily needed.