USDA reports precision agriculture use increases with farm size

Date:12-12-2024

Over the past 20 years, U.S. farms have substantially increased their adoption of precision agriculture, and numerous precision technologies are now widespread.

For instance, guidance autosteering systems on tractors, harvesters, and other equipment were used by 52 percent of midsize farms and 70 percent of large-scale crop-producing farms in 2023--up from adoption rates in the single digits in the early 2000s. Yield monitors, yield maps, and soil maps were used on 68 percent of large-scale crop-producing farms.

The adoption rates of precision agriculture technologies increase sharply with farm size, with small family farms (those with gross cash farm income (GCFI) of less than $350,000) having the lowest rates of use within each technology category. Among small family farms, the lowest levels of adoption for several technologies were among those in which the principal operator was retired from farming and those with low sales (GCFI less than $150,000).

The reported reasons farm operators adopt technologies varied by type, but the most common reasons were to increase yields, save labor time, reduce purchased input costs, reduce operator fatigue, and improve soils or reduce environmental impacts. Labor-saving potential is especially important for technologies such as robotic milking--expensive equipment that automates most or all the labor-intensive steps in the milking process.

This chart appears in America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance, published December 2024.