8 / SEEDWORLD.COM JUNE 2019 FROM TOP TO BOTTOM, rural America is changing, and seed companies respond with new marketing strategies. At every level, change is being driven by technology. Precision farm technology enables farmers to collect mas- sive amounts of data that can be used to inform production input decisions. Plant breeders are analyzing increasingly large amounts of data to better assist growers to “put the right seed in the right field.” Seed technology bundles crop protec- tion features with genetics that are changing the boundaries of where crops can be successfully grown. While most U.S. farming operations remain family-owned businesses, individual farms are increasingly operated as a big business, where the farmer functions as a chief executive officer and product/service providers serve as technical con- sultants on the farmer’s informal board of directors. Over the past 15 years, one dramatic change is the technology used to produce agricultural crops. “You could probably go back 30 or 40 years from the mid-2000s and corn producers were largely making the same decisions year after year,” observes Chris Haag, LG Seeds’ marketing man- ager. “Since then there have been so many differ- ent technological changes that have happened so rapidly that nobody coming into crop production now has the background to tell you what is right or wrong. Even someone who has been around for 40 years is now dealing with decisions so differ- ent than anything we saw before that it is difficult to take your learning from the past and apply it to today’s situation.” A Gradual Changing the of the Guard There is a gradual changing of the guard taking place as older farmers with 30- or 40-years expe- rience are stepping back and are being replaced by younger, more educated and tech-savvy operators. According to the 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census of Agriculture, there were more principle farm operators in the high- est three age groups (55-64 years, 65-74 years and 75+ years) in 2012 that in 2007. Both middle age groups (35-44 years and 45-54 years) gained principle farm operators. An increasing portion of corn, soybeans and small grains are being produced on large farms with over 2,000 acres of cropland. Older farm- ers are stepping aside to allow younger farmers with larger farming equipment to take over farm management responsibilities. For the past three decades, the percentage of U.S. cropland in farms with 200 to 999 acres of cropland has decreased. Farms with 1,000 to 2,000 cropland acres have maintained a consistent 45% of all cropland. Large farms (more than 2,000 cropland acres) in 2012 included about 35% of all U.S. cropland, more than double the 1987 share. “Now, there are a lot of farmers under 40 years in our Kansas and Nebraska market area,” says Adrian Polansky, owner of Polansky Seeds. “There is a bifurcation of our marketing strategies. For those farmers over age 50, our strategy is similar to what we have done in the past (radio, newspapers, etc.). The younger farmers are more focused on social media and precision ag. They may at times get their information from radio and print, but they Rural America is facing different changes at every level, but the biggest influencer? Technology. Joe Funk jfunk@issuesink.com TECHNOLOGY DRIVING CHANGE 45% of of all cropland consists of farms with 1,000 to 2,000 acres. 70% of a grain farmer’s decisions have already been made when the planter leaves the field. 2012 saw more than double the amount of large farms than 1987.