- A.J. Blair, a Dayton, Iowa no-tiller
- Alex Lindsey, agronomist at Ohio State University
- Philipp Schulze Esking, a farmer from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- Katharina Menzel, precision-ag product manager with John Deere
- Programs must be market-oriented.
- Coordination with the farmer is needed for implementation.
- Equity and fair participation must be maintained among small and large operations.
Looking At What’s Ahead
At Agritechnica, a lot of technology is focused on farm management. Menzel said the Deere tech focuses on two major factors: providing a machine with the capacity the farmer needs, and supporting the farmer with a strong dealer network. “A majority of farmers do not utilize the tech they already own,” she said.A focus on sustainability is part of the conversation on climate resilience. Blair said the U.S. should look at Germany to see the future. “We get the threat we may be regulated. In Germany, you are regulated. We struggle with carbon economics without fully understanding how to measure that on our farm,” he said.Esking, who has traveled globally as chairman of the German ag society DLG and as vice president of the Technical Center for Agriculture, said, “There is always a lot to learn from other people in other parts of the world.” Moves in some countries could have “leakage affects” for others. In effect, regulations approved in one part of the world could impact others, he said.“We need to prepare for the immediate and the future concerns related to climate change and how to become resilient to that,” Lindsey said. “I’ve put that effort to my research program at the university, now and in the future. That is important for me.”Creating resiliency in agriculture in the face of more challenging weather won’t be easy. All the panelists acknowledge the work ahead. The panel represents several months of work in 2023 in this transatlantic partnership. “This has been a wonderful experience, and we’re just starting to see the potential I didn’t know existed,” Lindsey said.Future work could include creating student group exchanges, collaborating on future projects and pulling together best practices to recommend to policymakers and farmers to “do the right things for the right reasons,” Lindsey concluded.
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