Variable rate swath control

Grader A: hit

Automatic section control on sprayers and planters was sold before the poster (economic case studies published 2013) and USDA reports it on 41-48% of cotton, sorghum and barley acres by 2019; VRT covered about 20% of major-crop acres in 2010-2013.

Test: D37 Horizons: section/swath control and variable-rate application buyable by ordinary farms by 2018 (earlier counts).

• Precision Agriculture in the Digital Era: Recent Adoption on U.S. Farms (USDA ERS EIB-248) (2023-03): Automatic section control used on 41-48% of acres for several crops in 2019; widely sold technology.
• The economics of automatic section control technology for planters: Tennessee farms (Computers and Electronics in Agriculture) (2013): Commercial planter section control already in farm use and evaluated in 2013.

Grader B: hit

Automatic section control and prescription-based variable-rate controllers (Raven, Trimble, Deere) were sold commercially since the 2000s.

Test: Farmers could buy swath control and variable-rate systems by 2018 (earlier counts).

• Precision agriculture (2023): GPS guidance, yield mapping and variable-rate application commercially used since the 1990s-2000s.