Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
farmers from different geographic regions of the state was undertaken
with support from USDA-NASS, Fargo, North Dakota office. The farmers
were selected at random by NASS. The target farmer demographic was the
typical North Dakota crop producer, generally consisting of wheat, corn,
and soybean growers. The survey consisted of a questionnaire with two
main sections. In the first section, respondents were asked whether they
had adopted specific precision agriculture technologies, including GPS
guidance and autosteer, and how much savings of fuel and machine opera-
tor time they attributed to the use of these technologies throughout their
operations. The second section of the questionnaire requests demographic
data specific to the farm and farm household. Figures 1 and 2 exhibit the
survey questions from sections 1 and 2 of the questionnaire, respectively.
The collected data were used to estimate the percentage of farm opera-
tors who have adopted GPS guidance systems and autosteer technology
in their operations. We also used a logistic regression model [10] to de-
termine how farm size and number of farm workers affect a farm opera-
tor's likelihood of using autosteer and/or GPS guidance. Lastly, we report
the average producer's perception of the amounts of time and fuel saved
by using these technologies in tillage, planting, spraying, harvesting, and
other activities.
8.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Of the 1,000 questionnaires, only 60 were returned completed, which is
a very low response rate—only 0.06%. This low response rate likely re-
sults from what is known as self-selection bias, which regularly causes
difficulties in analyzing mail, internet, and telephone survey data [11]. In
essence, self-selection bias means that respondents participate in surveys
on topics that interest them. In the case of survey used in this research,
we should expect that producers who currently use or are considering the
use of GPS guidance and autosteering are more likely to choose to partici-
pate. Thirty-four percent of the respondents reported using GPS guidance
systems in their agricultural vehicles, whereas 27% of the respondents re-
ported using both GPS guidance and autosteering systems in their agricul-
tural vehicles. Forty-eight percent reported using precision technologies
