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Farmer, Dealers and Academics Hook Up In Videoconference on Farm Machinery Users Panel

8 September 2000

Farmer, Dealers and Academics Hook Up In Videoconference on Farm Machinery Users Panel

    WARRENDALE, Pa., Sept. 8 An Iowa farmer, two farm
equipment dealers in Illinois and Kansas, an agribusiness professor in Georgia
and an equipment engineer in Iowa will interact in a videoconference on
precision farming and remote sensing on Monday, September 11 at the Society of
Automotive Engineers Off-Highway & Powerplant Congress at the Midwest Express
Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
    Ron Heck, owner of a farm in Perry, Iowa, will exchange views and
information with the other participants on where farmers are going to get
their information on 21st century farming practices.  According to Steve
Gansen, session moderator and editor of Farm Equipment magazine, the farmers
want the dealers to advise them on the latest technology.
    Such new devices as GPS, yield monitors, and remote sensing with
3-dimensional images will make dealers who survive in the declining farm
machinery market the experts in passing technical information on to farmers
who must make buy decisions on high cost farm equipment.
    The videoconference marks the first time that SAE has conducted a panel at
a conference with participants from remote sites.  Heck will be speaking from
an Iowa State University site; dealer Steve Schmidt of Atlanta, Illinois will
be at Illinois Wesleyan University; dealer Jim Meinhardt of Wamago, Kansas
will be at Kansas State University; Professor Dick Edwards will broadcast from
Dalton State University in Dalton, Georgia and engineer Harry Deckler of Kinze
Manufacturing from the University of Iowa.
    The Off-Highway Congress runs September 11-13 and includes technical
sessions on such subjects as tillage, traction & compaction; new farm
equipment and components and precision farming and related control system.