TRÉMONT (25News now) – Illinois farmers facing tight profit margins are turning to artificial intelligence technology to maximize their efficiency during the growing season.
The Precision Planting Winter Conference takes place this week in Tremont, bringing together farmers and industry leaders from across the region. Organizers say artificial intelligence is one of the main areas of focus this year.
“(Specifically) how farmers can actually implement new practices on their farm to get the most out of what they’re already doing,” said Bryce Baker, marketing director for Precision Planting.
One area receiving particular attention is recent adaptations of AI for field spraying applications.
“Cameras will be mounted on the sprayer boom when the farmer is spraying to kill weeds,” Baker explained.
These new technologies come at a critical time as farmers face higher operating costs and lower crop prices.
“Budget projections are in the red right now for agriculture. We really need to sharpen our pencils. Figure out where we can minimize our inputs,” said Champaign County farmer Casey Hettinger.
Timing presents another challenge for farmers. Short planting and harvest times leave little room for error.
“During planting and harvest season, these are some of the tightest times for farmers to get things done. In a perfect world, farmers might need 10 to 15 days of ideal conditions to finish planting,” Hettinger said.
For Hettinger, technology helps solve deadline and labor issues.
“With AI, we can kind of step back and help us make these decisions with real agronomic information,” he said.
Hettinger said AI is changing the extent to which farmers must monitor every decision in the field.
“AI will be able to monitor and take control of the implementation and actually control and implement what is supposed to be done,” he said.
With tight margins, every pass on the field counts.
“It’s an economic challenge right now because the price of inputs relative to output is really what farmers are faced with in making changes or adjustments in order to be profitable,” Baker said.
You can watch 25News – any TV news, anywhere – streaming LIVE on 25NewsNow.comOUR 25News mobile applicationand on our WEEK 25News SmartTV streaming app. Learn more about how you can tune into live news from 25News. here.
Copyright 2026 WEEK. All rights reserved.