Studies investigating temporal and geographicadoption of precision farming technologies (PFT)are valuable for researchers, consultants, andfarmers to make more informed production decisions.Focusing on southern U.S. cotton producers,the objective of this study was to assess the timingtrends and geographic patterns of PFT adoption.Data were obtained from a mail survey of cottonproducers in 14 southern states in 2013. The overallPFT adoption level was 73.5%. Specifically, theadoption level was 40.9% for information gathering(IG), 67% for global positioning system-guidance(GPSG), 25.3% for variable rate application(VRA), and 29.3% for automatic section controltechnologies (ASC). The cumulative adoption levelacross years generally fit the logistic function curvefor the various PFT evaluated in this study. Thepeak annual adoption growth was 4.0% in 2008for IG, 6.8% in 2010 for GPSG, 4.4% in 2010 forVRA, and 7.2% in 2010 for ASC. Geographically,cotton farmers in the Corn Belt region had thehighest PF adoption level (91.7%), followed by theMississippi Delta region (80.7%) and the Northernand Southern Plains region (75.4%). The lowest PFadoption level was in the Southeast region (65.2%).Of the four PFT categories, GPSG was the mostwidely adopted. The geographic technology adoptionpatterns are valuable for farm input dealersto target potential buyers of PFT. This studyprovides researchers with valuable PFT adoptiontrends among southern cotton farmers and helpsproducers make more informed adoption decisions.
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