Blake Szilvay looked into this question. He found a report filed by the FCC and offers these items to answer the question. The information referenced was found in a working paper titled “Impact of Broadband Penetration on U.S. Farm Productivity” written by Katherine LoPiccalo for the FCC on December 15, 2020.

Better Broadband helps with:

• Increased online marketing of products
• Better comparison shopping for inputs, machinery, and even credit
• The adoption of precision agriculture heavily depends on high-speed internet access

Precision ag can be grouped into 3 categories (all rely on good internet in one way or another)

1. Monitoring and sensing applications

• Yield and soil data
• Drone technology

2. Variable rate technology

• Auto-steer
• Increased accuracy and efficiency

3. Data management systems- Communication and transfer of collected data

Visit the Broadband Resources page for information and ways to take action on broadband issues. Please contact Kenny Sherin if you have questions or want to share broadband resources.