Bozeman Magazine

Terry Griffin, associate professor and cropping systems economist at Kansas State University, will deliver a keynote speech at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 9, in Strand Union Ballroom B at Montana State University.  

“The Future of Digital Farming” is part of Sustainable Opportunities in Precision Agriculture, a weeklong boot camp hosted by the College of Agriculture highlighting the future of precision agriculture and its potential for use in the state. Griffin’s speech is free and open to the public.  

In his speech, Griffin will cover the economics of digital agriculture and provide his insights for what to expect in the future. According to Griffin, this includes the profitability of the technologies as well as the non-monetary aspects of the rural household, including quality of life as a benefit and human capital requirements as a cost. The importance of data quality for farm management purposes will be discussed along with automation of data-intensive tasks, as well as field activities such as guidance and section control. 

Griffin specializes in farm management and digital agricultural technology. His research and extension programs focus on cropping systems economics, precision agriculture technologies and big data. Current projects he is involved in include farm management decision-making under weather uncertainty, profitable automated variable rate irrigation applications, valuation of precision agriculture data and farmland values. 

He has received numerous awards for advancing digital agriculture, including the 2014 Pierre C. Robert International Precision Agriculture Young Scientist Award, the 2012 Conservation Systems Precision Ag Research of the Year Award and the 2010 Precision Ag Award of Excellence for Researchers Award.