PRECISION AGRICULTURE NEWS
Read through some of the most recent Rantizo features in the news and media here.
You’ll find topics such as precision agriculture, ag technology, drones, cover crops, and more!
Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network: Drones seed cover crops on central Iowa farm
Central Iowa landowner Lee Tesdell implements many conservation practices on his family’s century farm near Slater. A recent field day showcased how he works with Iowa-based Rantizo to seed cover crops with drones.
On Monday, August 23rd, the Center for Rural Affairs, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Polk Soil and Water Conservation District, and Rantizo hosted the “Cover Crops and Saturated Buffers: Teaming Up for Better Water Quality” field day. Tesdell says the event featured a demonstration of drones seeding cover crops, including a multi-species swarm seeding by Rantizo. He runs his farm under a landowner-tenant collaboration with operator Mike Helland. (…)
Iowa PBS: Farming with drones
Farmers in Iowa are using drones to work more efficiently and ultimately save money. Check out how this technology is changing the way farmers work! (…)
WCIA The Morning Show: Road to the Farm Progress Show
There’s a new start-up company making an appearance at the Farm Progress Show that a lot of people are paying attention to.
It’s called Rantizo, and its regional sales manager, Ben Etsinger, met up with WCIA 3’s Stu Ellis to show off some very special drone stuff. (…)
PrecisionAg: Michael Ott taking drone application from the drawing board to the field
As co-founder of Rantizo, Michael Ott’s successful pursuit of turnkey system for drone-based application has earned him the 2021 Crop Adviser/Entrepreneur Award from the PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence, sponsored by the PrecisionAg Alliance.
“Everyone says, know your customer. In our restaurant, my dad literally knew everyone that was coming in, and many times he knew what they were going to order,” he says. “When you truly know them that well, it’s a great lesson. That’s what we want to do at Rantizo.” (…)
FarmBits Podcast: Episode #40 Elevating UAVs
Getting crop protection products applied to the acres that need it in a timely manner is a critical aspect of ensuring that crops don’t succumb to disease, weed, or insect pressure. Rantizo is leveraging advancements in UAV technology and driving regulatory progress to offer UAV spraying options to growers.
Sam Pendleton, Director of Sales for Rantizo, joins this episode of the FarmBits podcast to provide an overview of Rantizo’s model and technology. In this episode, Sam shares Rantizo’s approach, provides an overview of flight missions conducted with Rantizo’s technology, discusses how Rantizo is leveraging data to inform spot-spraying, and offers insights into the future of UAV-based spraying. (…)
Carroll Times Herald: Landus launches Innovation Center, showcases pioneering ag
With displays of crop-spraying drones and the opening of a Google office in Ralston, Landus on June 29 officially launched its new Innovation Center, a hive of agricultural entrepreneurship and modern features.
The aim of the rural Iowa center is to cultivate strategic partnerships and collaboration between farmer-owners and global innovation leaders to drive a more-sustainable and profitable future of farming. (…)
ScienceLine: A growing flock of farm drones could help with our pesticide problem
To most people — even many farmers — the idea of tending crops hardly brings to mind a drone rising into the air, carrying a tank full of pesticides and navigating by pre-programmed map. Yet, when Michael Ott markets to agricultural retailers, that’s exactly his sales pitch: an unmanned aircraft that will spray whatever you need, wherever you need it. (…)
Future Farming: Rules allow for big expansion in drone spraying
While strict rules are often seen as holding back technological advances, in the case of spray application drones they have had the opposite effect. The introduction of remote pilot licenses, qualifications and other certifications has seen the market rapidly expand in countries where they are being implemented and operators see the benefits these can bring. (…)
Future Farming: What to look for when buying your first application drone
While use of spray application drones has grown exponentially across the globe in the past two years, this has largely been the result of the introduction of proper rules and regulations governing their use. Both the USA and China, probably now the two largest markets, have strict regulations governing spray applications from drones. (…)
Progressive Farmer: Drones swarm farm fields
A heavy downpour would be a disaster for most field days. But the muddy mess was the perfect opportunity for Michael Ott, the CEO of Rantizo, to show off how a new system of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) work together to spray pesticides and seed crops.
“If you needed to spray today, you couldn’t with a ground rig,” said Ott, during a media day at the company proving grounds near Iowa City, Iowa. “But our drone systems can do it. People are realizing a drone can treat areas that tractors or self-propelled sprayers are not suitable for.” (…)
American Farm Bureau: Pandemic doesn’t slow down ag entrepreneurs
In this article, FBNews catches up with previous Ag Innovation Challenge participants to find out where they are now, how they were affected by the pandemic and how participating in the Challenge continues to benefit them. The entrepreneurs profiled here participated in the 2020 Challenge, which culminated at the American Farm Bureau Annual Convention in Austin, Texas, in January 2020. (…)
Bayer Shaping Agriculture: Drones Revolutionize Farmer’s Lives
The successes of the initial drone usage in Chinese rice paddies are capturing the attention of other global farmers and creating new opportunities for Bayer to enable growers to use drones to enhance ag processes around the world.
In late 2020, Bayer additionally took a major step to introduce this pioneering drone technology to farmers throughout the U.S. by forming a strategic partnership with Rantizo – a software and applications developer whose platform integrates with drones to identify crop protection issues and deliver precise in-field crop input applications. (…)