AutoProbe automated soil sampler expands independent grower-centric dealer network
St. Louis, MO — AutoProbe Technologies continues to grow its network of AutoProbe intensive sampling system providers and grower owners. AutoProbe Technologies has added distributors in key market areas and will be announcing additional dealers and service providers in the weeks leading up and into the 2015 sampling season.
AutoProbe Technologies product development team has established a platform that will operate in conditions that were unthought-of when AutoProbe was first revealed in 2008 as a Top Ten New Product at World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA. The engineering team at the company has continued to face the challenge developing a system that operates consistently and is tough enough for the most diverse and variable environment of North American farms. Jeff Burton, AutoProbe Technologies President says, “Everything begins with the soil. Soil is second only to weather as the most variable factor in todays farming operations. AutoProbe intensive soil samples provide the highest quality samples while operating in adverse conditions while the operator manages the quality control process for the climate-conditioned cab.”
AutoProbe Technologies was founded and it’s core principles are based on Jim Burton’s vision of providing growers with the highest quality soil data to enable growers to make the best management decisions on an acre-by-acre basis. After a decade of development AutoProbe has matured as a tool that can be deployed by any grower or consultant committed to gathering the highest quality soil information for their farm or clients.
The technology moved closer to the growers last year when it established it relationship with Allen Lash and Harold Birch founders of Family Farms Group, Brighton, IL, to provide AutoProbe to their network of top North American growers via their new company Agronomic Innovations. Casey Jackson, General Manager, Agronomic Innovations says,”The AutoProbe automated soil sampler is becoming a key technology to assist Family Farms Group growers. They recognize more cores per sample provide better data on which to base their variable rate agronomic management programs. Why settle for as few as 4-6 cores per sample from a concentrated area when you can have up to 40 spread across your zone or grid?”
AutoProbe Technologies is scaling to sample hundreds of thousands of acres a year with the AutoProbe platform. AutoProbe Technologies will continue to innovate and simplify the ability for growers to sample their farm with their expanding grower-centric network of providers. AutoProbe Technologies has continued to grow its footprint from Alberta Canada across North America to the Eastern Seaboard of North Carolina with top growers and consultants.
Cardinal Ag Services of Nashville IL came on board this spring and since adding AutoProbe to their offering has seen growers response to the system as nothing short of outstanding. Says Ben Elliott with Cardinal Ag. “The growers are finally seeing a need to improve with the data that is gathered in a soil collection operation and the AutoProbe fills that need perfectly. It becomes an easy sell because the opportunity to improve crops starts in the soil and growers are feeling like it is an area wide open for improvement because it has been so overlooked by the industry. All the while focus has been on other areas like crop genetics and practices that are designed to benefit the growing crop after it has begun to grow and not necessarily improving the soil medium for a much better start to support the crop throughout its life cycle”…
AutoProbe dealer David Butcher with NC Ag Services in Pantego, NC says he is seeing the demand for higher quality soil data as the agricultural economy shifts. “Growers are not risking getting it wrong,” he says. “Growers know the AutoProbe removes any question mark of whether the sample was collected properly.”
New Financing Relationship
In June, Consolidated Grain and Barge division AGRfinancial Services (AFS) launched a leasing program for AutoProbe sampling solution tailored for growers. AFS sees a bright future working with AutoProbe Technologies. With AGRIfinancial Services’ offering AutoProbe is arguably the most affordable and accurate sampling solution on the market.