1. Travis Schwickerath

2. Outline Personal & Farm Background Internships Precision Ag benefits
Career Path

3. Personal Background New Hampton, Iowa Graduated in 2006
Ag Systems Technology major
Agronomy minor
Grew up on a farm in NE Iowa
Graduated high school in 2006
Came directly to Iowa State University
Senior in Ag Systems Technology with the Systems Technology and Management option
Picked up Agronomy minor to increase crop knowledge

4. Farm Background Schwickerath Farms Adoption of precision agriculture
1800 Acres
Custom feed hogs
Custom harvest and field tile installation
Adoption of precision agriculture
Ez Guide Plus
Ez Steer
Ez Guide 500
Insight for yield monitoring, seed & direct command
Corn and soybean row crop operation
Custom feed 2500 hogs
Custom harvest additional 500 acres
Custom field tile installation, look for smaller jobs that contractors don’t want
First got ez guide plus for spraying, added ez steer for tillage
Purchased a ez guide 500 and ez steer
Added a yield monitor to the combine, seed command on our planter and direct command for the sprayer.

5. JD 9660 STS
Insight yield monitor
Ez Guide 500 with Ez Steer
Acer laptop with US Cellular air card to connect to the IaRTN

6. Internship Experiences
Ag Leader Technology – Spring 2008
Technical Support Specialist
Troubleshooting skills
Equipment knowledge
Dealer & customer training
Customer service
Greatly increased my troubleshooting skills, now look at problems differently
Learned a lot about many brands of equipment, operation and how the systems work
Assisted with dealer and customer training
Increased my ability to provide good customer service.
Been an extremely valuable experience when looking for internship.
Internship provided wide range of experience to help build my career

7. Internship Experiences
Howard R. Green Company – Summer 2009
Precision Ag Consultant
GIS Data
Data analysis
Recommendations
Competitive marketing strategies
First precision ag intern
SMS advanced and ArcGIS
Utilized a variety of GIS data, such as lidar for elevation maps
In depth data analysis such as geographically weighted regression analysis
Data analysis from soil sampling, yield, PSNT and stalk nitrate
Made recommendations for fertilizer and precision ag equipment
Brainstormed marketing strategies to be competitive with coops and seed dealers
Some work helping in the municipal GIS maps

8. Precision Ag Benefits Auto-steer Ease of operation
Increased productivity
Less stress
Extended operating window
Ability to skip passes with long implements
Easier to focus on the machine to perfect the operation
Majority of our work is done at night, run longer hours
Less strain on operator

10. Precision Ag Benefits Intellislope - Tile plow control IaRTN
Increased productivity
Increased yields
Tile Maps
IaRTN provided us with RTK coverage to utilize Intellislope
Laser system was extremely time consuming and required additional worker
Yield increases pay for tile in 1 year
Intellislope maps as you install, no need to come back later
Locked in leases with landlords

12. Career Path Additional Internship Fall 2010 graduation
Work in the ag industry
Return home to farm
Another summer internship outside of precision ag to be more diverse
Fall graduation
Looking for work in the ag industry that would allow flexibility during busy seasons
Continue to acquire more land in the next 5-10 years then return home to farm full time