Jack Leguee is a third-generation farmer in Saskatchewan, Canada. Since his grandfather purchased 640 acres of land in 1956, the farm has grown steadily and now spans 17,000 acres, primarily growing canola, wheat, flax, and green lentils.

When Leguee was a child, he often saw his father and grandfather spending hours driving tractors, planting seeds and spraying pesticides. At the end of a long, hot day, their shirts would be completely soaked with sweat.

"Things were much less efficient back then," Leguee says. "Now, technology has greatly improved our efficiency."

To maintain the farm's market competitiveness, Leguee has implemented several innovative measures, most notably in crop spraying.

He installed specialized software and remote cameras on his John Deere tractor, allowing him to more efficiently remove weeds—a critical task every farmer must complete before planting.

"When the sensor detects a weed, it can look down and spray the nozzle, and we're traveling at about 15 miles per hour," Leguee says.

He added that because the nozzles only activate when weeds are detected, replacing the previous method of spraying large areas, he has significantly reduced his spending on pesticides.

Leguee further stated that introducing these new technological elements into farm operations typically yields a high return on investment.

He said, "There are some low-cost solutions that aren't as expensive as new spraying technology; for example, it might be an app that helps you keep better records."

This experience is being widely adopted and learned by farmers across North America. A 2024 survey by McKinsey & Company revealed that 57% of North American farmers are likely to try new yield-enhancing technologies in the next two years.

Another report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022 indicated that while the number of farms in the country is gradually decreasing, the remaining farms are becoming increasingly "technology-intensive."

Nora Lake, owner and farmer at Sweetland Farm in Vermont, says that to achieve a bountiful harvest, "you need to constantly look forward, then back, then forward again, then back again" in crop cultivation.

In the past, she used Microsoft Excel to record various data, such as recent harvest results or yield data for a particular year, to compare planting results from previous years.

"I wanted to know, if we planted 100 feet of broccoli, what was our actual yield?" she said.

In recent years, Lake, who primarily grows vegetables such as asparagus, tomatoes, and zucchini, and raises livestock for meat, has started using software and applications developed by a company called Tend.

She hopes that these tools will digitize and simplify the previously cumbersome manual data recording process, and ultimately present various planting and farming data clearly through technology on her phone or computer.

Now, she can enter all her harvest data into the Tend software, which provides her with detailed data analysis and planting recommendations, helping her manage her crops more scientifically and prepare adequately for the upcoming harvest.

"We can use the Tend software to calculate the number of seeds we need to order based on the row spacing of the specific crop we want to harvest," she said.

Currently, a wide variety of agricultural technologies are available to farmers.

Syngenta, a Swiss-based agricultural technology giant, provides its Cropwise software service to farmers worldwide. This software uses artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to guide farmers in their next steps for crop cultivation or to issue timely alerts in case of emergencies. Feroz Sheikh, Chief Information Officer of Syngenta Group, said: "It can tell farmers that they need to check the southeast corner of their fields because there might be a problem there, such as a pest outbreak.  In addition, the system incorporates 20 years of our weather pattern data into a machine learning model, so we can accurately understand which conditions lead to which results."

With this precise data support, farmers can take timely protective measures to protect their crops before frost arrives, preventing frost from destroying most of the crops and reducing economic losses.

In Germany, Jean-Pascal Lutz founded NoMaze, with the initial goal of helping farmers gain a deeper understanding of how different crops perform under various climate conditions.

The company's proprietary software will be officially launched this year. "We conducted field tests in various environments and then created simulations using computer models so that customers can better understand, for example, how much water to use and how to achieve maximum yield," he explained.

Heather Darby, an agronomist and soil scientist at the University of Vermont, said that the impact of these agricultural technologies may ultimately be felt by consumers.

She pointed out that the application of agricultural technology can increase the supply of food on the market, which may in turn lower the price of related goods.

Darby said, "When farmers are helped to avoid crop failures, this can lead to a more controllable agricultural environment and a reliable and safe food system."

Back in Saskatchewan, Legg noted that younger generations of farmers are actively embracing various agricultural technologies, while older generations may resist such significant changes.

He said that farmers need to be willing to accept change to adapt to the trends of modern agriculture.

"After all, think about it, some farms are multi-million dollar businesses that support several families. We need to embrace technology that benefits us."

"I've heard it said: 'If you treat farming as a business, it's a great way of life; but if you treat farming as a way of life, it's a terrible business.'"