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Abstract
Producers interested in precision
agriculture lack information on the
profitability of variable rate
technology (VRT) systems for
agricultural sprayers. A partial
budgeting framework was developed
to evaluate the level of input savings
required to pay for investments in
VRT. To illustrate this framework, a
case study for cotton production in
Tennessee is provided. Ownership
and information costs were
determined for two commerciallyavailable
VRT systems and
compared to extension
recommended input application
levels. Map-based VRT systems
required input savings of 11 percent
to be profitable. Sensor-based
systems required input savings from
5 to 11 percent to be profitable
depending on imagery resolution.