LARCHWOOD—Jeff Blauwet’s career in agronomy began in 1993 when he graduated from Iowa State University in Ames and since then, he has witnessed what amounts to an agricultural revolution.
“We’ve essentially doubled corn and soybean yields in my career,” the 55-year-old Blauwet said. “I don’t think anybody’s ever going to be able to say that again because it’s going to be so much harder to double today. Even 25 years from now, we won’t be raising 600 bushel corn.”
In the space of around three decades, farms grew larger, equipment got bigger and the pace of farming got faster. Those changes, coupled with advances in seed genetics and the adoption of precision farming techniques, moved large-scale agriculture forward at a dizzying pace, Blauwet said…