When Monsanto announced in late May that it was acquiring Precision Planting, an Illinois-based developer and marketer of seed meters, monitoring and precision farming technology, the news created a ripple effect in the farm world.

When farmers are having planting difficulties, Alan Byerly says too many growers think the answer is to simply add more attachments. But the service manager for Precision Equipment in Washington, Iowa, says getting back to the basics of planting should be the first step before spending more dollars.