My farm's little choose-and-cut Christmas tree enterprise is high labor and low tech. My most complicated pieces of equipment are a chain saw and a backpack sprayer. While I tend to the Christmas trees, my farm operator, Lou, handles the corn and soybeans.

Modern corn and soybean production is low labor but increasingly very high tech. When high tech is working right, it is awesome. When it doesn't, it is awesomely frustrating. A time or two Lou could have been the person on this issue's cover. Of no useful assistance to her, I just keep plodding through my tree plantation with my simple tools, while she awaits help after trying everything she can think of to make the technology function right again.

Unless you or someone in your operation is highly knowledgeable about technology, you need a trained technician. What you really want is a techie – a term of high respect (awe, actually!) – who is not only highly proficient but also highly enthusiastic about the whole world of technology. A person who perfectly fits that definition is Nick Custer (shown left).

Custer is one of four customer support technicians who cover eight stores to service precision technology for Barker Implement in Iowa. Read more about his work and the rapidly growing need for precision service technicians in dealerships in “Service After The Sale,” beginning on page 32. Search firm AgCareers.com tells Deputy Machinery Editor Laurie Bedord that it expects to have at least 5,000 precision ag-related jobs listed on its site this year.