The Connectivity Gap in Indiana Agriculture
Indiana ranks among the top ten agricultural states in the country. Corn, soybeans, hogs, poultry, and dairy generate over $31 billion annually. The industry is sophisticated, data-driven, and increasingly dependent on connected technology. And the internet infrastructure in most of rural Indiana cannot keep up.
I installed Starlink for a corn and soybean operation near Crawfordsville last year. The farmer had a John Deere combine equipped with yield mapping that generates gigabytes of data per day during harvest. His previous internet — 4 Mbps DSL from a regional telco — meant uploading that data took literally overnight, assuming the connection did not drop. He was paying a premium for equipment that required connectivity he did not have.
This is the story across rural Indiana. The technology is there. The equipment manufacturers have built connectivity into everything. But the internet has not kept pace.
What Precision Agriculture Actually Needs
Let me break down the connectivity requirements for a modern Indiana farm operation, because the numbers matter:
Variable Rate Application (VRA) — Prescription maps that tell planters and sprayers how much seed, fertilizer, or chemical to apply at each point in a field. These maps are generated in the cloud from soil sampling data and satellite imagery, then downloaded to the equipment's display. File sizes are modest (a few MB per field), but the farmer needs to pull them down reliably before heading to the field each morning.
Yield Data Upload — During harvest, the combine's yield monitor records moisture content, volume, and GPS position for every few feet of the field. A single day's harvest can generate 500 MB to several GB of data. This data needs to be uploaded to platforms like Climate FieldView, Granular, or the equipment manufacturer's cloud for analysis.
Equipment Telematics — John Deere Operations Center, Case IH AFS Connect, and AGCO Fuse all pull real-time data from equipment in the field: engine diagnostics, fuel consumption, hours, location, and maintenance alerts. These connections run through cellular when available, but many Indiana fields are in cellular dead zones. A Starlink connection at the farmstead provides a reliable backhaul.
Livestock Monitoring — Indiana's hog and poultry operations use environmental controls, feed management systems, and health monitoring tools that report to cloud dashboards. A barn controller that loses internet during a heat event cannot send alerts — and that can mean losses measured in thousands of dollars.
Market Access — Grain marketing in 2026 is a real-time activity. Futures prices move by the second, basis levels change daily, and forward contracting platforms require a stable connection. The farmer who can only check markets when he drives to town is at a disadvantage.
For all of this, you need a connection that delivers consistent speeds. Not a connection that hits 50 Mbps in a speed test at 2 AM but drops to 2 Mbps during business hours. Starlink's Standard plan at $50/mo provides around 100 Mbps — more than enough for most farm operations. The $80/mo tier handles heavier households, and the $120/mo MAX plan is there for operations that need maximum throughput. Equipment is $349.
Installing on Indiana Farm Properties
Farm installations are different from residential setups, and Indiana farms have some specific characteristics:
Outbuilding clearance — A typical Indiana farm has the house, a machine shed, one or more grain bins, possibly a hog barn or poultry house, and various smaller structures. The Starlink dish needs a clear sky view, which means finding a mounting location that is not shadowed by grain bins (which can be 50+ feet tall) or large barns. We usually mount on the house roof on the side facing away from the tallest structures, or install a pole mount in a clear area of the property.
Cable runs — Farm properties are spread out. The house might be 200 feet from the shop where the farmer's office computer sits, and the livestock barn could be another 300 feet away. We run outdoor-rated Ethernet or use point-to-point wireless bridges to extend the Starlink connection to outbuildings. This is not plug-and-play consumer networking — it requires planning and proper equipment.
Power considerations — The Starlink system draws about 50-75 watts. On properties with unreliable power (common in rural Indiana during storms), we recommend a small UPS to keep the system running through brief outages. For operations where connectivity is critical — livestock barns with environmental controls — a UPS on the Starlink and the monitoring equipment is essential.
Weather — Indiana gets everything: severe thunderstorms, tornadoes (the state averages about 22 per year), ice storms, heavy snow, and wide temperature swings. Our mounts are rated for high winds and ice loading. All outdoor cable runs are in conduit. We seal every penetration against moisture.
Real Results
After the Crawfordsville installation I mentioned, the farmer called me during his first harvest with Starlink. His yield data was uploading in real-time rather than queuing for overnight transfer. He could pull prescription maps in minutes instead of hours. His equipment telematics were reporting consistently for the first time. His exact words: "I should have done this two years ago."
Another customer, a hog operation near Kokomo, had been driving 15 miles to town every time their barn monitoring system needed a software update. Updates required a stable connection that their cellular hotspot could not provide. Post-Starlink, updates download directly, alerts come through instantly, and the operators can check barn conditions from their phones at home.
A Note on Indiana's Broadband Future
Indiana has allocated significant funding for rural broadband through the Next Level Connections program. Some of that money is producing real results — fiber is reaching communities that never had it. But the buildout is slow, and many of the awarded projects have multi-year timelines. Starlink is available now.
For operations that eventually get fiber access, Starlink still works as a backup connection. For the many farms that will never see fiber because the economics do not support it, Starlink is the long-term solution.
If you run a farm operation in Indiana and your connectivity is not keeping up with your equipment, book an installation or talk to us about your setup. We understand ag operations and we will design an installation that actually works for how you farm.