LIKE ANY FARMER, GUY MILLS JR. HAS HAD HIS SHARE OF equipment trouble. In the past, Mills, who grows corn, soybean and alfalfa on his 3,810-acre farm in Ansley, Neb., would have fixed his machinery himself. But like so many essential tools, Mills’ equipment has become so technologically complex that he needs outside help when it breaks down. Unfortunately for him, that help can eat up time and money, both of which have been in short supply.
“If you have a bad alternator, they connect a computer to your tractor and it tells them the alternator is bad,” says Mills, 57. “Before, there were other signs. Is the battery dead? Do you have lights? Just by looking at it and using deductive reasoning, you figured things out.”
Mills and his…