The precision world changes quickly. In fact, technology evolves much more quickly than our perceptions. So if you think of New Holland and hand-foreged tools are what come to mind, you’re not alone.
In fact, says Luke Zerby, Marketing Manger for Precision Land Management (PLM) at New Holland, hand-foraged tools are one of the first things most people think about. “And while we’re very excited, very proud of our tradition in that, we also have a lot to offer in precision farming,” he tells AgWired. “But to tie those two things together in the grand scope of what we have to offer with PLM, we really have the solution that is the right size and the right capabilities for every size and shape of operation out there.”
In fact, the PLM department continues to grow daily. Zerby reports that originally precision farming meant auto guidance, with growers being able to focus on the task at hand, rather than steering at a fixed point across the field. Moving forward, however, customers are choosing to take a step beyond with section control and rate control to maximize efficiencies and better manage the resources they already have.
And while these precision techniques can save a grower several thousand dollars in seed, fertilizer, and crop protection costs, the future New Holland sees is data management. The ability to choose the right seed for the right field and make plans based on past preformance has the potential to be much more fiancially beneficial.
New Holland is ready for this next wave. Currently you can store and share data from a simple USB stick in any of your farm equipment to your PC. Share data in an email with whomever you’d like, or hand-off that USB drive and get great information from third parities. And while this tried and true method works for some, the cloud is New Holland’s latest way to share data. Customers control the data, Zerby makes sure to clarify, but an agronomist of your choice can simply pull information about a field as soon as the tractor leaves it, create a prescription and upload it back to the cloud to be used as soon as a grower needs it. Although the current level of data sharing third-parties is low, the company is working hard to increase this number.
“This is part of CNH’s game plan, We do not want to be agronomists. We’re the manufacturing equipment company and sales company, so we want to […] make sure we focus on that. That’s why we’re really pushing to partner with third-parties, so those guys that are professionals in agronomy can make those decision.”
Learn more about the latest and greatest from New Holland in Chuck’s interview: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/new-holland-zerby-plm-4-20-16.mp3″ text=”Luke Zerby, New Holland PLM”]