Trimble announced that it will be adding a profit and loss reporting feature to its Connected Farm™ Field application—a Web-based field data management tool where growers can manage field boundaries, task data, crop health maps and precipitation data. With the new feature—which includes a user-friendly graphical interface—it is now possible for growers to analyze field profitability and make better financial decisions for their operations. The new functionality in Trimble’s Connected Farm provides growers with a more robust Web-based management solution that emphasizes precision farming data, field profitability, fleet management and agronomic services.
Connected Farm Field provides a scalable and reliable set of management tools for handling large amounts of precision farming task data from a number of different industry sources. This includes both data sent wirelessly from Trimble’s Office Sync solution as well as data from a USB drive using Trimble’s File Sync utility. Connected Farm leverages the latest in cloud technology to ensure that the data is safely stored, backed-up, and only accessible to users whom the grower has selected.
With the easy-to-use profit and loss reporting tool in Connected Farm Field, costs can be assigned to the inputs used within the precision farming data which includes materials, vehicles, implements and operators. In addition, Trimble’s brand-agnostic strategy allows growers to gather information from a variety of industry precision farming systems for use in profit and loss calculations. Integrating this financial information creates powerful profit and loss graphics that can enable growers to determine which fields are most profitable and why.
The field task data also synchronizes with Trimble’s new Connected Farm Field app, a free field record-keeping app that is compatible with a variety of smartphones and tablets using an iOS or Android™ operating system. The app synchronizes with Connected Farm Field to utilize client/farm/field names, boundaries, materials, equipment and people to create field task records. The app collects field records for all types of field operations and uses boundaries from Connected Farm Field to automatically detect the field in which the user is located. It records key task details including the date and time worked, acres/hectares covered, equipment usage, personnel usage, material (fertilizer, chemicals, lime, and seed) usage, field conditions and weather conditions (which can automatically be populated from a web weather service). The app sends data to the cloud for use in Connected Farm Field, and can be used offline, with data being sent when Internet access is obtained. The app can especially be beneficial in instances where field tasks were performed either without a vehicle or with a vehicle that does not have a precision farming system.
“By adding the field profitability functionality to Connected Farm we have made it easier for growers to determine where they are making a profit, where they are losing money and the reasons behind the numbers,” said Levi Kettle, Connected Farm business area director for Trimble’s Agriculture Division. “With this information, growers are able to determine which fields or crops to focus on in order to make in-season decisions that impact farm budgets and profitability.”
The field profitability feature of Connected Farm Field is expected to be available in February at. To gain access, a Connected Farm account is needed, which can be set up for free by clicking “create an account” at the login screen.
The Connected Farm Field app is expected to be available in February and also requires a Connected Farm account, which can be created directly from the app. The app will be available for download from the Apple App StoreSM or Google Play™ Store.