Precision | Page 165 | News and reviews from the precision agriculture industry

All-in-One Platform from @Farmers_Edge

Kelly MarshallAugust 5, 2016Agribusiness, Data, InfoAg, Software

Trevor Armitage is the Vice President of Global Operations for Farmers Edge, so he’s certainly the guy to talk to when you want to know what’s new. I had the chance to speak with him at InfoAg in St. Louis, Missouri this week and he shared a bit about a big component of their grower service; the Farm Command data management platform.

The platform offers whole farm data in one process place, Armitage explains. You can open one portal to access information about fuel consumption, cleaned-up yield maps, soil test results and much more. They’ve been working on this platform for the last 18 months and now they’re excited for growers to experience it.

“Our program is very, very good for the grower and it’s very self explanatory,” Armitage says. “There are a lot of companies out there that do little pieces of it, and our goal is to put it all together and tie it up with one big bow.”

Farmers Edge is growing quickly, with new hardware and software being developed. You can learn more about the company in my full interview: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/info_ag-Farmers_Edge_Trevor_Armitage-2016.mp3″ text=”Interview with Trevor Armitage, FarmersEdge”]

2016 ICPA/InfoAg Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

No More Paper Pushing for @CropTrak

Joanna SchroederAugust 4, 2016Agribusiness, Audio, CropTrak, InfoAg

“When Did Farming Become Paper Pushing,” was the topic of a seminar presented by Jonathan Sherrill with Crop Trak during InfoAg this week in St. Louis. Kelly Marshall had the opportunity to sit down with Sherrill following his presentation and talk about how to get rid of paperwork.

Sherrill mentioned that paperwork is not something anyone gets excited about. He said that reality is it’s a common problem for everyone regardless of the size of the operation, the crop or crops they are growing, and he said it’s just becoming worse.

Some of this paperwork, said Sherrill, is being driven by consumers who have become much more conscious about where their food comes from. They want to know what inputs and technologies are being used and if the grower is producing the crop in a sustainable manner. This, said Sherrill, is driving companies to become more transparent. “Consumers are expecting companies to be more transparent about their suppliers, sustainability. They want traceability on where the food comes from. And it’s not just limited to food; it’s feed, it’s fiber and it’s fuel as well.”

Sherrill added that the last thing farmers want to do is be in the office doing paperwork – they want to be in the field farming, and there must be a middle ground. Crop Trak is helping growers by taking post-it notes and notes from the field to electronic records.

Learn more about how to streamline your operation’s paperwork by listening to Kelly’s interview with Sherrill here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/infoag-16-croptrak-sherrill-2.mp3″ text=”Interview with Jonathan Sherrill, Crop Trak”]

2016 ICPA/InfoAg Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

Channel Provides More Than Just a Bag

Jamie JohansenAugust 4, 2016Ag Media Summit, Agribusiness, Audio, Monsanto, seed

Channel Seedsman Dave Wallner and customer Brian Wood were both on hand for this year’s Ag Media Summit to discuss the Channel Field Check Up Series and the services Channel Seedsmen provide their growers.

“The Field Check Up Series is a way for us within Channel to monitor what I am seeing in the field. I visit Brian’s fields once a week all season long. I can focus on key stages of crop and document everything I see. I can easily keep the communication lines open with all my customers. If we don’t communicate, we can’t correct the issue for next year,” Dave said.

Dave added that many of his customers are focused on pushing yields to the next level. Achievement of that is a joint effort and bouncing ideas off each other is a big part of the process. He works with about 40 customers during a growing season, but he is not alone. Channel provides an entire team.

“I have agronomist at my finger tips, district salesmen. A very deep team of individuals that help maximize every product a grower purchases from Channel. When a grower buys a product from us, they are getting so much more value outside of that bag,” Dave said.

Grower customer, Brian said, “Our goal is to produce as many bushels as we can with the land we have. With all the new mid-season application options, having more eyes out walking the fields is a bonus. And that Channel Seedsmen is able to help me make those decisions.”

Brian added that farming today is much more than jumping in a tractor seat and driving back and forth all day. It is hard to be an expert on each aspect of it. Knowing he can call Dave and trust him completely takes a huge load of his shoulders.

Listen to my complete interview to learn more about the Channel Field Check Up Series and the role social media plays in the way they communicate with their growers here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/ams-16-channel.mp3″ text=”Interview with Channel Seedsman Dave Wallner and customer Brian Wood”]

View and download photos from the event here: 2016 AMS Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by

.@CropTrak Announces Partnership with IBM Weather Co.

Kelly MarshallAugust 4, 2016Agribusiness, CropTrak, InfoAg, weather

Crop Trak President Aaron Hutchinson doesn’t believe in just sitting still. He’s always moving his company forward, from updating the company’s name (you may remember them as iCrop Trak) to upgrading the weathers solutions provided by his company. At InfoAg this week the company announced a move to partner with The Weather Company. This IBM owned weather solution will offer Crop Trak customers not just weather data, but very precise, global information.

“It means, for our large, corporate customers who are global- we do business in more than 58 countries around the globe today- it means we can actually respond to their weather requests at a higher rate than we do today. And it may mean we have access to some new types of weather products, maybe in the future, that we can pass along to our clients as part of being part of the API,” Hutchinson explains to AgWired.

“We’re helping to provide the very, very precise weather information so they can help their customers make better decision across the world,” adds Carrie Gillespie, Account Manager for The Weather Company.

IBM solutions mean customers can pull in data to do all sorts of things, from predicting crop yields to making a better prediction about what seed to plant.

You can hear my full interview with Hutchinson and Gillespie here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/infoag-Crop_TrakThe_Weather_Company-2016.mp3″ text=”Interview with Crop Trak and The Weather Company”]

2016 ICPA/InfoAg Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

.@TerrAvion Partners with CHS Inc. Cooperative

Kelly MarshallAugust 4, 2016Aerial Imagery, Agribusiness, cooperatives

TerrAvion is already a leader in aerial imaging, and now the company is growing even more. They have just announced a partnership with CHS Inc., a global agribusiness cooperative known for providing services at every stage of crop production. The agreement says CHS will offer TerrAvion aerial imagery and data solutions to its customers. CHS has a large presence in the Great Plains area, effectively doubling TerrAvion’s weekly coverage to just under 10 million acres.

Although most growers understand the benefits of precision data, for many crop scouting is still done by walking through fields to make a visual assessment, perhaps taking some samples. Using this limited information a grower then makes major financial and environmental decisions for his operation. TerrAvion offers the opportunity to change that.

TerrAvion’s services will provide farmers real-time aerial images in unmatched detail. They work with small family farms or large agribusinesses. Their pilots cover acreages once a week, taking low-altitude images that allow producers to scout and manage farm decisions with great accuracy. Their already large customer base reports that the inexpensive service quickly pays for itself.

“TerrAvion is the ideal partner for CHS as they share our mission of empowering producers with the solutions they need to optimize yield and feed the world,” said Blaine Schmidt, Regional YieldPoint/Precision Specialist, CHS Inc. “TerrAvion’s impact on producers all over the West Coast made it clear that they could give a similar boost in yield to our customers in the Great Plains. TerrAvion’s aerial images give producers a real-time picture of what’s happening in the field, enabling them to take informed and intelligent action that drives higher yields and business success.”

“CHS is a visionary company that understands that their success is tied to the value they deliver to their growers. They are perfectly positioned to help growers use imagery to improve yield,” said Robert Morris, cofounder and CEO, TerrAvion. “No one can touch TerrAvion’s accuracy or value, and we are excited to work with CHS to expand into the Great Plains and drive even more innovation in farming by helping producers grow more per-acre with fewer inputs.”

The Future of Precision Technology

Lizzy SchultzAugust 4, 2016Ag Group, Audio, computers, Data, InfoAg, technology

One of the keynote speakers at the 2016 InfoAg Conference was Jack Uldrich, the acclaimed global futurist, speaker, and best-selling author. He spoke to conference attendees about what the world may look like in just a few short years, and provided an in-depth exploration of how the “Internet of Things,” ‘Big Data,” social media, robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, renewable energy and “collaborative consumption” will change everyday life for all of us in the very near future.

Kelly Marshall sat down with Uldrich after his presentation for an interview about the future of technology, the scope of its growth, and how it is shaping our world.

“Today’s business leaders need to understand exponential growth because there are no fewer than 12 technological forces that are continuing to double: computer processing power, data storage, bandwidth, nanotechnology, robotics, 3D printing, renewable energy, all of these trends aren’t increasing linearly, they’re increasing exponentially,” he said. “And as these technologies expand, the graph expands, so even though we’ve gone through million-fold increases, it pails in comparison to what’s coming next, and that’s true for both data sensors and the sequencing of genomes. They’ve both been growing exponentially and they’re changing our world, but we haven’t seen anything yet.”

Listen to Kelly’s full interview with Jack here:
[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/infoag-16-keynote-uldrich.mp3″ text=”Jack Uldrich, InfoAg Keynote Speaker”]

2016 ICPA/InfoAg Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

FMC Says 2 Pass Weed Control is Back

Lizzy SchultzAugust 4, 2016Ag Media Summit, Audio, FMC, Weed control

Chris Reat, Corn Segment Product Manager at FMC Corporation, was on hand during the 2016 Ag Media Summit to discuss the benefits of using a two pass system for weed control, and the ways it can help protect your yields this season.

“The two pass system is really starting to come back in vogue because of the challenges we’re having with some of the glyphosate resistant weeds and other tough to control weeds out there,” said Reat in an interview during Ag Media Summit.”We’ve gotten by as systems have allowed us with one pass systems, but two pass is becoming more popular because it works.”

For growers looking into two pass systems, Reat suggests FMC’s Anthem Maxx as a pre product with Solstice as a follow up, and stressing the importance of evaluating the correct application timing when utilizing a two pass system.

“That combination offers three different modes of action, and it allows them to control the weeds before they come up, but if they do see some late season weeds start to come up, controlling them with Solstice has been super effective,” he said. “”You can go as early as 45 days pre with Anthem Maxx, we usually like to keep it a little closer than that so it extends your window of coverage, but the flexibility of Anthem Maxx is that you can go post with it as well, so once you get it in the barn, you have lots of options with it.”

Listen to Chuck’s full interview with Chris here:
[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/ams-16-fmc-reat-2pass.mp3″ text=”Chris Reat, FMC”]

View and download photos from the event here: 2016 AMS Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by

Details Matter, says @JohnDeere at #InfoAg16

Kelly MarshallAugust 4, 2016Agribusiness, InfoAg, John Deere, technology

Jeremy Leifker leads the product strategy and marketing group at John Deere, a division responsible for bringing new ideas to the company pipeline. While much of what is in the works remains a secret, Leifker took time at InfoAg to tell AgWired about a theme that is important to what John Deere develops.

Telematics, or remote measurements, are an important part of the future, Leifker says. At John Deere that product is known as JD Link, and it assess what’s happening in the machine at all times. “Right now details really matter, so having confidence in everything you do to the field, how that equates to the bottom line, having that remote measurement is critical to do that, so you get that with JD Link,” he explains.

Of course, data is one thing, making sense of it is another. That’s why John Deere’s Operations Center is such a big deal. The platform is a tool open to many companies– businesses that offer a service to the grower and do it really well. In the Operations Center a grower can input his data and have it sync with any of the many services he chooses. While (of course!) John Deere has great solutions, other products may specialize in measuring profit lose, or helping growers organize the work day. This connectivity is the future of agriculture, Leifker believes.

“Getting that integrated for the farmers is really key, so I’d say that’s another theme around integration, and a lot of that happens on the back side.”

Overall, much of John Deere’s product strategy focuses on shortening the amount of time it takes from discovering a problem to providing users with a solution. Right now the team works with a handful of growers in the U.S. and Canada throughout the entire process of developing a solution, making sure they keep in close touch to address concerns as they happen. John Deere customers can look forward to the results of that teamwork hitting the market in the next two years.

To hear more about the future of product development at John Deere, listen to my full interview here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/infoag-John_Deere-Leifker-2016.mp3″ text=”Jeremy Leifker, John Deere”]

2016 ICPA/InfoAg Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

Program Changes Coming at @USDA_NRCS

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 3, 2016Ag Media Summit, Audio, Conservation, USDA

The USDA National Resources Conservation Program (NRCS) took the opportunity to get the word out about the latest in the program services at the recent Ag Media Summit in St. Louis, Missouri. Jamie Johansen had the opportunity to speak with Mark Rose, Director of NRCS, about the upcoming changes for fiscal year 2017.

Rose told AgWired the Conservation Stewardship program is getting an overhaul. As the organization’s largest and most popular program the USDA is doing what they can to make it more user-friendly. Listening to commodity groups, employees, and a host of others, they can up with ways to make it better– namely, making a stronger connection between an enhancement and how it will provide benefit on the farm.

It was difficult to explain in the past, Rose related. “Now we’re going to that next step saying “Hey! we’re changing some stuff up!” We’re tying it to the practices so that when those outcomes of those enhancements [happen] they can say “Yes, this is what my benefit is.” We’re making it easier for the producers to understand, easier for our employees to understand.”

While the program does have to be run nationally, changes for 2017 also include more input at the state and local level. Obviously what happens in California may not be affecting folks in Maine, Rose acknowledges. The best way to learn about what’s happening at the local level will be through field offices. Training of employees began in July and is still continuing, but once the sign-up period is announced, the local offices will the best source of information.

Learn more about upcoming changes here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/ams-USDA_Mark_Rose-2016.mp3″ text=”Interview with Mark Rose, NRCS”]

2016 AMS Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by

FMC Looking Ahead to Fall at #AgMedia Summit

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 3, 2016Ag Media Summit, Audio, FMC, Weed control

The growing season is in full swing, and the team at FMC Corporation is encouraging growers to be extra weed-conscious as summer comes to an end and harvest season begins. Ken Smith, Technical Service Manager for FMC Corporation, was on hand during the 2016 Ag Media Summit to discuss the reality of herbicide resistance, and how it has made fall weed management more critical than ever.

“We are in late season, and it’s a time where its easy to let your guard down, but it’s also a time when we really need to be conscious of what weeds are out there going to seed, particularly the amaranth species like palmer amaranth and water hemp are such prolific seed producers and it’s a numbers game, so managing these in the fall is very critical for next year,” said Smith in an interview during the Ag Media Summit.

Smith emphasized that while a multitude of weed management practices exist, many are time consuming and expensive, and the use of a long residual herbicide such as FMC’s Anthem line of herbicides is highly praised as the most affordable, effective, and efficient solution for growers.

“When we talk to farmers, we always say that if you start with a clean field, your field stays clean, and one of the ways to start clean is to start thinking about it right now,” said Smith.

Listen to Chuck’s full interview with Ken here:
[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/ams-16-fmc-smith.mp3″ text=”Interview with Ken Smith, FMC”]

View and download photos from the event here: 2016 AMS Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by

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