MapShots, Raven Work Together for Proof of Success

John DavisAgribusiness, Audio, MapShots, Raven

mapshots-14-josh-skanderupProving you’re successful sometimes can be tougher than actually being successful. You might have applied some new precision ag techniques or equipment, but how do you know that was the reason for success? During the recent MapShots Customer Conference, Chuck caught up with one of the company’s partners in MapShots’ AgStudio software, which provides crop management applications for the agriculture industry. Josh Skanderup, Raven’s product manager for its Slingshot application, which brings connectivity to field equipment, said there’s something important to remember when marrying up all these technologies with the point where the rubber meets the road … or in this case, the dirt.

“What we really have to pay attention to is, can you measure if they’ve been successful or not?” he said, adding you need not only accurate planting and applications data throughout the year, but you have to “ground truth” that with your yield results. “For this upcoming year, we need to really pay attention to if we can actually prove what we’re doing makes a difference.”

Josh said Raven has admired MapShots for years, as witnessed by the fact he was at the conference talking about how they’re integrating Raven’s products with MapShots.

“One of the great things about MapShots is how customer friendly and easy to use it is,” saying they’re excited about the start of their collaboration with their API and the transfer of their prescription maps.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Josh here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/mapshots/mapshots-14-raven-josh-skanderup.mp3″ text=”Interview with Josh Skanderup, Raven”]

You can find Chuck’s photos from the event online here: 2014 MapShots Customer Conference Photo Album

NFMS One Year Shy of Big 5-0

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Equipment, Events, National Farm Machinery Show

nfms14-fetterThe 2014 National Farm Machinery Show marks 49 years of the largest indoor farm show in the United States.

“This show is as big or bigger than ever before,” said show manager Corinne Fetter. “We are sold out in space again with 850 exhibitors … it’s the place to be in February.”

There was still snow on the ground for opening day today, but the sun was shining and the weather was really beautiful, especially for some folks coming from states that have been below zero for weeks. “Many of the farmers that come here are from throughout the Midwest, but we do have people here from coast to coast and we do have more and more international visitors,” Corinne said, who noted that last year’s attendance was the second largest on record with over 307,000 attendees.

And then there’s the 46th Championship Tractor Pull. “We now have five sessions with the pull, each night and then again Saturday afternoon,” said Corinne.

There is a cost for tickets to the tractor pull, but the show is free of charge and all are welcome. The NFMS runs through Saturday and show hours are 9:00 am -6:00 pm daily.

Find out more in this interview and on the show website – [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms14-show-mgr.mp3″ text=”Interview with NFMS Show Manager Corinne Fetter”]

National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

John Deere 2014 NFMS Photo Album

Sponsored by John Deere

MapShots Provides Knowledge, Info and Direction

John DavisAgribusiness, Audio, MapShots

mapshots-14-phil-howardAt the recent MapShots Customer Conference, those who use MapShots’ AgStudio software, which provides crop management applications for the agriculture industry, had a variety of reasons for attending.

“Knowledge, information and where we will be going in the future,” is what brought MapShots customer Phil Howard, Southern States Cooperative‘s head of precision ag planning, to the recent conference in Atlanta, Ga. Plus, he said it is a great opportunity to network with other MapShots users. He went on to point out that his company had offered MapShots EasySuite program for years, and he likes the of ease of AgStudio’s information sharing. “We operate in a 14-state territory. AgStudio gave us the capability to join all of our databases into one database, where we can manage them and provide service to our locations to provide the maximum service to our growers.”

Phil added that they are really excited about the ability to share data wirelessly, and he’s always been impressed with MapShots’ family-like atmosphere. But he says the company’s dedication to collaborating and facilitating collaboration between its customers brings him back to gatherings like this one.

“That has been what has made Southern States want to continue to provide services in ag technologies and precision ag because of how open MapShots is.”

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Phil here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/mapshots/mapshots-14-customer-phil-howard.mp3″ text=”Interview with Phil Howard, Southern States Cooperative”]

You can find Chuck’s photos from the event online here: 2014 MapShots Customer Conference Photo Album

Details About John Deere ExactEmerge

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Equipment, John Deere, National Farm Machinery Show, Planting

jd-exactemerge-imageYou want details about the new John Deere ExactEmerge planting system? We got ’em! Here’s a few from the press release:

The John Deere ExactEmerge row unit incorporates new technology that gives corn and soybean producers the ability to plant at speeds up to 10 mph while maintaining superior seed placement. The exclusive seed delivery system cradles the seed from the meter down to the seed trench maintaining optimal seed spacing in varying field conditions. The new system ensures superior seed placement at faster planting speeds and offers a 10 percent improvement in seed spacing at traditional speeds.

nfms14-john-deere-elenaElena Kaverina, John Deere Planters Product Line Marketing Manager, was glowing as she talked about their new baby. “The heart and the soul of this product is the exclusive trench delivery system that makes precise seed placement actually happen at higher speed,” she told us. “With this new technology, we control the seed positively through the whole delivery system. It starts with the meter that gently allows for a crisp hand off to the brush belt. It’s placed consistently in the center all the time and then it’s delivered to the bottom of the trench and then it is released at a real world trajectory that truly matches the ground speed and results in a dead drop.” [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/john-deere/nfms14-jd-elena.mp3″ text=”Interview with Elena Kaverina, John Deere”]
John Deere 2014 NFMS Photo Album

Sponsored by John Deere

John Deere Excited About ExactEmerge

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Equipment, Events, Farmers, John Deere, National Farm Machinery Show, Planting

nfms14-john-deere-aaronThe folks at John Deere are more excited about the new ExactEmerge planter than they have ever been about any product in their history. “We’ve been able to design from the ground up a whole new technology,” said Aaron Wetzel, John Deere VP Global Crop Care. “Being able to provide to our customers unparalleled accuracy in the trench with great opportunity to enhance yield.” That goes for both corn and soybeans. [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/john-deere/nfms14-jd-aaron.mp3″ text=”Interview with Aaron Wetzel, John Deere”]

nfms14-john-deere-gregAaron says they have tested ExactEmerge with hundreds of farmers around the country and “every single one of them are just completely blown away” by the capabilities of the new planter. One of those farmers is Greg Smith of Cummings, Kansas.

“The guys from John Deere said ‘drive it like you stole it’ just go as fast as you can go,” Greg said. But, since he only raises one crop a year, he was a little nervous about that idea. Once they got up to 7-8 miles an hour, Greg had to get out of the tractor and check it out for himself. “Sure enough, seed depth and spacing was – right on, it was exact,” he said. “No joke, there was absolutely no difference between five mile an hour and ten mile an hour.”

He adds that the emergence was “unheard of – all the agronomists say you want to have everything come up within 48 hours, I think it was 48 minutes,” he said. [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/john-deere/nfms14-jd-farmer.mp3″ text=”Interview with Kansas farmer Greg Smith”]

Great question, Ben (in comments) – yes!! If you are not at NFMS, ExactEmerge will be on display at all the major farm shows in the United States this year – starting with Commodity Classic in San Antonio in just two weeks!

John Deere 2014 NFMS Photo Album

Sponsored by John Deere

John Deere Reveals ExactEmerge™ Planter

Cindy ZimmermanEquipment, John Deere, National Farm Machinery Show, Planting, Video

nfms14-john-deere-exactemergeGround-breaking, revolutionary, and just simply amazing are some of the words being used to describe the new John Deere high-speed, high-performance ExactEmerge™ planter, unveiled this morning at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville.

John Deere is breaking the planting speed and accuracy barriers of traditional row-crop planting with the introduction of a revolutionary new seed delivery system. With the launch of the ExactEmerge row unit for the most accurate planting at speeds up to 10 mph and the new industry-leading MaxEmerge 5 row units for planting at traditional speeds, customers can now plant with greater speed, accuracy and ease than ever before.

John Deere 2014 NFMS Photo Album

Watch the reveal below – and we’ll tell you lots more about it in posts to come!

Sponsored by John Deere

USDA Updates CropScape Data Tool

John DavisData Collection, USDA

cropscapeBetter information on cropland will be at the fingertips of farmers across the country, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated its online geospatial exploring tool, CropScape. This National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) news release says CropScape has added Cropland Data Layers from crop year 2013 that gives the public an easy access to interactive data, without having to download specialized software.

These new Cropland Data Layer products, which are derived from satellite image observations at 30-meter (0.22 acres per pixel) resolution, help users visualize U. S. crop planted area during the last calendar year. Three earth observing satellites were used for the production of this product, including; the newly launched Landsat 8, and Disaster Monitoring Constellation’s Deimos-1 and UK2.

NASS developed CropScape in cooperation with the Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

You can check out the online tool here.

John Deere, MapShots Work for Product Integration

John DavisAgribusiness, Audio, John Deere, MapShots

mapshots-14-brian-holtMaking sure your high-tech equipment works with the high-tech software is pretty important in the world of precision agriculture. At the recent MapShots Customer Conference in Atlanta, Ga., customers of John Deere and MapShots’ AgStudio software, which provides crop management applications for the agriculture industry got the chance to ask questions directly how they can make that John Deere green hardware fit well with the new software.

“We wanted to support MapShots’ and their demo of their intergration with My John Deere Data API and answer any questions [MapShots’] customers have about how My John Deere and our data sharing agreements works,” explained Deere’s Technology Solutions Architect Brian Holt.

The whole idea of having Deere attend this customer conference grew out of an earlier integrators’ conference John Deere held.

Brian added that data privacy is very important to the folks he talked with at this gathering, as it is with MapShots and John Deere.

“We take it very seriously. We work pretty closely with our software partners so that they understand what our guiding principles are and that they’re responsible using our shared customers’ data,” he said.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Brian here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/mapshots/mapshots-14-jd-brian-holt.mp3″ text=”Interview with Brian Holt, John Deere”]

You can find Chuck’s photos from the event online here: 2014 MapShots Customer Conference Photo Album

Getting Started at National Farm Machinery Show

Chuck ZimmermanAg Leader, Agribusiness, John Deere, National Farm Machinery Show

National Farm Machinery ShowWe’re boots on the ground in Louisville, KY for the 2014 National Farm Machinery Show. There are a number of new product announcements that will be made here and we’ll bring you all the stories we can find starting tomorrow morning.

If you’re here or even if you’re not you can get the free app for whatever device you’re using. Just search your app store for the “NFMS 14” app. It’s got an interactive exhibitor map, schedules and will provide alerts of events that are happening during the show.

There is snow on the ground outside but fortunately it fell before the event this year! That’s good news.

Our coverage here on Precision.AgWired.com is being sponsored again this year by John Deere and Ag Leader Technology. We really appreciate their support.

Customer Support Top Priority for MapShots

John DavisAgribusiness, Audio, MapShots

mapshots-14-shauna-ingramIt seems like really good customer service is a rare find these days. But at the recent MapShots Customer Conference in Atlanta, Ga., that’s exactly the focus of the company that makes crop management applications for the agriculture industry. Chuck caught up with Shauna Ingram, MapShots’ head of support, documentation and testing teams, who said customer support is their top priority.

“We have a phone system open about 11 hours a day, and an email system that runs 24/7,” and they’re always watching out for issues that could come up on the weekends as well to keep producers running. And she added they make sure that farmer gets an answer when they call. “Instead of taking messages, we run it up the support tier as fast as possible so that if our first-tier support is not able to answer the question, we get it to the appropriate person as quickly as possible and minimize callbacks to our users.”

Hopefully, a producer gets the answer in the training classes before they ever hit the field and encounter an issue. But in addition to the training and the customer hotline and email, Shauna said they have a public forum on their MapShots website where other producers are able to chime in and help each other out. In addition, MapShots’ AgStudio software even can, with the user’s permission, allow a technician to go into that producer’s databases and see where any disconnect might be. In the future, Shauna said they are looking to put together webinars to allow farmers to sit down at their home computers and learn more.

Another thing noticeable at the MapShots Customer Conference was how knowledgeable all employees are about the other areas of the company that might not be their primary responsibility.

“We enjoy actually wearing multiple hats so that we can all be a part of all the different facets of the company, and it makes us that much more knowledgeable for our customers,” Shauna concluded.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Shauna here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/mapshots/mapshots-14-shauna-ingram.mp3″ text=”Interview with Shauna Ingram”]

You can find Chuck’s photos from the event online here: 2014 MapShots Customer Conference Photo Album