Precision Labs Focus on Life Span of Droplet

Ag Media Summit, Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, Audio, Herbicide, Precision Labs

Precision Laboratories’ Total Spray Droplet Management considers the entire life-cycle of the drop. This ensures quality spray mixes, improved target placement and optimized retention and coverage. While in Snowbird, Utah at the 2017 Ag Media Summit, we stopped in to chat with Jim Reiss, senior vice president of product development at Precision Labs, to learn more.

“Total spray droplet management is centered around our belief that we can enhance the performance and safety of applications by focusing on factors in the tank, through the air, and on the target,” Reiss said.

As we know, newer herbicide technologies have a strong emphasis on drift control. Reiss said minimizing off-target spray drift is very important, but the entire life span of the spray droplet is what is essential – from the tank to plant absorption.

Listen to my complete interview with Jim to learn how Total Spray Droplet Management works in the tank with applicator control, limits drift through the air and how kinetic energy reduction enhances droplet absorbtion. Interview with Jim Reiss, Precision Labs

View and download photos here: 2017 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by
Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by FMC

Airbus Provides Satellite Imagery for Solutions

AgWired Precision, Audio, Info Ag

Sky Rubin is part of the Ag Solutions Team for Airbus, one of the largest aerospace companies to be building and operating satellites.  You’ll find their imagery in large agribusinesses like Bayer, The Climate Corp, and J.R. Simplot, who use it in their portals to provide actionable intelligence to growers.

When asked what makes Airbus stand out, Rubin says it’s all about resolution. “Airbus operates some of the highest resolution satellites in the world.  […] There are two twin satellites and they collect 50 centimeter imagery, so for precision ag, especially high value crops, it’s very useful.  And the frequency is very important.  We can collect weekly, or even daily in certain areas or for certain projects.”

For farmers looking for this kind of high resolution imagery, Rubin suggests going to companies like their newest partner, SatShot, to find growers services.  Learn more about Airbus in my full interview here: Interview with Sky Rubin, Airbus

2017 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by
Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by John Deere Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by CropTrak

Perdue Remarks on Bilateral Talks in Mexico

Ag Group, AgWired Animal, AgWired Energy, AgWired Precision, Audio, International, NAFTA, trade, USDA

While meeting with Mexican Secretary of Agriculture José Calzada Rovirosa, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today held a teleconference for U.S. media.

The two leaders engaged in bilateral talks, including a panel discussion with U.S. and Mexican producers, several agricultural site visits, and a joint press conference – seeking to build on the U.S. and Mexico’s well-developed track record of collaboration on agricultural trade issues, and on the personal relationship forged when Perdue hosted Calzada in Savannah, Ga., last month.

You can find his complete remarks and questions from media here: Secretary Perdue Remarks from Mexico

John Deere and Granular Collaborate

AgWired Precision, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

John Deere and Granular are working together on a product development and co-marketing agreement that gives John Deere customers more tools to measure and improve their financial performance.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will work to further integrate Granular’s leading Farm Management Software (FMS) product and the John Deere Operations Center. Certain Granular FMS functionality will be offered free-of-charge to Operations Center users in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, so that producers who choose to share their machine data with Granular can measure their profitability at the field and sub-field levels. In addition, the companies will launch a program that rewards John Deere Dealers who work with Granular to serve common customers.

Drone Nerds Show Off at InfoAg

AgWired Precision, Audio, Data, Drones

As self-proclaimed “ag nerds” here at AgWired, we were excited to meet the Drone Nerds at the recent Info Ag Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.  Brian Grant, Director of enterprise sales, talked about the company’s dealer network and the service provided to help growers get the right drone setup for their operation.

He also showed off some pretty cool toys.  Of course, there are the drones we’ve typically seen at such shows; small units that take pictures and videos, use a software platform to interpret data, and provide insights farmers can act upon.  At InfoAg, however, Drone Nerds showed off their spraying applicaion drone, one that picks up where a smaller drone leaves off.  This drone takes the information provided and heads back out to the field to apply, say, insecticide to an area of infestation, taking off and coming right back to you when it needs a new battery or a refill of crop protection products.

Once you understand what the problem is, Grant says, this drone lets you do something about it.  That’s how you make sure your yields at the end of the year are what they were forecast to be.

Learn more about Drone Nerds and the spraying application drone in my full interview with Grant here: Interview with Brian Grant, Drone Nerds

2017 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by
Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by John Deere Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by CropTrak

IntelinAir Debutes at #InfoAg17

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IntelinAir made its debut appearance at the InfoAg Conference in St. Louis, Missouri this week, letting the precision industry know they’re ready for businesses. Although they’ve been around for the past three years, they spent the first two in the lab, CEO and co-founder Al Eisaian tells us. For the first time this year they’re covering grower’s crops in Iowa and Illinois and next year they plan to take the company even further.

IntelinAir stands for Intelligence in Air, Eisaian says, because the company does more than just take arial images. Instead they consider themselves to be in the analytics business, taking those images and using proprietary algorithms to spot issues. The main areas of focus are early season emergence problems, weed detection, and anomalies that could arise from issues like compaction, equipment problems, tiling issues or weather damage.

“We bring all that imagery, push it to the cloud, and then that’s when everything starts,” Eisian explains.  “The stitching work starts and all the analysis that shows what anomalies are present in the field- and after all the analysis is done in a matter of 24 to 48 hours then we push it to farmer’s iPads.”

For growers who haven’t looked into ariel imagery for actionable solutions recently, Eisian suggests they revisit the issue. The technology has improved a lot in the last few years, he says, and it’s much more accessible now than it has been.

To learn more about IntelinAir, listen to my interview here: Interview with Al Eisaian, IntelinAir

2017 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by
Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by John Deere Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by CropTrak

CropTrak Plays Well With Others

AgWired Precision, Audio, CropTrak, Info Ag

CropTrak as it exists today has been an evolution stemming from customer needs. The company began doing work for the military, a start that served them well in agriculture, says Jonathan Sherrill, Vice President of Sales.

“You have hard, remote conditions where there is no Internet connectivity, there is no cellular, so [you] build tools on a mobile device that’s not dependent on cellular and Internet connectivity that enabled customers to collect data efficiently while they’re in the field,” Sherrill explains. One size didn’t fit all in the military and it doesn’t work in agriculture either.

In fact, that’s why the company changed their name and their game this time a year ago, moving from iCropTrak and a mobile-only platform, to CropTrak with a web-based presence that can be accessed from a desktop when it makes more sense for the grower.

The most recent customer request to be granted is an API that plays nicely with others, specifically the John Deere Operations Center on MyJohnDeere.com. The new platform offers an even closer look at what goes on in the field, going so far as to allow a grower to put a circle on a specific zone and get data like yield by soil type, moisture by soil type, yield by slope, and yield by variety.

Of course, somethings don’t change, like the ease in which Croptrak’s data can be used to complete paperwork. Although, that’s better than ever too. “I think what we’re most excited about is being able to take that data and automatically fill out paper,” Sherrill says.

For more information about our Gold Mic sponsor listen to Cindy’s full interview with CropTrak here: Interview with Jonathan Sherrill, CropTrak

2017 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by
Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by John Deere Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by CropTrak

Precision Ag Bytes 7/26

AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes

  • The final five for Syngenta’s #RootedinAg contest have been announced.  They are: Thomas Luke Andrews from Boyle, Mississippi; Lauren Grimes from Tifton, Georgia; Steve Groves from Bakersfield, California; Tori Streitmatter from Sparland, Illinois; and Nicole Swinson from Kenansville, North Carolina.
  • The National Association of Conservation Districts is concerned with budget cuts to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, but is encouraged that the Senate Appropriations Committee has strongly funded technical assistance at the Department of Agriculture for 2018.  The Senate’s bill also includes much needed regulatory relief for those participating in NRCS programs.
  • Soil Health Partnership encourages growers who have never tried cover crops to start small, but start now.  Growers looking for ideas or more information can attend one of these upcoming field days to learn more.
  • Prospera, a digital farming company, has announced a $15M Series B funding round.  Lead by Qualcomm Venters and joined by Cisco Investments, ICV, and Bessemer Venture Partners, this funding brings the total investment in Prospera to $22M.
  • EFC Systems is joining their FieldAlytics product with Geosys Bridge API to offer in-season and historical imagery, providing users with field-level satellite imagery layers that allows for in-season scouting, analysis for field variability management zone creation or export for crop treatment recommendations.

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Four Honored with PrecisionAg Awards

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The opening session of the Info Ag Conference in St. Louis, Missouri kicked-off by honoring four winners of this year’s PrecisionAg Institute‘s Awards of Excellence. These awards recognize commitment and exceptional service in the precision agriculture industry.

Dr. Harold van Es from Cornel University was the recipient of one of two 2017 Educator/Researcher Awards. van Es played a large role in the development of Adapt-N, a cloud-based, real-time nitrogen management tool.
Interview with Dr. Harold van Es, Award Winner

Wade Barnes earned the 2017 Crop Adviser/Entrepreneur Award as a co-founder of Farmers Edge. His company began in his basement but now offers big data, digital agriculture, and agronomy services to growers in 5 countries.
Interview with Wade Barnes, Award Winner

Dr. Joe Luck, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, also received the 2017 Educator/Researcher Award. Luck is both an Associate Professor and Precision Agriculture Engineer in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering and founder of Precision Agriculture Data Management Workshops for the Extension services. Interview with Dr. Joe Luck, Award Winner

Dr. Paul Fixen, recently retired from the International Plant Nutrition Institute, was honored with the 2017 Legacy Award. His distinguished career includes leading a team at South Dakota State University that made substantial progress in understanding the role and requirement of chloride in crop production, authoring 300+ articles related to nutrient management, and developing and teaching popular courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels.Interview with Dr. Paul Fixen, Award Winner

You can watch the event as well from our Facebook page.

2017 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by
Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by John Deere Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by CropTrak

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Beyond Big Data at #InfoAg2017

AgWired Precision, Audio, Data, Info Ag

This isn’t the first time Steve Sonka has been a keynote speaker at Info Ag in St. Louis, Missouri, but last time he spoke he focused on Big Data. Today his message has changed.

“Big data is only part of the opportunity in production agriculture,” Sonka told me.  “I talked today about digital ag. What that refers to is the introduction, really in the last four to five years, of new sensors, new devices to capture data about actual production on our farms and our fields and feed lots and pens.  We’ve never had that before.  And that raises lots of opportunities that really go beyond big data as we normally think of it.”

True big data takes a lot of work, money and know-how to capture and interpret- requiring multi-national companies and people with PhDs. But today many farms have “lots of data” on a USB drive, often in the desk drawer. It cannot be considered true “Big Data” but it’s still a lot more information than a person could comprehend with an Excel spreadsheet, Sonka explains. It’s within this space that entrepreneurs have a lot of room to meet the needs of farmers.

If data is changing, then so are the economics surrounding it.  Traditionally goods are consumed, and if one person uses it, it’s gone.  Not so in a digital age.  And where once there was value in collected data, today we find value in the solutions it presents.  Learn more Sonka’s thoughts on data in my full interview with him here: Interview with Steve Sonka, InfoAg Keynote Speaker

2017 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by
Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by John Deere Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by CropTrak