Precision Pays

Aerial Imagery provider FalconScan is working with AgJunction to offer standardized work order and data delivery services to growers and ag service providers.

Under a new agreement, FalconScan will harness the power of the AgJunction hardware and software platform to make it easier for customers to order and receive the company’s aerial imagery acquisition services.

Commenting on the agreement, Mr. Herron stated, “We are pleased to be teaming up with AgJunction. We believe that their services will streamline the ability of growers and service providers to place orders for FalconScan’s aerial imagery services and receive data back in a timely fashion. We strive to deliver finished data to customers within a week or less from the time they place an order, and AgJunction will help us make that possible.”

Jeff Dearborn, Managing Director of AgJunction at GVM Inc., said, “We are proud that FalconScan chose AgJunction as its provider of data management services. It is one more indication that AgJunction is becoming the go-to information technology platform for growers and service providers in the agricultural industry. With FalconScan’s help, we look forward to strong growth for our platform in 2010 and beyond.”

Headquartered in Glen Burnie, Maryland, FalconScan, LLC combines state-of-the-art remote sensing science and commercial-off-the-shelf technology to rapidly deliver high-resolution ortho photos, NDVIs, and field maps. The company’s proprietary solutions help growers efficiently manage crops, reduce inputs, and save money. FalconScan images can be used to support field scouting, develop prescription maps, and control variable rate technology.

A division of GVM Inc. (www.gvminc.com), AgJunction offers an information technology platform of hardware and data management software that is specifically designed for the agriculture industry. This flexible, web-based system allows users to manage moving and stationary equipment, and to manage field data work orders. In addition, it provides a comprehensive reporting system.

As planters continue to roll across the Midwest, most farmers are thinking about what’s next. One component of precision farming you may want to try is the use of crop sensing. Why? Because this is the future that will help overcome field variability–from helping create optimum field management zones to monitoring crops so growers can take action before yield-robbing stress occurs.

One good overview of this science, published in 2003 by USDA-ARS scientists from across the country, will help you grasp the realties and benefits that can be achieved. And the technology has dramatically improved since this was written.

One independent agronomic guru who is a favorite of mine (and I’ve quoted many over the years in farm magazine articles) in Tom McGraw, owner of Midwest Independent Soil Samplers (MISS). Tom calls a spade a spade, and offers some excellent advice, which he gives in his newsletter, on their website, and especially to customers.

Bottom line is you should consider examining one field, perhaps your toughest most variable ground, to see what you can learn and improve upon with this sensing technology. Talk to your local retailer to understand their capabilities, or contact one of the four MISS locations.

Arriving just ahead of a blizzard bearing down on Iowa yesterday, more than 200 key dealers got their first glimpse of the big, new Ag Leader Academy training facility in Ames. The group will get hands-on experience over the next several days, learning all about new products and the steering technology and services gained from the partnership with AutoFarm.

There was a lot of buzz about teaming up two new products in particular, which highlights the strengths of the new partnership between Ag Leader and AutoFarm. The ability to pair the new ‘flagship’ products—Ag Leader’s INTEGRA monitor with the high-accuracy automatic steering ParaDyme product from AutoFarm—will offer the most advanced and innovative precision ag system ever, say the companies.

The INTEGRA full-featured, year-around display, comprised of a 12-inch HD touchscreen, features a new hardware platform that can handle mapping, planter and application control, yield monitoring, real-time data logging and more—controlling virtually every operation from the cab.

And to make this a fully integrated system, a patented dual-antenna roof module called the ParaDyme, delivers a unique steering system that can handle any correction (from WAAS to RTK), plus it offers factory-activated and integrated wireless and cellular communications for remote diagnostics. It not only can provide sub-inch accuracy with RTK or the CORS Network, but it can track pitch, roll, yaw, vehicle position and heading.

ParaDyme System

“With ParaDyme, we’ve taken automatic steering to a whole new level,” says Michael O’Connor, Chief Technology Officer with Novariant, the parent company of AutoFarm. “This sets the standard in single-system solution to precision farming, when combined with the Ag Leader INTEGRA monitor system.”

What impressed me during the presentations was the simplicity behind the complex and all-encompassing capabilities of this system. For example:

• The ParaDyme platform fits both entry level users and the experienced RTK-intensive, variable-rate users, simply by swapping out monitors, steering systems and selecting the right correction signal—from sub-meter to sub-inch accuracy.
• No more complex steering calibration—you push a button and the computer automatically calibrates by turning and learning the tractor movements.
• No more need for a front-wheel sensor, due to the patented dual-antenna system configuration.
• There’s a seamless upgrade path for growers who want to start with an entry-level Edge monitor and assisted-steering, then move up later. The ParaDyme unit doesn’t change (only the signal), and the INTEGRA monitor uses the same cables and bolt-on hardware as the Edge monitor.
• With a decade of precision-steering experience, AutoFarm technology fits on more than 370 different vehicle brands.
• With ParaDyme, you are directly connected to your local dealer with a service plan (for a fee) to minimize downtime. If you have a problem, you push the help button on the monitor and it contacts them. Not only can they view your screen, they can actually make remote adjustments and troubleshoot it, without waiting for their truck to arrive.
• And for growers who live in states with good CORS networks coverage, the built-in cell phone system in the ParaDyme will automatically chose the best local carrier for your signal to run RTK—without you or your dealer worrying about another cell phone, and carrier, and service. Plus, you can activate it in 30-day increments, so no need for year-long contracts.

There are many more details, so contact your local dealer.

Farmers Edge Precision Consulting based in Winnipeg, Manitoba has become a fast-growing business helping farmers cut fertilizer costs and increase profits. The two agronomy experts who started the company just received an entrepreneur award, according to a report in The Gov Monitor.

Farmers were so impressed with an innovative crop fertilization service developed by Curtis MacKinnon and Wade Barnes that they urged them to take it to market, giving them the push they needed to strike out on their own. Since that initial start four years ago, Farmers Edge Precision Consulting has become a fast-growing business that is helping farmers across the Prairies and as far away as Russia improve their practices and profits. For this success, Wade, 34, and Curtis, 33, have won BDC’s Young Entrepreneur Award for Manitoba.

Farmers Edge helps take the guesswork out of farming. It combines remote sensing equipment and technology to redefine how farmers apply fertilizer to their fields to increase crop yields. The business is helping grain and oilseed farmers increase their profits by $15 to $100 per acre, while contributing to a 15 to 25% decrease in fertilizer application. Now covering 750,000 acres across the Prairies, Farmers Edge has grown to 10 management partners, 34 full-time and 11 seasonal employees, along with 17 consulting partners who are re-sellers of the services. Farmers Edge has just opened its own soil-testing laboratory, has taken its concept to large corporate farms in Russia and is constantly exploring new ideas.

“Before we got started, I was working in the fertilizer business, where research had been done on variable rate technology, but no one had found a way to make it viable,” explains Wade. “Then I started working with Curtis, who is gifted in technology, and together we decided to reinvent the wheel.” Wade hit on the idea of using remote sensing to map out the varying fertilizer needs throughout a field, and Curtis found a way to make fertilizer machines vary their output according to that map. When farmers saw what Farmers Edge could do, the service sold itself.

The two agronomy experts attribute the fast growth of Farmers Edge to the talented team and the unique ownership model they have put in place. That includes a design whereby territory managers take equity in the company. “We have been fortunate to find key people who share our drive,” says Curtis. “That has allowed us to keep growing and expanding.”

Curtis and Wade see expansion as a way of reducing risk. “Agriculture is so influenced by weather that if you are regionalized, one weather disaster could virtually wipe you out,” explains Wade. “Expanding into other regions reduces that risk.” They’re also always on the lookout for possible new ventures. “We’re very quick to seize opportunities. If we have an idea, we chase it.” That led them to Russia in 2006. Since then, Farmers Edge has been developing business in Russia and the Ukraine, tapping into the large corporate farm market.

Whether you’re a novice at collecting harvest data or an old pro who could wallpaper his office with yield maps and more—you understand that more data layers beyond yield are necessary to add management decision value.

Yield by hybrid by soil type...

I talked to Bruce West this week, who helps growers adopt just about every precision farming solution imaginable through his independent company West Enterprises in Geneseo, Ill. Bruce, who was finishing a yield monitor install for a grower who was going to collect his first yield data, works with a wide variety of customers. “I help customers grow their precision technology capabilities at the speed they desire—which ranges from this basic first installation I’m doing today, to the other extreme of helping a customer develop variable rate applications of seed, nitrogen and starter in one pass at planting, with all rates being independent of the other,” he says.

When we discussed how growers are managing their data being collecting right now at harvest, he says there are basically two groups of growers. “There are cutting edge guys who want to learn to do it all themselves, and then there is the larger group who want someone else to manage their data—and I work with both groups.”

Finding Solutions. For growers looking into software to help manage data, Bruce says a lot of growers are not sure where to start. “What we need to know from growers usually starts from the bigger picture of what agronomic principles they want to accomplish. Is it fertility based on soil types or management zones? Is it plant populations based on soil types or fertility levels? And we discuss their technology feelings as well—toward auto steer, planter row and spray boom shutoff and more. The great thing about Ag Leader is that it has the products—from a software and hardware perspective—that can do basically anything and everything.”

Value of Training. Bruce usually holds his software training classes in January for customers. “We conduct very informal sessions, because growers often find great value in learning how other growers are using the software, addressing issues, learning specific tasks. They truly come away from these meetings with a greater understanding of just how powerful this Ag Leader SMS software really is, when it comes to managing many layers of data and helping them make intelligent management decisions.”

If you’d like to talk to Bruce, you’ll find West Enterprises (309-944-5736) listed as a Master Service Dealer for Ag Leader Technology—along with other professional precision farming sources from more than 20 states.

Satellite photo by RapidEye - Illinois

German-based RapidEye, who uses a constellation of five satellites to photograph earth for numerous industries, partnered with Canadian companies GeoFarm and Agri-Trend to supply growing season images to farmers across Canada.

In a collaborative effort, GeoFarm, Agri-Trend, and RapidEye began working together at the beginning of 2009 to offer enhanced satellite imagery solutions to Canadian clients by offering “near real-time” satellite imagery for agriculture use backed by superior agronomics. The RapidEye satellite system was designed to meet the needs of precision agriculture, as it is the only commercial satellite system that acquires data in the red-edge spectral band. This band provides specific information about the chlorophyll content, and therefore nitrogen status of the crops.

“RapidEye provided high quality imagery products of different types on a ‘field order by field order’ basis to our Canadian customers over a wide range of crop types and conditions. This led to a variety of precision agriculture decisions and applications. With Agri-Trend Agri-Coaches™ providing groundtruthing and agronomic insight, the value of these informative images was understood from a practical agronomy standpoint for the ultimate benefit of our growers,” says Warren Bills, President of GeoFarm Solutions Inc.

Customers benefited from multiple captures of 5 meter resolution, multi-spectral imagery (red, green, blue, near infrared and red edge) of their fields throughout this year’s season. Products such as bare ground, chlorophyll and ground cover maps were delivered via the Internet to farmers, ag-retailers and agronomic consultants.

Does your precision technology provider deliver good information to you in methods beyond direct contact or a Website?

A good lesson regarding customer service and expanded ways to connect with customers comes from precision agriculture solutions provider HTS Precision Ag, based in Harlan, Iowa.

For example, check out their blog called “Precision Ag Explained,” where Adam Gittins posts weekly insights on products, issues and even his attendance and talk he gave at the recent precision agriculture conference InfoAg.

This week, Gittins talked about Trimble’s new Ag 3000 cellular modem, used to connect to a VRS or CORS network for RTK corrections — a product he tested and wrote about in a previous post. And he mentioned the company’s True Guide, which correct implement drift. Another post talks about Ag Leader’s commitment to training customers and prospects by breaking ground on a new training center. And still more posts highlight their own training sessions and ride & drives.

Not only does HTS blog, they are also using a Facebook fan page (where you can even RSVP for training sessions if you are a Facebook member) to connect with users on that social media site. And they also have an updated Website where they also connect with customers using an email newsletter.

HTS offers solutions to growers from Ag Leader Technology, Trimble Navigation, Norac, Garmin and Wilson Electronics. They serve growers in portions of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska.