Agriculture
Agriculture

Author Archives: cdemuro

  1. Choosing the Best Display for Your Farm

    The Best Display for Your Farming Operation

    Farmers know their fields – they know the curve of every hill, anticipate where water collects after heavy rain, and remember just the right spot to catch sunsets at the end of a long day.

    Precision agriculture takes that unwritten familiarity and knowledge – the kind only acquired through hard work and daily commitment – to the next level with accurate data and modern technological application.

    Farm with Trimble Precision

    A Trimble display provides industry leading performance with the ability to accurately monitor and map field information in real time – providing technological advances to improve existing operations.

    Our range of guidance and steering solutions provide the right solution for maximising your output, whether you have a small farm or a large operation.

    Stay on Track with Automated Steering

    Field work is hard work, and our automated and assisted steering systems take away the burden. Automated steering helps eliminate bad passes, skips and overlaps by using mapped data for automatic terrain compensation. You can work more efficiently without working harder, as the technology does this heavy lifting. All the data is at your fingertips as you work, easily accessible through in-cab displays.

    Choosing The Best Display for Your Needs

    Every farm is different. They use different equipment, vary in size, grow different crops, and cover various types of terrain. Here’s a handy guide to the Trimble Agriculture in-cab displays to help decide which is best for you.

    TMX-2050™ 

    The Trimble TMX-2050™ display system offers a comprehensive package with full internet connectivity that helps take control of the entire operation. The 12.1 inch, high-definition touch screen offers sharp visuals, an Android-based operating system, and a choice of two display applications. This system is powerful enough for advanced users to manage overall operations at their fingertips, yet simple enough for a hired hand to operate during field work.

    A rugged, durable choice for a variety of conditions; and accuracy is assured, from the sub-metre to the sub-inch level based on the correction service you select. With a built-in GPS receiver and a video camera input, communicating data is easy. There is a full suite of precision ag solutions, including assisted and automated steering, implement control and row guidance, among others. It’s also portable, so can be swapped between vehicles when needed.

    Trimble GFX-750™

    With a slightly smaller screen (10.1 inches), the Trimble GFX-750™ offers many of the same features available with a little less real estate needed inside the cab – thanks to the roof-mounted guidance controller and screen size. In addition to its built-in internet connectivity, this unit also offers Bluetooth and WiFi communication options.

    This mid-range option also offers assisted and automated steering precision options as well as the NAV-900 Guidance Controller. Like the TMX-2050™, the GFX-750™ offers the same hardware durability for use in all field conditions as well as the easy-to-use software platform, so the emphasis is on getting the work done – not trying to navigate an overly complex computer system. This unit is also portable and suitable for use in a variety of vehicles.


    Trimble GFX-350™

    If you’re looking to introduce precision agriculture to your operation, Trimble’s GFX-350™ is a great, economical way to see first-hand how this technology can improve your overall return on investment. There is a functional and simplified installation process, which gets you ready and out in the field fast.

    This unit is also economical for tight cab situations – with a 7-inch touch screen, it’s mountable in the smallest areas and compatible with NAV-500 and NAV-900 guidance controllers. Operators can control up to two channels and 24 sections with this unit, and it’s Bluetooth and WiFi compatible. With the same durability that all Trimble displays offer, this unit is hardworking and can be with you in the field for every season and across all equipment brands.

    Discover the Possibilities 

    Using a Trimble in-cab display doesn’t just offer the opportunity to maximise profitability. It gives you the ability to work smarter and faster, increasing your downtime to catch those sunsets a little more often – from outside the cab.

    Learn more about Trimble’s top in-cab display options for your farm: It’s easy to find and connect with your local Trimble Authorised Dealer using our Reseller Locator.

  2. How Remote Support Makes Your Life Easier

    Precision ag helps you manage your farm more efficiently in several ways. Whether it’s guidance and steering, yield monitoring, or maps and visualisation – there are many farming solutions that fall under the precision ag umbrella.

    Ease of Access

    One aspect of precision ag that’s often vital to the success of your farm – but less discussed – is the ability to access remote support.

    In a traditional customer service model, you might access support by picking up the phone or emailing from a desktop computer. At Trimble, we know that farmers aren’t always operating at home or in their offices. Instead, they’re often out and about – monitoring the fields, overseeing planting and harvest, and operating miles away from their Wi-Fi router.

    Get Help No Matter Where You Are 

    Resellers and farmers alike will benefit from the ability to access remote support from anywhere.

    In the past, support technicians often had to drive out to farms, making site visits to inspect equipment or view physical challenges first-hand. Farmers regularly had to download their mapping and visualisation information to desktop computers or devices that were limited to certain areas.

    This setup negatively affected efficiency – it could potentially take hours out of the day to access and work with tech support. The arrangement was simply less convenient, from restrictions in support access to the frustration of having to put operations on hold – farmers were being held back by limited tech support.

    Quick and Efficient Support When You Need It 

    Remote support addresses these problems by making it possible to access technical support quicker and from more places. With precision ag solutions like Trimble TeamViewer and Precision-IQ™ (PIQ) version 6.60 technology, resellers and farmers can efficiently access on-demand remote support from their own fields.

    TeamViewer is a leading software provider that enables remote control and device sharing for a range of industries. Trimble TeamViewer makes life easier by facilitating immediate, real-time access to experienced service technicians.

    Whether you’re having trouble with your internet connection or your equipment, you can reach an expert with the click of a button, getting dedicated help until the problem is solved. Simply click the TeamViewer app on your Trimble display or mobile device, and you’ll be able to access focused, expert support from anywhere, at any time.

    Connectivity is Key 

    TeamViewer also helps increase the interconnectivity of precision ag solutions as users can connect to Trimble devices from anywhere on the farm. This eliminates the need for multiple monitors, trips back to a tech home base, or the use of multiple complex tech systems at once.

    Remote support becomes even more powerful when it is paired with centralised precision ag technologies, like the updated version of PIQ.

    With this tool, users can access clear, useful dashboards that provide farmers’ key functionalities.

    Farmers can collect and instantly analyse data from their applications and processes. The interface has been upgraded, and shaped by farmers’ feedback, to provide touch-screen switch control, a simpler process for field selection criteria and more.

    Solve Problems Faster 

    With TeamViewer and Precision IQ, remote support experts can solve problems faster: They can view a user’s screen – helping to give them specific, tailored instructions to solve a given tech problem – and click buttons, streamlining the process of fixing a confusing tech glitch.

    If you’ve ever tried to describe your screen to a customer support technician (a challenging task!) then you likely know how time consuming and stressful it can be to hash out the technical details without your representative seeing the same thing at the same time.

    Together, these solutions give farmers and users more control and precision: They eliminate the need to wait for visits from tech support or juggle multiple devices, dashboards and data analysis apps.

    Trimble is Here For You

    TeamViewer provides instant access to useful support directly from expert Trimble resellers, smoothing out errors and problems that arise during a farming season. To put it simply, remote support makes life easier – it improves a farmer’s profit by cutting down on time spent accessing support, while streamlining their ability to view, change, and manage data.

    To learn more about Trimble TeamViewer and Precision-IQ, contact your local Trimble reseller today! 

  3. Top 5 Ways to Invest in Your Farm’s Future

    How to Invest in Your Farm’s Future

    The agricultural tradition is all about hard work paired with innovation—from the plough to the tractor and on to today’s precision agriculture systems. Precision agriculture takes this quest for improvement to the next level by putting farmers in control of each square inch of the field.

    Precision agriculture uses technology and data to fine-tune planting and growing in different parts of the field, through steering, guidance, rate control, software and more. Think of it as cutting with a scalpel rather than swinging an axe – you enjoy greater precision and control.

    1. Guidance and Steering

    For every operation you apply to your land; tilling, planting, spraying or harvesting – precision is key. But manually operated machines leave room for missed or overlapping rows, especially when weather conditions are bad or when you’re operating at night. Even small deviations from a neat grid can add up over time – leading to losses in resources, crop yield, and, ultimately, profit.

    Precision steering and guidance systems are designed to address this. Trimble’s automated and assisted steering systems use the latest tech to provide clear, detailed corrections on the smallest level. By monitoring the screen display, you can make sure your rows are perfect on every single pass. Trimble’s systems use terrain correction to stay precise in varied conditions – they can ensure accuracy of up to 2.5cm.

    2. Fine-Tune your Inputs 

    There are many factors that affect the health of each square foot of your fields. Changes in soil type, pH levels, topography, pests and diseases, moisture and more make it ineffective to treat your entire field with the same inputs. The more precisely you can match inputs with specific field needs, the better your yield and profit will be.

    Trimble products use data collection to give you real-time insights and instantly improve your work. Using automated flow and application control systems like Field-IQ can eliminate over-application, cut down on waste, and vastly improve profit.

    3. More Accurate Maps and Imagery 

    Yield maps shouldn’t just look good, they should clearly and simply provide the data you need to improve your operations. With better maps and imagery, you can accomplish better yield monitoring –comparing different seed varieties over the years and improving seed selection based on your learnings.

    Trimble’s mapping and farm imagery solutions are practical – we focus on accuracy and data insights, empowering you to make better decisions. In addition to yield monitoring, our systems allow you to track moisture to determine if grain should be stored or dried, record the amount of crop harvested and loaded onto lorries and identify the highest performing parts of your field.

    4. Precision Software

    The collection of farming data has become more precise over the years. But data on its own isn’t very helpful; instead, you need concise analysis you can act on. It’s also important to have a centralised place for data collection – rather than different software for your inputs, yield monitoring, work orders, finances and so on.

    The Farmer Core software works with your existing precision ag systems to collect data and create simplified, clean displays that help your decision making. Trimble Connected Farm works to help you plan, execute, track, and record your operations and is accessible on mobile, desktop and machine displays.

    5. Stay Sustainable 

    Improving your farm’s sustainability is one of the most important ways you can protect your operations for decades and generations to come. Staying sustainable includes using fewer resources, wasting less product and maximising the overall efficiency of your farm.

    Trimble’s Field-IQ system helps you to achieve this efficiency by enabling greater precision in the field. By eliminating over application and wasted resources, precision ag helps your soil and the environment stay healthy.

    Investments in precision agriculture now will put you ahead of the curve while ensuring your farm’s profitability over a long-term, sustainable outlook. Contact your local Trimble dealer to learn more.

  4. Trimble Select Introduces Sencrop for Ag Weather Data Sensing

    A great precision ag solutions suite needs great data to work with. 

    That’s why French ag-tech startup Sencrop has been chosen as the newest Trimble Select Partner. Sencrop develops and implements connected, accessible, and collaborative solutions based on agro-environmental data collection in order to make precision agricultural monitoring technology available to everyone. 

    Ag-Weather Solutions

    A leader in ag-weather solutions connected to farm plots, Sencrop is the only connected ag-weather station solution available through Trimble in Europe. Under the Trimble Select Partner Program, Sencrop’s connected ag-weather station will be available to customers through the Trimble and Vantage™ distribution networks in Europe as part of Trimble’s marketplace dedicated to precision agriculture.

    Sencrop strives to develop more accurate, efficient, and environmentally responsible agricultural techniques and practices for widespread implementation.

    Trimble Select Partnership

    Sencrop is thrilled to collaborate with Trimble and have the support of a major player on the international ag-tech scene.

    “We are enthusiastic to have been chosen as a Trimble Select Partner and to be associated with this strong brand, well-known in the agricultural sector. The establishment of a commercial relationship with Trimble’s distribution network in Europe contributes to our goal to offer an integrated digital service to farmers and bring them innovative solutions, allowing for good decision-making regarding interventions in their plots, in alignment with Trimble’s product line. To take part in the Trimble Select program is an ideal distribution vehicle for Sencrop,” said co-founders Martin Ducroquet and Michael Bruniaux.

    Partnering for the Future

    This relationship will allow farmers across the globe the opportunity to increase the precision of interventions on their plots by sharing weather data among them. By collaborating with Trimble, a leader in the global ag-tech industry, Sencrop intends to increase its network of agro-weather stations and to expand its collaborative network.

    The companies are excited to introduce this ag weather-data technology to Trimble dealers and customers worldwide. Trimble has been at the forefront of the agriculture business for many years and recognizes Sencrop as a technology innovator in agricultural weather products. It’s important for farmers to have real-time weather data from their fields when performing tasks such as plowing, planting, or harvesting.

    This announcement occurs five months after the Sencrop buy-out of sensor specialist Visio-Green, which allowed for Sencrop to strengthen its position as a leader in connected agricultural weather-data.

    First Stage of the Deployment: Europe

    As a Trimble Select Partner, Sencrop will be available in its Trimble Dealer & Vantage networks of distribution, primarily focused on the European market.

    “We are excited to have Sencrop join our growing network of Trimble Select Partners. As a key player in the European market of connected ag weather-data, Sencrop has the optimum technology to sustain precise, efficient, and eco-friendly agriculture, which aligns with Trimble’s mission of providing farmers the precision ag technology that helps reduce cost, improve yields, and is environmentally conscious. Our Trimble Vantage and Trimble Dealer networks represent some of the world’s leading precision technology experts and will serve as the best partner to promote and distribute Sencorp products within the European Union,” said Kevin Barkow, Global Manager of Strategic Projects for Trimble’s Agriculture Division.

    Trimble Select is excited to bring this solution to our resellers and customers.

    To access Sencrop on Trimble Select’s platform, click here. Please contact your local reseller for more information.

  5. 4 Steps to Get Started with Precision Ag

    There are seemingly endless benefits to adopting precision ag equipment and technology on a farm. It can help save valuable time and inputs while increasing your Return On Investment (ROI) in overall efficiency and profit.

    A study by Nesta, the innovation foundation, in 2015 found an almost 20% increase in income is possible from smart and precision agriculture technology.

    But figuring out how to get started with precision ag and determining which technologies to adopt takes some evaluation.

    Here are four steps to get started:

    1. Identify Your Goals

    Any investment you make, whether it’s a drill, some fertiliser, or a precision ag solution, needs to be purchased with the intention to achieve a specific goal.

    Before buying, ask yourself: What problem will this help solve?

    Some common issues farmers face, for which precision ag options can offer solutions are:

    Problem: I’m tired from driving;  I’m running over crops during in-field operations
    Solution: Guidance, steering and corrections services

    Implementing guidance and steering solutions like Trimble’s Autopilot frees up farmers to focus on the operation taking place instead of driving, which not only reduces operator fatigue but allows farmers to catch and correct any errors immediately.

    But even with auto steer, vehicles may not follow a guidance line perfectly. Snaking across the line as they move down the field, can lead to damaged crops during future passes. Correction services like RTX solve this problem by keeping the vehicle within 1.3cm of deviation on either side of the guidance line.

    Problem: I don’t know where there could be improvements; I have data, but I don’t know how to interpret it
    Solution: Yield monitors, software management

    If you’re unsure what problems need solving or where you could make improvements, then data can help. Yield monitors are one of the best solutions for collecting data and helping evaluate what’s going on in your fields. The more data you have, the better informed your decisions will be.

    But if you don’t know how to interpret it or what your next steps should be, software management can help make sense of the information and identify what problems need correcting.

    Problem: My crops are inconsistent; I’m overapplying inputs
    Solution: Variable-Rate Technology

    If the goal is to have a uniform crop and to only apply inputs where they’re needed at the right amount, variable-rate technology can help. By utilising yield and soil maps to create prescriptions, variable-rate will allow you to apply different rates of seed, fertiliser, and other inputs to different areas of a field. Areas naturally high in nutrients, for example, may receive less fertiliser, while poorer areas may receive more.

    2. Do Your Research

    One way to ensure you’re making a smart purchase is to find reviews and testimonials of precision ag products from farmers with similar problems and goals.

    While some solutions like guidance and steering will likely be a smart investment on most farms, the benefit of others may depend on your operation. For example, a mixed or arable farm may not see the same benefits of high accuracy corrections services as one growing high-value row crops like vegetables.

    Consider the climate, crops, acreage and other key aspects of a reviewer’s farm to gather a fair assessment of whether the technology will have a similar impact on your farm.

    3. Ensure Interoperability

    Once you’ve decided on a precision ag technology, check its compatibility with your existing equipment. Otherwise, you may not reap the full benefits and may wind up with more problems than you started with.

    Farm software should be able to automatically sync guidance lines, field names, boundaries, materials, implements, vehicles and operator information across all devices so that data is available everywhere at all times. Check to see if your equipment uses ISOBUS, as this is the industry standard that allows machines, implements and displays to ‘talk’ to each other, regardless of brand.

    4. Get Support

    You don’t have to venture into precision ag alone. Trimble’s representatives, including our premier Vantage network, can give guidance on what precision ag products will bring the most benefits, help you get set up and provide support when needed.

    To get started with precision ag, find your nearest Trimble representative here.