Growers and Agricultural Professionals Can Leverage FarmCommand® In-Cab Intelligence Directly on Equipment Monitors to Optimize Fieldwork While Minimizing Risks
LINCOLN, Nebraska, and WINNIPEG, Manitoba – June 16, 2020 — Farmers Edge™, a global leader in digital agriculture, today announced FarmCommand® Universal Terminal (UT), a simple and entirely new way for growers, equipment dealers, and retail service providers to lower costs, reduce risks, and gain efficiencies. FarmCommand, the company’s comprehensive digital platform, now automatically connects via the Universal Terminal of farm equipment, keeping the cab free from clutter, reducing costs for mixed-fleets, and dramatically expanding on existing app-based options. By providing plug and play access in the cab without the need for a separate mobile device, Farmers Edge is increasing access to digital farming technologies, at a time when the stability of the agricultural supply chain has never been more critical.
FarmCommand UT brings unparalleled operational insights into every connected tractor, sprayer, and harvester, regardless of the make, model, or age. Many retail and custom application operations are struggling to afford the immense expenses related to buying new displays; FarmCommand UT now solves those issues, at a small fraction of the costs of alternatives.
Farmers Edge CanPlug™, a powerful ISOBUS and data transfer telematics electronic control unit, connects directly with the CAN bus system in equipment to enable passive data collection and remote monitoring across an entire fleet. CanPlug streams real-time equipment data, along with planting, spraying, fertilizer applications, harvest, and field maintenance data to FarmCommand UT in a consistent format. FarmCommand UT loads automatically on cab monitors and displays scheduled, planned, and active jobs; machine diagnostic and operational data; site-specific and regional weather conditions; and field data, eliminating the need to boot up a separate application or sync to a device via Bluetooth. Users can customize the layout of the FarmCommand tools on the monitor of their equipment, moving data fields to their preferred position across all the panels.
“Overcoming the digital divide is a major milestone for the industry, and Farmers Edge is truly excited to be making this possible by leveraging the Universal Terminal across all mixed-fleet ISOBUS-enabled displays on farm equipment to provide unsurpassed connectivity,” said Ron Osborne, chief product and strategy officer at Farmers Edge. “Now, growers, dealers, custom applicators, and retailers have access to critical data directly from equipment to prevent costly mistakes, like spraying the wrong field or using the wrong prescription that can incur massive losses and financial liability. In an increasingly competitive market, agricultural businesses will be better positioned to create value-added services for their customers and more readily shift to the service-driven business model of the future.”
The UT release enhances the FarmCommand experience for all users and channel partners. It is particularly supplementary to Smart Cab™, the company’s new fleet management solution. Smart Cab enables remote connectivity through CanPlug, syncing all field activities, machines, operators, and trusted advisors to a unified view. Smart Cab is competitively priced per unit, allowing users to purchase as many CanPlug devices as they need to connect their fleet. Providing users with single interface control of all the decision-support tools they need in the cab eliminates device fatigue, reduces costs, and streamlines all activities.
Farmers Edge is continuing to expand the FarmCommand platform and integrate key tools to support decision-making. By fall, FarmCommand UT will include push notifications and alerts, instant job creation and detection, field border creations, integrated cash bid and market data, along with live profits by field, zone, and jobs. This level of integration across every device—web, app, and UT—is the first of its kind in agriculture, forging new opportunities for enhanced connectivity across the entire digital agricultural ecosystem. See more details below.
- Growers gain full traceability of field activities for operational planning, workflow management, and risk mitigation while improving profitability across their operation. The whole farm is seamlessly connected to the cab in an elegant, hassle-free manner. This powerful solution is ideal for farms that are geographically dispersed, use mixed-fleets, or rely on specialized retailers to perform seeding and spraying.
- Custom applicators receive farm-specific information such as border data and prescriptions that guide the application and specific dosage of nutrients to each zone of a field while supporting operational planning of mixed-fleets from a central dashboard. They receive in-cab intelligence without purchasing and configuring additional devices allowing them to de-risk their business, reduce costs, and accelerate accurate service delivery. Custom applicator and owner of Twisted Iron Farm, Sean Stanford, says, “I run my own spraying operation, so tapping into the advanced weather network directly on the monitor allows me to plan which field to tackle first or how long I have before the wind hits the field I’m spraying. I can get the information I need in one place and don’t need to worry about juggling devices while I’ve got jobs on the go.”
- Custom harvesters benefit from syncing their machinery and jobs to one connected platform for seamless monitoring and reporting. Harvest is the time of year where efficiency is the most critical; collecting all data from every job automatically is effortless, saving custom harvesters valuable time while ensuring critical information is securely captured. Advanced data processing provides accurate, timely insights and makes it easy to generate reports for yield, equipment performance, field conditions, and more.
- Equipment dealers have access to a solution that meets the needs of mixed-fleet farms, enhances iron sales, and helps create lasting digital relationships with customers. With permission from the grower to share equipment data, dealers can access real-time operational insights and mixed-fleet performance reporting to provide premium services and superior customer experiences.
- Seed dealers can enhance traditional seed sales with premium services centred on successful crop production. Integrating advanced digital agronomic tools provides dealers with more options to address their customers’ farm needs in a one-stop shop environment, cultivating existing client relationships and creating new revenue opportunities.
Availability
FarmCommand UT is available now at no additional cost to existing Farmers Edge customers and partners. Contact your local representative for more details. New users can request a demo by visiting www.farmersedge.ca/demo.
About Farmers Edge
Farmers Edge is a global leader in digital agriculture that delivers cutting-edge solutions powered by a unique combination of field-centric data, artificial intelligence, and complete integration. Since 2005, Farmers Edge has transformed the industry with disruptive technologies and strategic partnerships designed to enhance connectivity across the entire agricultural ecosystem. With the most comprehensive data management platform on the market–FarmCommand®–Farmers Edge is revolutionizing the way farmers, agricultural professionals, and agri-businesses interact with data. Moving at the speed of digital with an elite team focused on innovation, machine learning, and IoT, Farmers Edge is creating new opportunities for all stakeholders, shaping the future of agriculture worldwide.
To learn more about Farmers Edge, visit FarmersEdge.ca or FarmersEdgeUSA.com.
Media Contacts:
Jill Reed or Peter Brooks
Sift Communications for Farmers Edge
farmersedge@siftpr.com
Ph: +1-415-722-2433
