The Manitoba-based equipment manufacturer received the New Technology Innovation award at the event, which took place from March 17-19, for its X9 split frames MAD concaves.

The honour was presented by the show’s Innovator Recognition Program, highlighting technologies that “advance agriculture by improving efficiency, productivity and sustainability”.

The machinery allows growers with John Deere X9 series combines to drastically cut down the amount of time spent switching concaves when combining various crops. A structural split frame remains securely installed in the combine, while lightweight, crop-specific inserts can be quickly switched in and out. What used to take hours can be done in a matter of minutes.

Other benefits of using the system include lower grain loss, cleaner samples, improved efficiency and faster harvests, said Bushel Plus.

“Winning this award underscores the value of listening to farmers and turning real-world challenges into practical solutions. Working closely with our customers enables us to develop products that perform at the highest level, helping them capture more bushels and boost profitability.”

— Marcel Kringe, Bushel Plus founder, CEO

Photo: Don Norman

Bushel Plus rebranding to BranValt this summer

The award comes as Bushel Plus is undergoing a global rebrand to BranValt this summer. It plans to expand its presence to 45 countries, as well as its portfolio of products.

“It’s an exciting time for our company,” says Kringe. “This award celebrates our team’s dedication and the trust our customers place in us. As we continue to expand globally, we remain focused on delivering innovative products that perform in the field and help farmers glean greater profits by putting more bushels in the bin.”

The post Bushel Plus wins big at Canada’s Farm Show appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The brand’s current offering now includes a digital pairing of its 8S and 9S tractors to the LB Series large square Hesston by Massey Ferguson balers.

At the Commodity Classic farm show in Texas, the brand announced new 8S and 9S tractors will soon be available for order directly from the factory with TIM.

“The other exciting thing we’ve been launching at this show is Tractor and Implement Management for our 8S and 9S tractors,” says Derek Reusser, senior marketing manager for high horsepower tractors with Massey Ferguson.

“It’s new for 2026. It’s really all about facing challenges our farmers are facing with skilled operators.

“It really allows the implement to dictate what the tractor does. When we think about large square baling specifically, based on your flake count target, it will change the operating speed of the tractor.”

Sensor counts flakes to control speed

A sensor on the knotter trip wheel sends information to the tractor to control its speed, allowing it to keep feeding material into the baler at an even rate, which helps produce consistent bales.

“TIM Drive is what it’s called,” says Reusser.

“The knotter trip wheel is essentially counting your flakes. That flake count is communicated back to the tractor. We’re giving that system the capability to change the speed of the tractor based upon what it’s measuring.

“The flake size is really what farmers are looking at. For an eight-foot bale, you want about a 2.4-, 2.5-inch flake size to deliver that consistent length. Usually farmers are looking for about 40 flakes on an eight-foot bale.”

Added Jessica Williamson, marketing manager for hay and forage with Massey Ferguson: “All of our LB Series large round balers already come pre-equipped with TIM … so it’s not an add-on for our customers. All of them are ready to be hooked to a tractor with TIM, regardless of baler size from our 3 x 3 up to our 4 x 4. It comes already equipped with TIM.”

Field trials show dramatic consistency gains

Williamson says Agco did field trials using TIM to see what impact it had on bale production. The results demonstrated a significant improvement, she claims.

“We wanted to see the overall improvement in bale consistency when implementing TIM versus not. We looked at having a mid- or lower-level operator and how it would improve overall bale consistency. Does this open up the tractor seat to someone with a lower level of skill?

“A mid-level operator got a 225 per cent overall improvement from bale to bale. He got about a two-inch variability in overall bale length.

“We’re improving flake count and overall bale length. Probably the most significant improvement we got was overall bale weight. In dry straw, we saw an 80 pound overall bale-to-bale improvement by implementing TIM. Eighty lb. in very dry straw is pretty significant.”

Factory-installed new, retrofits available

The system also has a use on Hesston by Massey Ferguson RB Series round balers. It stops the tractor when the chamber is full and allows the bale to tie and eject. All the operator has to do is start the tractor again.

For producers who already have an 8S or 9S tractor, the TIM software can be downloaded and installed on existing models. LB Series large balers have been equipped with TIM from the factory for the last two model years.

The post Massey Ferguson balers now tell tractors how fast to go appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

WHY IT MATTERS: Soil compaction is a major problem on many farms. Controlled traffic farming — where equipment follows the same tracks across a field every pass — could be a practical solution, but few Canadian producers have tried it.

Alex Boersch likes to experiment. A couple of years ago, the Elie, Man., farmer became the first producer in Canada to try Nexat, a unique piece of machinery capable of seeding, harvesting and other field tasks. From there, he started experimenting with controlled traffic farming — the practice of routing all equipment along the same tracks across a field to minimize soil compaction.

Neither experiment worked out exactly as planned. But Boersch is determined to keep going with controlled traffic because he’s convinced it can improve water infiltration and stabilize yields on his family’s heavy clay ground.

The water problem

Boersch farms with his wife, parents, sister and brother-in-law in a region of heavy clay soil about 30 kilometres west of Winnipeg. When 75 millimetres of rain falls in a day, most of that water runs off their land. Runoff from neighbouring farms compounds the problem, causing water to pond on their fields.

“We’re getting similar amounts of rainfall (as in the past), but we’re getting it in really big weather events,” Boersch said.

He tried cover crops, intercropping, long rotations and biologicals to improve water intake. None had the desired result. So he turned his attention to controlled traffic farming.

“We all have the GPS technology to do this. How can controlling your compaction be a negative?” Boersch said at St. Jean Farm Days in January.

“We know we have a hard pan in our soils at 12 to 18 inches.”

What research says about controlled traffic farming

Boersch isn’t the only prairie farmer interested in controlled traffic. Jamie Christie, who runs a 5,000-acre operation near Trochu, Alta., was part of an Alberta research project about 10 years ago that evaluated the benefits of the practice at multiple sites.

The project found that controlled traffic farming increased crop yields by 2.2 per cent on average — a modest gain. But the researchers noted other significant benefits: improved timeliness and efficiency of field operations, and new agronomic opportunities such as in-crop nitrogen application and on-row fungicide treatments.

Both Boersch and Christie shared their experiences during a panel discussion on controlled traffic farming at the St. Jean Farm Days show in January.

Why Nexat didn’t work out

The Nexat system is purpose-built for controlled traffic. It handles seeding, spraying, harvesting and other tasks, and roughly 95 per cent of the field surface remains untouched because the machine always follows the same path.

Boersch found it worked exceptionally well for seeding. The problems came at harvest. Consistent rains in August left the land around Elie soaked, and the heavy clay couldn’t handle the weight of the machine plus a full load of grain.

“It was sinking a bit too much. … When that combine is full (of seed), this whole thing weighs 80 tons,” he said.

He shared photos of ruts 20 to 25 centimetres deep on his fields — ruts that got worse on the second pass. There are ways to remediate compacted traffic paths, but Boersch and his family decided to pursue controlled traffic farming without the Nexat.

The pivot: same concept, different gear

Instead of the Nexat, Boersch plans to achieve controlled traffic using his existing fleet — or possibly some new equipment — to match implement widths and lock in consistent 40-foot traffic lanes across his fields.

“Our ultimate goal is 40-foot controlled traffic. Right now, the only issue holding us back is we have a 60-foot seeder,” he said. “We need to shift a few different implements around.”

His initial 18-month experiment wasn’t long enough to show significant changes in soil compaction or water infiltration. Based on the research he’s reviewed, it takes several years of consistent controlled traffic to make a measurable difference.

The post VIDEO: Manitoba farmer tests controlled traffic farming to fight soil compaction and flooding appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

At the time, the company said it was working on expanding the system’s functionality to other crops.

Deere has now made good on that promise. For 2027 model year machines, it will be compatible with wheat, barley and canola.

“For model year ’27 we have a really exciting upgrade for our small grains customers,” says Joshua Ladd, marketing manager for application equipment.

“This year we’re ecstatic to roll out our small grains functionality for wheat, canola and barley in crop, and we expanded the lineup for our variable rate function for later season passes with desiccation pre-harvest passes.”

All three levels of See and Spray (Select, Premium and Ultimate) are now integrated into the same basic platform. That gives buyers more customization options, such as opting for single or dual-tank capability.

The second generation Gen 2 version also includes changes that give it improved performance over the original Gen 1 release.

Notably, the location of the boom’s centre cameras has been moved to reduce the number of times they unnecessarily revert to full broadcast mode because of vision obstructions.

“The most consistent thing we saw for a fall-back trigger was on the centre of the machine because there were four cameras tucked in on the centre behind the rear tires,” says Ladd.

“The dust they kicked up would occlude the cameras….

“With Gen 2, it’s still 36 cameras, but for those four cameras that were on the centre frame behind the tires, we’ve now located those to the front. (Moving) the four cameras to the front should significantly reduce the dust issue.”

The new hardware for the Gen 2 system is lighter and reduces weight stress on the boom.

“We’ve now gone from 10 processors to three,” he adds.

“We now have a combination of three processors and five video extenders (VEX). The VEX is overall a lighter component than the processor.”

With that lighter load, Deere can now offer full boom lighting to allow green-on-brown operation after dark in fallow fields. The brand is working on making the green-on-green system usable at night, but so far it isn’t.

See and Spray will also be compatible with a wider range of nozzle options.

“We can use our rear-incline nozzle to achieve a See and Spray speed of 16 m.p.h.,” says Ladd.

“We’re now approved to work with straight-down nozzles, though it does reduce the operational speed down to 12 m.p.h.

“Previously we said you had to use a specific category of nozzles, so we’re now widening that a bit, giving customers flexibility in nozzles they like to use for their operation.”

Deere will continue to offer the See and Spray system on a subscription basis, which Ladd says helps reduce the initial purchase cost.

The Gen 2 system will be available on 408R, 410R, 412R, 612R, and 616R sprayers, as well as all Hagie sprayers, the STS12, STS16, and STS20 for model year 2027.

Also, a new four-wheel steering feature will be an option on the 400 Series chassis, something that was previously available only on the Hagie sprayer lineup.

For those who would like to add targeted spraying to their operation but don’t want to fork out the cost of an entirely new machine, Deere is offering a See and Spray Select upgrade kit for some previous model year machines.

The Gen 2 See and Spray technology will be on display in John Deere’s exhibit at the Ag in Motion farm show this summer.

The post Deere expands spot spray system for small grains crops appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“We need less feed intake, less manure, less emissions, because that is where the complaints are,” said Daniel Berckmans. “That means we must be more efficient in the core equation.”

That “core equation” is his way of adding up animal feed needs: base metabolism plus activity, plus thermal or environmental regulation, plus mental state, plus the production of meat, milk or eggs.

Berckmans is a biosystems researcher out of KU Leuven university in Belgium and the University of Tennessee. He was among the speakers at a July 10 forum on precision livestock farming at the University of Manitoba.

Energy used by the base metabolism — basic functions of life like keeping organs running — can be calculated through heart rate. Berckmans said there are at least six companies working on a commercially feasible way to measure that, and technology for horses is likely to debut this year.

Animal activity can be tracked through things like aggression monitoring. Berckmans cited his previous work on a seven-year project, which found that aggression in pigs could be detected by measuring the distance between the camera and the pig’s back, “because they jump up,” he said.

Research has also been done on the energy horses expend when frustrated versus when calm. Berckmans pointed to data outlining energy expended while a horse was running in a ring alongside energy expended by brain activity at the same time. The horse was shown a bucket of food. When the horse realized it wasn’t going to get the food, it became frustrated and began to expend more mental energy.

Infection and disease can also cut production and profit. Sensors can help localize infection in a barn, compartment or room, potentially reducing disease spread and antibiotic use. Berckmans noted technology that monitors and analyzes the sound of coughs in a facility.

“Precision livestock farming gives us the data,” he said.

It can then be used to measure how far an operation is from desired outputs and to design prediction-based controllers.

“That’s what we do for decades in airplanes, in making mechanical systems, electronic systems,” Berckmans said.

While there’s been lots of research into agricultural use of precision technology, very little has been implemented, he said.

The post Precision livestock farming could fine-tune feed efficiency ‘equation’ appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

How humanity feeds itself has created challenges ranging from its contribution to climate change to weaknesses that were exposed by COVID-19 such as fragile just-in-time supply chains.

To address these challenges, there are three promising technologies — vertical, cellular and precision agriculture — that can remake the relationship to land and food.

Innovators have been growing crops indoors since Roman times. What is new is the efficiency of LED lighting and advanced robotics that allow vertical farms today to produce 20 times more food on the same footprint as is possible in the field.

Most vertical farms only produce greens, such as lettuce, herbs and microgreens, because they are quick and profitable, but within five years many more crops will be possible as the cost of lighting continues to fall and technology develops.

The controlled environments of vertical farms slash pesticide and herbicide use, can be carbon neutral and they recycle water.

Cellular agriculture, or the science of producing animal products without animals, heralds even bigger change. In 2020 alone, hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into the sector, and in the past few months, the first products have come to market.

Precision agriculture is another big frontier. Soon self-driving tractors will use data to plant the right seed in the right place, and give each plant exactly the right amount of fertilizer, cutting down on energy, pollution and waste.

Taken together, vertical, cellular and precision farming should allow us the ability to produce more food on less land and with fewer inputs. Ideally, we will be able to produce any crop, anywhere, any time of year.

Of course, these technologies are no panacea. No technology ever is. For one thing, while these technologies are maturing rapidly, they aren’t quite ready for mainstream deployment. Many remain too expensive for small- and medium-sized farms and may drive farm consolidation.

Some consumers and food theorists are cautious, wondering why we can’t produce our food the way our great-grandparents did. Critics of these agricultural technologies call for agri-ecological or regenerative farming that achieves sustainability through diversified, small-scale farms that feed local consumers. Regenerative agriculture is promising, but it isn’t clear it will scale.

While these are serious considerations, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to food security. For instance, alternative small-scale mixed-crop farms also suffer labour shortages and typically produce expensive food that is beyond the means of lower-income consumers.

But it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. There are benefits and drawbacks to all approaches and we cannot achieve our climate and food security goals without also embracing agricultural technology.

By taking the best aspects of alternative agriculture (namely the commitment to sustainability and nutrition), the best aspects of conventional agriculture (the economic efficiency and the ability to scale) and novel technologies such as those described above, the world can embark on an agricultural revolution that — when combined with progressive policies around labour, nutrition, animal welfare and the environment — will produce abundant food while reducing agriculture’s footprint on the planet.

-This is an abridged version of an article that first appeared in the Conversation and is reposted under Creative Commons.

The post Opinion: Improving our food system appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The two-year advanced diploma program in digital agriculture technology will be launched this fall at the college’s Russ Edwards School of Agriculture and Environment.

“This program is about equipping students with practical skills that will be invaluable in the rapidly evolving field of agriculture,” said school dean Tim Hore. “There is a labour shortage in Manitoba’s agriculture sector, with one in three jobs projected to go unfilled by 2029. Programs like this help meet these increasing demands.”

He added that the college recognizes “the critical role technology plays in modern agriculture.”

“Introducing new, responsive programs like this one fits well with this direction. We have long been focused on ensuring we’re keeping up with the digital curve in the sector, and this program is a great example of how we remain responsive to industry needs in a way that will set graduates up for success.”

Why it matters: Brandon’s Assiniboine Community College (ACC) has growth plans for its agricultural and ag-related programming, citing labour shortages in the sector.

The program promises both experience and classroom knowledge of technology-driven modern agricultural practices. It will cover precision agriculture, agronomy, crop production systems, livestock, data collection with drones and digital agricultural integrations.

“What sets this program apart is the innovative approach that ties these traditional production principles to the age of digital data in the ag sector,” said Chris Budiwski, academic chair at the school.

By the time students graduate, “not only will they have the learn-by-doing approach that ACC offers, but they will also have some work experience, perhaps even a job reference, and hopefully even another job waiting for them.”

Students will have opportunity to put their learning into practice after the first year. The program includes a work-integrated learning placement, wherein the college helps students secure paid work applicable to their program over the summer break. This will give students on-the-ground knowledge of the industry, Budiwski said, “but even more so, they can see the practical application of what they’re learning.

“They get that real-world opportunity and then bring that back to the classroom the second year.”

Graduates will be suited for jobs as agronomy consultants, “where they’re doing a lot of field sampling or data collection on plant samples, weed IDs, etc.,” he said. “It could be soil survey groups, soil testing, equipment diagnostics in machinery dealerships, or it could even just be in a desk job crunching numbers that other people have collected data on.”

Budiwski said the program could also be useful to young farmers who want more technical know-how.

“If somebody is really inclined to dive into the data, understand their field maps or wants more skill sets in interpreting the data that they collect on their farm, this gives them not just the ability to do data management but also, by the time they graduate, they will be able to visualize and interpret it in a way that they can communicate it to others that are not quite so savvy,” said Budiwski.

Industry feedback provided much of the impetus for the program.

“We often circle back to industry with our pre-existing programs to see what is coming down the pipe,” said Budiwski. “Digital agricultural technology has been permeating to the top for a while now.”

Once the program has launched, Budiwski expects the college will revisit those stakeholders to see if it meets industry needs.

“The one nice thing about the college environment is we can kind of tweak and pivot on the fly.”

Vision for growth

Hore said the program fits well into the track ACC has laid for agricultural training.

The college is part way through a plan to dramatically increase its ag foothold. That plan would see hundreds more ag and ag-related student spaces at the college and includes a swath of new courses besides the digital agriculture technology diploma.

They include mechatronics, geared toward jobs in an increasingly automated agri-food sector, as well as chemical engineering technology and food science.

Increased capacity for applied research also features in the plan and the college touts its capacity for industry partnerships.

The star attraction of the expansion will be a new hub, the Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, to be based in a refurbished historical building on the college’s North Hill Campus.

That project, budgeted at approximately $118 million, passed it’s $20-million private fundraising goal in January and has secured around $90 million in provincial commitments. As of late January, the college was waiting for word on its request for federal money.

The post ACC program looks to bridge digital gap in agriculture appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The seed grower and owner of Rutherford Farms has spent over a decade collecting data on his operation northwest of Winnipeg near Grosse Isle. He’s partnered with digital ag accelerator EMILI (Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative) to tease out what data uses are possible or realistic in the field.

His farm is the host of EMILI’s Innovation Farms initiative, a testing ground for equipment, technology and novel practices that may lay a foundation for wider adoption of digital agriculture. The goal is, “empowering people to succeed and advancing technology on a 5,500 acre fully-sensored seed farm,” the initiative’s website states.

Why it matters: Farmers know data will be useful, but that isn’t enough to achieve consistent adoption of digital ag technology.

Rutherford admits that his partnership with EMILI comes with a healthy dollop of self-interest. He sees digital agriculture as a key path for the sector in coming years.

“It comes back to finding sustainability, running a farm that’s long-term profitable,” he said during a field day at the farm this past summer.

“That’s what sustainability is. The government can say it’s ‘this’ or it’s ‘that,’ but in reality, that’s my definition of it.”

For Rutherford Farms, that’s translated into a focus on optimizing inputs like fertilizer and seed, though the producer says the data is always giving him new insights into how he can enhance productivity or find new efficiencies across the farm.

Slow going

For every farmer who, like Rutherford, is all-in on the latest technology, there are many more on the sidelines watching the system evolve.

Five years ago, precision agriculture proponents adamantly forecasted that, by now, the sector wouldn’t be talking about precision or digital ag; it would just be the way things are done.

That early excitement and certainty has since been dealt a deflating dose of reality.

Some aspects, such as autosteer, have been widely adopted. Working exactly as advertised and relatively affordable, farmers jumped on autosteer in droves and began adding it as an after-market option on older machines.

Other technologies have had a bumpier road. Prescription mapping and variable rate technology for input application, while widely acknowledged, still lag in adoption.

In fall 2021, a Fertilizer Canada survey of canola growers in Western Canada found that less than 15 per cent of producers were using variable rate fertilizer. Just 10.2 per cent were using it on all their canola fields. Furthermore, that latter figure was a decline from 2020, when 11.8 per cent were using it across all canola acres.

The stall was even clearer in wheat. Just 12.2 per cent of growers are using the technology on all their wheat fields, a figure unchanged since 2016.

The adoption curve isn’t unique. Similar trends can be pulled from the story of zero-till, which farmers experimented with for more than 20 years before it became a mainstream practice.

In that case, several things had to line up, such as glyphosate coming off patent, thus making spring weed control cheaper and improving the economics of the production system.

Similar key barriers exist for ‘digital agriculture’ to become just ‘agriculture.’

Roadblocks

A 2017 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada survey probed farmers on what prevented them from adopting this kind of technology. Respondents were given 16 possible barriers, and asked to rank them.

Out of 261 answers, five key issues arose:

• price;
• connectivity;
• lack of knowledgeable people;
• continuously evolving technology; and
• older farm equipment.

There’s been progress on some of those fronts in the last six years. More new equipment is embedded with precision agriculture technology. Other issues, like price, are expected to resolve as the technology is more widely adopted, economies of scale kick in and more tech-enabled equipment trickles into the used market.

But connectivity and rapidly evolving technology remain barriers, industry insiders say.

Simplicity

Some of the largest agriculture firms in the world have staked out major positions in the digital agriculture world.

Kael Briggs is digital farming commercial manager for BASF, based in Calgary. The company markets its globally used Xarvio digital platform.

Producers want simple solutions, Briggs said, and that mostly boils down to better usability.

“We try to make the simplest and easiest-to-use solutions out there, but sometimes they may still not be as simple as people expect them to be,” he said.

The tech industry — and social media in particular — has set the bar high. Farmers want their own high-tech solutions to mimic that ease of use, added Jeremy Parkinson, a BASF digital agriculture specialist.

“Look at Instagram. How many times a day do people go on that?” he said. “They do it because it’s so easy. You look at pictures, you double tap and it’s a ‘heart.’ People want to be able to manage their business, but they want it to be easy to do.”

Digital agriculture and social media may seem like a strange comparison, but making the simplest possible interface for farmers is a key part of encouraging greater adoption, Parkinson said. Making it simple, reliable and readily available in the palm of the hand will make farmers more willing to try the available platforms.

Connectivity

Parkinson also said there must be robust digital infrastructure to support digital agriculture, and that isn’t always present in rural Canada.

“We have a lot of dead spots out there,” he said.

Digital ag apps require data access to work, since a phone can’t reliably house the amount of data involved. There’s also the need to send files back and forth between pieces of equipment, so farmers aren’t forced to download data onto thumb drives during a busy season or risk over-writing it because they’ve run out of onboard storage on the machine’s computer.

“You need the connectivity, and without it, these platforms don’t really mean much,” Parkinson said.

High speed internet access in rural Canada falls far behind that of urban areas. A March report from Canada’s auditor general showed 91 per cent of Canadian households had access to high speed internet, but in “rural and remote” locations, that plummeted to just 59.5 per cent.

Satellite internet might address some of this shortfall in coming years, industry experts say, but robust cellular data will also be necessary to transmit data from the field to farm office or data cloud.

Inter-operability

Briggs agreed that connectivity is an ongoing challenge but the issue doesn’t stop with internet access.

The current digital agriculture landscape features a patchwork of technologies that frequently can’t ‘talk’ to each other.

“You walk around and you see every company has a different platform; they have a different solution,” Briggs said. “So, if you are a farmer, how are you making that decision that ‘this’ is the solution for me?

“There are plenty of solutions out there for farmers. But how do they choose them and how do they get them to start talking to each other? That’s one of the big things people keep struggling with.”

In Parkinson’s view, the digital agriculture space needs to have its ‘ISOBUS moment’— referring to the standardized communications protocol that lets farmers plug any colour of implement into any colour of tractor.

“I think that’s really what the industry is missing, the connectivity between all of these digital platforms,” Parkinson said. “Because everyone has their own thing they’re really good at, there’s no silver bullet today.”

Making the jump

Despite the hurdles, farmers are jumping on the digital agriculture bandwagon.

Dave Hewlitt farms near Eston, Sask. Like Rutherford, he’s been collecting data for the past several seasons on his farm and, while many would consider him an early adopter of digital ag, he says his biggest regret is waiting as long as he did.

“I did hesitate,” he said. “I felt maybe it was going to take a lot of time and that the benefits would be hard to see. So, I maybe dragged my feet a little more than I should have. Looking back now, I wish I had been more aggressive getting in and learning.”

Data is now applied to a wide range of aspects on his farm, including prescription mapping fertility applications, targeted field scouting efforts and generally clearer insights into how farm management decisions impact productivity throughout the season.

His region has experienced seven dry seasons in a row, several of them severely dry. He praised his data capability for allowing him to make more informed decisions during those challenging times.

“We’ve used a lot of the information to really help with cost savings,” he said, specifically citing decisions around soil nutrition.

That data similarly gave him more opportunities to conserve expensive inputs during the pandemic when supply chain issues saw prices spike, Hewlitt said.

He also uses the data for simple yet unexpected applications. It’s been helpful in keeping a running input inventory during seeding. During harvest, Hewlitt can keep an eye on the data even if he’s not the one in the combine, and he can pick out anomalies and figure out why the field performed differently in a particular spot.

“The data just keeps finding ways to be useful,” he said.

He expects that having that data in an easily accessibly format will become an even more powerful tool as the technology evolves.

The post The roadblocks to digital agriculture appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Bayer on Oct. 30 announced integration of the two platforms, which it said will allow grain farmers in Canada and the U.S. to connect their marketing data in Combyne and the agronomic data FieldView gathers from their field equipment.

Seeded-acreage and yield data from FieldView can thus allow Combyne users to accurately track the total bushels available to market without needing to export, upload and enter data twice, Bayer said.

Once a farmer reviews the available FieldView data, using Combyne’s Import Review function, the harvested and projected-yield figures in Combyne will automatically update with the actual figures.

That in turn will make Combyne’s data on percentage sold and net marketed position more accurate, “using your real numbers off the combine instead of rough estimates,” according to Combyne’s website.

Incoming FieldView data will also allow a Combyne user to “know how much of your harvest is already committed and better manage your forward contracting.”

That means a “fuller and more accurate picture of current-year harvest totals and projections for future years to easily update crop contract and storage positions, and enable up-to-date crop marketing decisions,” Bayer said.

Combyne was released to the public in late 2021 by Ottawa Valley farmer Alain Goubau’s company Combyne Ag — previously known as the developer of the grain marketing tool FarmLead, which was sunset in 2020.

Combyne is meant to serve as a record-keeping and decision-making support tool, gathering information on grain storage balances, contracts, deliveries and settlements across multiple buyers — as well as net overall marketed positions per crop.

According to Bayer, which acquired Combyne Ag in January, the Combyne platform allows farmers to manage grain trade documents in one place for a clear view of contractual commitments, delivery status, storage positions and cash flow projections from grain sales, and thus better manage contract risk and delivery logistics.

“With accurate bushel quantities populating your marketed positions, you can better manage things like how forward contracted you are, how much of your harvest is already committed, and where things stand when it comes to your storage and deliveries,” Goubau, now CEO of Bayer’s Combyne Ag arm, said in Bayer’s Oct. 30 release.

“By working with FieldView, delivered grain outcomes in Combyne can eventually be connected back to the fields they originated from and the management choices made on those fields, for better mapping of quality specs such as grade and dockage from delivered loads,” he said.

That, in turn, allows for “field-level profitability insights — mapping actual revenue from sold crops against cost of production per field.”

Climate FieldView, which came to Bayer when it bought Monsanto in 2018, was launched in the U.S. in 2015 and in Canada late the following year.

It was developed by Climate Corp., a Monsanto arm since 2013, as a single platform to unite data from each piece of precision ag equipment, for access via smartphone, tablet or desktop. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Bayer’s crop marketing, crop production platforms in sync appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

From farmers’ perspective, the two companies say their combined technology offering is expected to offer “seamless integration and connectivity across geographies, equipment brands and the crop life cycle.”

The structure of the deal announced Thursday will see Trimble receive $2 billion cash and a 15 per cent share in the new joint venture, for total pre-tax value of about $3 billion accrued to that company (all figures US$).

Agco, whose machinery brands include Massey Ferguson, Fendt, Challenger and Valtra, contributes its JCA Technologies business to the new j.v. and will hold the 85 per cent majority stake in the venture.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024, pending the usual approvals and other closing conditions.

The new j.v. won’t include Trimble’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) or guidance tech, but Trimble will provide those to the new venture under a new long-term supply agreement and technology transfer and license agreement — along with an agreement making the new venture a “channel partner” of Trimble’s positioning services in the ag market.

Winnipeg-based JCA, which Agco bought last year, makes systems and software including the Vireo precision ag system, the Eagle autonomous equipment system and the Falcon and Oriole controller systems.

JCA also developed the control system supporting the Canadian-made DOT autonomous ag equipment platform, now owned by Agco’s OEM rival CNH Industrial.

Trimble and Agco said the new venture is meant to “better serve farmers with factory-fit and aftermarket applications in the mixed fleet precision agriculture market” and to be “a global leader in mixed-fleet smart farming and autonomy solutions.”

The deal “accelerates Agco’s growth ambitions around autonomy, precision spraying, connected farming, data management and sustainability,” Agco CEO Eric Hansotia said in a release.

It also “significantly enhances Agco’s technology stack with disruptive technologies that cover every aspect of the crop cycle, which ultimately helps us better serve farmers no matter what brand they use,” he said.

“We believe a joint venture with Agco, complemented by the successful mixed fleet approach that they have developed with their Precision Planting business model, can help us better serve farmers and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) together,” Trimble CEO Rob Painter said.

From Trimble’s perspective, the deal streamlines its asset portfolio and allows it to increase its focus on “priority growth areas” — while reducing its direct exposure to the “hardware-centric” ag market but still maintaining its “ongoing participation in a leading precision ag asset.”

The “commercial synergies” the new joint venture will get from direct access to Agco’s OEM, aftermarket, other OEM and retrofit channels — along with “modest” run-rate cost synergies — are expected to roughly double the new venture’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by year five after the deal closes, Agco said.

GSI under review

In its release Thursday announcing the new joint venture, Agco also said it has placed its “grain and protein” business segment under “strategic review.”

That business segment includes Agco’s grain handling systems brand GSI, as well as grain processing equipment brand Cimbria and three livestock housing systems brands: Cumberland, AP and Tecno.

While Agco didn’t give any examples of the options it’s considering for those businesses, it said it will “assess all strategic options to ensure the Grain and Protein customers are serviced in the best way possible, and that the business is best positioned to maximize its full potential.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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