Episode 016: Taking the Data Lead
Nebraska Extension Digital Agriculture
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01/14/2021
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Description
Agricultural data availability at the farm level has increased substantially over the last 20 years, but determining how to store, organize, and use that data to benefit a farming operation is a challenge. Aaron Friedlein, software product manager for Ag Leader Technology, joins this episode of the FarmBits podcast to discuss digital farm data management through the lens of Ag Leader's software product offerings. Ag Leader offers a suite of desktop software packages in the SMS (Spatial Management System) family that enable long-term data organization, storage, and analysis and a cloud software called AgFiniti, which enables a variety of interconnectivity options for users. The general purpose of these software packages is to help farmers access, manage, and utilize their data more effectively for their farm. As a farmer himself, Aaron understands the impact that effective data management can have on a farming operation. Data can offer many insights if leveraged appropriately and this episode will provide insight into the methods and available tools for managing farm data for maximum benefit.
Ag Leader Contact Information:
www.agleader.com
info@agleader.com
support@agleader.com
Follow Ag Leader:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AgLeaderTech
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AgLeader/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/agleadertech/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/AgLeader...
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/ag-l...
Aaron's Twitter - https://twitter.com/afriedegg1
FarmBits Team Contact Info:
E-Mail: farmbits@unl.edu
Twitter: @NEDigitalAg
Samantha's Twitter: @SamanthaTeten
Jackson's Twitter: @jstansell87
Opinions expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast are solely their own, and do not reflect the views of Nebraska Extension or the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.
Searchable Transcript
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- [00:00:00.000]Jackson: Welcome to the FarmBits podcast, a product of Nebraska Extension digital agriculture.
- [00:00:04.960]I'm Jackson Stansell (and I'm Samantha Teten) and we come to you each week to discuss the trends,
- [00:00:10.400]the realities,
- [00:00:11.360]and the value of digital agriculture. Samantha: Through interviews and panels
- [00:00:15.280]with experts, producers and innovators from all sectors of digital technology- we hope that you
- [00:00:20.800]step away from each episode with new practical knowledge of digital agriculture technology.
- [00:00:29.840]Jackson: Welcome back to the FarmBits podcast for the first
- [00:00:32.160]episode in the digitizing farm management series.
- [00:00:34.640]Samantha: Before we get started on today's content, we'd like to remind you that the
- [00:00:38.480]Nebraska Extension and the Nebraska on-farm research network are offering
- [00:00:42.240]several educational events for Nebraska producers during January and February.
- [00:00:46.160]Jackson: If you'd like more information about event opportunities, please reach
- [00:00:49.600]out to your local extension educator or check out the website from the
- [00:00:52.400]Nebraska on-farm research network listed in the podcast description.
- [00:00:56.720]Samantha: To kick off the digitizing farm management series,
- [00:01:00.960]we are welcoming Aaron Friedlein as our guest for this episode.
- [00:01:04.400]Jackson: Aaron is the product manager
- [00:01:06.080]for SMS software amongst other roles at Ag Leader technology.
- [00:01:09.680]Samantha: Ag Leader technology is based out of Ames, Iowa and offers
- [00:01:13.360]a suite of technology solutions for growers from data management
- [00:01:17.120]to data analysis to in-field machine data collection and interconnectivity.
- [00:01:21.840]Jackson: As a farmer himself, Aaron has first-hand experience working with Ag Leader's SMS or spatial
- [00:01:27.440]management system software and understands the needs of farmers who are using this software.
- [00:01:31.920]Samantha: Aaron has plenty to share about the opportunities enabled by
- [00:01:35.680]digital farm data management software so let's dive right into our interview.
- [00:02:09.040]Samantha: Can you tell us a little bit of the SMS or Ag Leader’s software
- [00:04:13.200]and why data management is so important or how you're filling this need?
- [00:04:16.880]Aaron: Sure, so throughout precision farming, there's always been the cool factor of being
- [00:04:24.880]able to you know see the information on the combine as you go through the field or
- [00:04:29.040]being out the planter or wherever it might be but being able to manage all of that information that
- [00:04:34.160]you've collected is really you know kind of what puts the numbers to what you're seeing
- [00:04:40.000]and how you can make a better decision and make a better investment for the next year
- [00:04:47.760]using the resources that you have. If you've got different varieties that seem to do better from
- [00:04:53.040]one year to the next you know different fertilizer rates that you've used, using the ability to
- [00:05:01.920]assign a value on how that's paying back your operation is really one of the primary objectives.
- [00:05:09.600]We use a lot of different layers sometimes in making those decisions and so just
- [00:05:16.960]being able to organize those layers to help help make those
- [00:05:20.400]decisions is really kind of where SMS and Agfinity really shine.
- [00:05:25.520]Samantha: So, can you explain those differences if someone's
- [00:05:29.200]not familiar with the SMS like what AgFinity, SMS advance and SMS basic?
- [00:05:33.920]Aaron: Sure, this is actually our 20th anniversary. 20 years of having a desktop
- [00:05:41.600]software solution. So, SMS basic is what we released back in the year 2000 the summer of 2000.
- [00:05:52.880]SMS advanced followed in about 2003 or 2004 and so those are our desktop products they're kind
- [00:06:00.960]of what you would install on your laptop, your pc and would allow you to do a lot of the heavy
- [00:06:08.800]lifting as far as you know doing analysis and reading files from different machinery
- [00:06:17.520]systems. In 2013-2014, we released Agfiniti which was our cloud-based
- [00:06:27.200]mapping system. It does a lot of different things. It connects our displays to each other
- [00:06:34.000]out in the field, it connects our displays to our cloud, and it connects to a tablet app for Ipads
- [00:06:43.600]called Agfinity mobile, which allows you to really take that information with you in the field where
- [00:06:48.320]you may not always have connectivity to the internet. But, you can still see a map of
- [00:06:53.520]you know where you're standing out in the field. So, our desktop software products have a little
- [00:07:03.680]bit more flexibility and a little more you know purpose-built things that are inside it somewhat
- [00:07:09.760]simply just because it's been out there for 20 years and our Agfinity products up in the cloud
- [00:07:16.880]are really based on kind of trying to connect different platforms together. We can connect to
- [00:07:24.400]other clouds such as your operation center and climate to kind of pull in everybody's data that
- [00:07:32.000]they're collecting you know depending on where it came from. So, the cloud is kind of our adaptable
- [00:07:43.120]you know get it from anywhere and display it anywhere; whereas, our desktop is kind of our
- [00:07:48.800]nuts and bolts we're gonna take what you have and do what we can with it.
- [00:07:52.960]Jackson: So awesome (absolutely) would you care to expand a little bit more on the nuts and bolts
- [00:07:58.720]I mean we've talked a little bit about the data management and just kind of how the things are
- [00:08:02.720]stored but could you talk a little bit more about the features of that desktop software?
- [00:08:06.000]Aaron: Sure, I've lost count, but we can process data from over 15 different companies
- [00:08:18.080]so Deere and Case and Class. And being able to process all that information in one spot
- [00:08:27.120]is really one of the big features of our desktop that we can take whatever data you
- [00:08:32.160]might have on that farm and process it. So, it's in a cohesive environment. So,
- [00:08:39.760]it's easy to manage and that's really one of the primary drivers that has made it popular amongst
- [00:08:45.120]crop consultants and you know retail locations where they don't know what the customer might have
- [00:08:53.440]on their farm. But, SMS is usually probably the one that's going to be able to read it
- [00:08:58.160]and so that's really one of the big features of SMS. So, after you get all the data read
- [00:09:07.200]from different displays, being able to do soil testing and prescriptions to help balance the
- [00:09:17.120]field or improve you know the Ph of the field, making lime prescriptions, being able to use
- [00:09:27.520]the planter data that they've collected and saying okay this after-harvest comes around this this
- [00:09:33.040]variety seemed like it maybe fell short compared to some other options. And so maybe that variety
- [00:09:40.240]isn't what you want to do for next year. So, the real nuts and bolts within SMS
- [00:09:47.920]are being able to bring in all those different files you know try to quantify the profit/loss
- [00:09:58.080]the payback for each of those layers and trying to make them make a better decision for next year.
- [00:10:03.200]Samantha: And so, you guys have changed over time a little bit from like the basic to now
- [00:10:09.680]the Agfinity and having these different options how did you find what growers are prioritizing
- [00:10:15.120]in a farm management software like why did you make some of these what's the priority to them?
- [00:10:19.200]Aaron: Yeah, that's a that's a delicate balance we so we knew that there was basic
- [00:10:26.080]uh tools that growers wanted and that not to be a pun. But, the there's you know the very base level
- [00:10:35.440]of doing a query selecting an area and saying what did this area yield or what did this area-what
- [00:10:40.880]planting population did I have in this area? So, being able to use some of the base functionality
- [00:10:47.280]of SMS such as queries. We call them tool tips, but you hover over a spot and it'll tell you what
- [00:10:54.160]that exact one spot yielded or what you had for a planting population. So, those were obvious tools
- [00:11:02.640]that we needed to have and Agfinity connecting into different clouds now as well. As I mentioned,
- [00:11:17.280]we can connect into climate and gear operation center to be able to streamline the process.
- [00:11:25.520]The one thing we were able to gain in affinity the SMS still it's kind of a manual process is being
- [00:11:31.680]able to automatically you know, I've got files and activity and voila it just creates a map. And so,
- [00:11:40.800]there's no button clicks so to speak in activity to be able to read files once they're in the
- [00:11:46.800]account. So, those are kind of some of the things if we could streamline it to the point where
- [00:11:52.640]a user just it was just there, it just worked those are the big advantages within Agfinity.
- [00:11:58.920]Jackson: Yeah, that data just being there and something just working is something I've heard
- [00:12:03.840]from farmers before- they like it when it just works that's fundamentally what you want right?
- [00:12:11.600]So, what is typically the biggest hurdle that growers have when they
- [00:12:15.920]first start to use SMS more frequently on their end?
- [00:12:21.840]Aaron: Yeah, so it really kind of depends on what their goals are when they first you know make
- [00:12:27.360]that purchase my perception has been you know we don't come as a check box on an order form
- [00:12:35.200]you know when they're ordering a new piece of equipment they kind of have to go and make
- [00:12:38.640]that decision to purchase mapping software and so they're already kind of in the mindset. I want to
- [00:12:44.240]make an improvement to my operation, so it kind of depends on what their goals are. Sometimes,
- [00:12:53.200]the hurdle is just finding those clicks. I know it can do it, I just need to see it. I need to know
- [00:12:58.160]where it's at. And so, we've taken a lot of steps to try to make that information as transparent
- [00:13:04.720]as possible. Our training department has done a really great job of providing in-person training.
- [00:13:14.240]They have pivoted very well in 2020 to allow online trainings and I've seen nothing but the
- [00:13:27.200]positive feedback from those customers that have been through those sessions. YouTube has been a
- [00:13:33.920]really good resource as well where we have a lot of you know the step-by-step you know um
- [00:13:40.480]button clicks to getting through the process of making a prescription or the process of importing
- [00:13:45.360]soil test results or something like that. You know those are some of the tools that we really
- [00:13:51.840]rely on to be able to help our customers, you know kind of steps through that process,
- [00:14:21.360]so the hurdle is sometimes just knowing you know I want to get to this point. I want to
- [00:14:25.680]get to this this stage, how do I get there. Samantha: You mentioned about how nice it is
- [00:14:42.560]sometimes when the map just appears or it's really easy to use, but there can also be that downside
- [00:14:47.520]so how do you balance like functionality so allowing you to make adjustments,
- [00:14:53.040]change settings and things like that but also making it really easy to use- how do you make that
- [00:14:57.360]balance because I do think SMS does a really great job compared to other data management softwares?
- [00:15:03.080]Aaron: Yeah, that's a delicate task, so generally what we end up going through is we go through
- [00:15:13.120]several iterations of new tools when we get them when we're in the development process.
- [00:15:19.280]We have a really great developer that that can advise well I don't think
- [00:15:23.200]that's going to work you probably should not you probably shouldn't think of that
- [00:15:30.320]and then we have several good testers as well that really give good feedback on yeah- that didn't
- [00:15:37.600]make any sense to me at all, we need to change something there. And so, you know getting some
- [00:15:43.040]good feedback internally before it ever sees the light of day is usually our best option. There is
- [00:15:51.280]a balance and some things we just can't get avoid being you know it looks busy looks complicated
- [00:15:57.600]but as best we can we're trying to steer that you know steer that process into something
- [00:16:02.320]that they can they can make sense of without a whole lot of you know reading the help text.
- [00:16:07.840]Jackson: So, at its very basic level you know the software does allow people to kind of keep
- [00:16:14.400]their information for their fields stored in a very organized manner.
- [00:16:18.480]You know, that's how we kind of use it in our research, and I've seen other growers who kind
- [00:16:21.680]of use that to just keep their data organized. What do you think is the biggest benefit or
- [00:16:27.360]savings from keeping farm data organized for our growers out there or even crop consultants?
- [00:16:34.000]Aaron: So, being able to keep data organized is paramount. I mean,
- [00:16:43.600]if you're looking at yield data for example and you want to see how that yield you know over
- [00:16:48.720]that that field over several different years has yielded and what areas are traditionally
- [00:16:55.040]not very well producing compared to other areas that are that are you know much better producing
- [00:17:01.440]keeping all the all the years of information combined within field you know. North 80
- [00:17:06.960]is a big step of that, and we have some tools that'll automate that so if you have
- [00:17:14.560]somebody else in the cab and they named it something different for that year didn't know
- [00:17:18.640]it was already in the list yeah there's you know we need to kind of combine things together we have
- [00:17:23.120]several tools, several automated tools that we'll you know look through and say okay well
- [00:17:27.440]this one's here at this point and put things where they belong to make sense of it all.
- [00:17:32.800]Samantha: And also, along the lines of keeping these things organized another benefit is
- [00:17:38.560]the being able to pull it like you said from different machinery or different monitors so
- [00:17:41.920]you can have stuff from your planter and your sprayer all in one spot as well. But,
- [00:17:46.080]we also think about it from different growers and all their different equipment. So how you know is
- [00:17:52.000]this a benefit that you see more from consultants or companies where they do have lots of growers,
- [00:17:58.240]or do you find a lot of farmers find it useful as well? But then also like how
- [00:18:02.720]do you keep up all these ever-changing models and monitors and keep up with all that?
- [00:18:07.360]Aaron: Yeah, so it's kind of two different two different answers to that.
- [00:18:12.400]So, on the on keeping all the different growers straight, we introduced the concept of projects
- [00:18:20.960]a long time ago in SMS Advanced where a single project would contain all of the growers all one
- [00:18:28.320]grower's information, so Smith farms would be its own project then and Johnson farms down the road
- [00:18:33.920]would be its own different project and so that really helps you know segregate his information.
- [00:18:38.960]If a consultant has Smith coming in to look over his maps, he doesn't see that he's also consulting
- [00:18:44.640]for 10 of his neighbors. There are some you know some data security items there that growers as
- [00:18:53.920]well as consultants need to have. So, within SMS that's a big part of keeping data organized.
- [00:19:06.640]The other aspect there of having all the different displays and file types
- [00:19:10.480]that we support is a never-ending that's just that's what that is.
- [00:19:20.800]It's not uncommon for manufacturers to have at least one update to their log data every year.
- [00:19:28.400]Sometimes, they'll do it two or three times a year and so we have a relationship with
- [00:19:34.800]you know company A, B’s and C's product managers. They provide us with the
- [00:19:43.200]information or the tools that we need to be able to read their data. Sometimes the
- [00:19:50.000]challenge is we've been given the tools but we haven't been given a lot of sample data to help
- [00:19:55.040]validate that we're reading the file correctly in the first place. And so, sometimes that becomes
- [00:19:59.760]more of the challenge. We can code it up, we just can't validate until we get some real sample data.
- [00:20:08.000]Jackson: Sure, that's interesting.
- [00:20:19.520]So, with the new Agfinity capabilities I guess just to dig in a little bit more there- do the
- [00:20:25.600]Agfinity offerings only really work for Ag Leader monitors in the field are they able to interface
- [00:20:30.640]with other monitors from say Trimble or any of these other companies that put monitors in cabs?
- [00:20:35.360]Aaron: Sure, to date we worked with Climate and John Deere operations center. Here, this
- [00:20:51.440]in the past what we've had users do is they can sync their accounts to those
- [00:20:57.840]other platforms. They can bring it into SMS and process it and then put it back up in the cloud.
- [00:21:04.240]This coming spring release you know here in about February, we're going to be able to process that
- [00:21:11.040]in the cloud so they don't have to also have SMS basic or SMS Advanced to be able to process that
- [00:21:17.280]data from those two systems. SMS and Agfinity work really well together in the fact that
- [00:21:25.360]if you're using Agfinity and SMS together, SMS can do a lot of the reading of different file
- [00:21:34.000]types. You can do imagery imports, soil survey imports all those kind of things and then kick
- [00:21:40.080]all that information up into the cloud. You know, Agfinity a lot of times is a good viewer and a
- [00:21:47.760]good connector to different things. It can create prescriptions and do that very well with some of
- [00:21:55.360]the tools we've added in the last two years to that system and so it does a really good job of
- [00:22:02.480]connecting different things and being a really simple platform to be able to use. That said I
- [00:22:09.440]really just want to look at my information I don't want to have to go through all the process of
- [00:22:14.320]fixing it and cleaning it up, and I just want to see it and so that's really where it's strengths
- [00:22:21.360]are and going forward it's got a lot more capability that we haven't tapped into yet.
- [00:23:18.480]Jackson: How has having that cloud platform and I guess you know building some of these APIs
- [00:23:25.440]out with John Deere operations center and Climate kind of helped you to I guess build out a workflow
- [00:23:31.760]for processing those new monitor data types that are coming in for from say like a John Deere
- [00:23:39.120]combine that has active yield or something like that?
- [00:23:41.800]Aaron: Yeah, so having the ability to connect to their clouds you know that was step one just
- [00:23:47.040]being able to get that handshake established and bring data back and forth but being able to use
- [00:23:55.280]bring their file in and then and then process it within the cloud is going to be
- [00:24:01.840]a big help for a lot of people that you know I don't want to use SMS if I don't have to. We
- [00:24:11.360]started with like Climate and John Deere operation center we have some other ones on our on our list
- [00:24:16.800]of to do you know like I said job security and yeah and so we'll be doing, kind of tackling
- [00:24:26.080]those as we find time. As I mentioned, some of the other connectivity features of Agfinity
- [00:24:34.960]are within our own displays. So, being able to connect and do remote support with the display or
- [00:24:42.640]display cast so you can see what what's going on in the field even if you're not
- [00:24:46.480]you're not there and card ace being able to have that grain courage centered on the guidance line
- [00:24:55.120]and around the field unloading on the go. So, there's a lot of moving parts within Agfinity
- [00:25:02.240]and being able to connect to different needs of different growers is a never-ending job.
- [00:25:09.600]Samantha: A couple of the growers we've talked to really like SMS Advanced or SMS Basic the
- [00:25:16.720]desktop version because they knew that the data was there no one else could see it,
- [00:25:21.040]they could back it up on their own what would you say about Agfinity and
- [00:25:26.000]the cloud-based systems about data privacy and security?
- [00:25:28.880]Aaron: Yeah, so we have taken a very, very transparent stance that the, and it's in our
- [00:25:37.280]terms of use when they when they sign up for an Agfinity account. We do not do anything
- [00:25:44.400]to sell their data, we do not do anything to mine through their data. The only person
- [00:25:49.760]that has the ability to see their information is them. Their account owners if they want to
- [00:25:56.880]share it with a consultant- they have the control to share it for a year or two years or forever
- [00:26:05.120]and if they choose at some point they don't want to work with that consultant they can end the
- [00:26:09.360]sharing relationship at that time. So, we do not use any of their data against them, we do not use
- [00:26:18.400]you know use that information to benefit in any way. We're providing a service for that grower to
- [00:26:25.840]have his data available to him. You know, if he's connected online or you know in the field that's-
- [00:26:35.200]Jackson: I think that's what a lot of the growers we've talked to have loved about
- [00:26:40.640]desktop-based softwares is just kind of sticking with that data privacy,
- [00:26:43.920]and I guess it's important to maintain the cloud too.
- [00:26:46.080]Aaron: Yeah yeah, it is and there's you know different takes on that, there's different
- [00:26:51.200]you know that you could conceive different benefits of sharing data
- [00:26:55.680]and we provide those tools. I mean if they want to share it with you know whoever comes down the
- [00:27:00.560]line asking for permission they can make that decision and make that choice for themselves.
- [00:27:10.080]Samantha: You know we talked a lot about the storing and the important, the file types, but
- [00:27:18.080]we also know that there's a lot of analysis that you can do.
- [00:27:20.800]Can you mention some of those analysis you already mentioned the profit loss one,
- [00:27:24.960]which I think is a really cool one that you guys have, so can you talk about those?
- [00:27:28.320]Aaron: Yeah, so in Agfinity we have a comparison tool where you can easily, if you have planting
- [00:27:36.640]data for a field you have harvest data for a field. We can quickly create a yield by
- [00:27:42.320]variety comparison results, so that's kind of one of those other tools that I mentioned
- [00:27:48.000]earlier that you know the query and the you know the tooltip know. And those tools that
- [00:28:12.160]same tool is one of the more popular tools and that's most advanced as well you know being able
- [00:28:20.080]to compare in SMS advanced. You can kind of set that up to do any kind of comparison so
- [00:28:26.160]one layer to another of any kind so it could be yield to planting rate,
- [00:28:30.880]it could be yield to soil type it could be yield to topography within a field. So,
- [00:28:41.680]being able to customize the comparison tools within SMS Advanced are one of the bigger
- [00:28:51.040]feature paybacks that growers will- and consultants use we
- [00:29:30.720]can build zones within SMS Advanced where we just throw a couple layers at it
- [00:29:36.000]and we say pick me a couple of good you know based on these layers. What relationships use does
- [00:29:43.440]SMS see and how many zones is that and you know so it gives you the ability to kind of
- [00:29:49.440]let us mess almost you know makes make some suggestions for you and if you like them
- [00:29:54.800]you can go with them if you see a couple tweaks you can modify the layer and get what you need.
- [00:30:01.680]That was one of the tools we worked on a lot here in the last year was management selling tools.
- [00:30:09.920]Some of the other the next two are probably the next the other ones that have been highly
- [00:30:16.240]used within SMS which multi-year averages, so if you have yield history for the for the field for
- [00:30:24.880]four or five years you can take the yield layer from each year and average it over those six,
- [00:30:34.400]five, six years or whatever it might be and really start picking out those areas of the field that
- [00:30:39.040]are most often productive highly productive or lower productive and kind of use that to help
- [00:30:46.960]drive some management decisions, as well. We have a terrain analysis tool which is once you once you
- [00:32:40.880]kind of wrap your head around it, it’s actually a really interesting way to look at your fields.
- [00:32:46.400]You can take an elevation map with good accuracy like an RTK layer. You can also use lidar aircraft
- [00:32:57.840]based elevation and you can create a field map that shows, you know where is the areas
- [00:33:06.800]that are going to have the most drainage intensity, where is a gully going to form
- [00:33:10.640]first when we get a heavy rain. And so, those are some of the tools that you know you just
- [00:33:16.720]got to visualize the field a little differently. You know, we've had people that have created
- [00:33:22.240]planting prescriptions when they can see that this slope faces the south, we're going to increase
- [00:33:32.640]population by a thousand seeds an acre per corn on the north side of the slope. We're going to
- [00:33:37.040]decrease it by a thousand because sunlight isn't quite as direct on that slope you know. So, that's
- [00:33:44.560]kind of a unique way of visualizing the field and being able to manage the data just a little
- [00:33:49.920]bit a differently. And, like you mentioned profit loss is one of those tools that has, especially
- [00:33:59.760]in tougher economic times, I think is one of the better tools to be using. It's also good
- [00:34:04.960]in good times to make sure you're maximizing as best you can when times are good. So,
- [00:34:13.840]we added some tools a little over a year ago where we brought some functionality into basic.
- [00:34:20.320]There used to be only an SMS advanced feature and so we brought that into decimals basic
- [00:34:27.440]so you can track expenses per field to get the map. Still needs to be less advanced
- [00:34:34.080]as far as where the field is more profitable versus not profitable but being able to enter that
- [00:34:40.560]and create reports is now an SMS basic feature. Jackson: So, can you just kind of as you were
- [00:34:54.640]talking about that I was just thinking about how hard some of these analyses would have been you
- [00:34:59.280]know 10 to 20 years ago really before we had a lot of the computing power that we do today.
- [00:35:04.400]Can you just kind of speak to and quantify just how amazing it really is that we're
- [00:35:09.760]able to do this now with digital technology and computers and having data that's well organized?
- [00:35:15.440]Aaron: So, I started farming in 2003 so shortly after I got out of college. I ran my first round
- [00:35:28.480]I've really grown up in the digital age. I- the first year we also you know got a yield monitor,
- [00:35:36.400]and so being able to visualize a field and how it yields
- [00:35:40.480]and being able to say okay see why this is a problem. I can see why I- know why that's not
- [00:35:44.480]yielding well. That's not making any sense to me being able to pinpoint saying okay we need
- [00:35:48.960]to go out and do some scouting on that you know in the you know springtime/summer and late fall.
- [00:35:55.280]But, being able to quantify what you see in the map, ground truth it and see what's going on
- [00:36:02.800]are things that really kind of take that management to the next level, being able
- [00:36:12.000]to take different layers of you know historical yield and you know merging them into one-you know
- [00:36:20.880]validates okay well this is just an anomaly here this really wasn't typical of something that we
- [00:36:25.520]can normally even see. And you know, moving on to the bigger fish that need to be addressed.
- [00:36:35.360]I see great benefit in being able to just have that information at your fingertips to be able
- [00:36:43.120]to say oh well let's see, I know this field has yielded this way over several different years even
- [00:36:48.320]in terms of marketing. You know, I look at some of my yearly trends on some fields and I go okay
- [00:36:53.760]I know that if I have a train wreck year the worst this field has ever done is 135 bushels acre. I
- [00:36:59.760]know in a train wreck year I'm probably going to be in that ballpark. So, I'd better you know from
- [00:37:04.080]a management and a risk management standpoint, I can probably market 110 bushels an acre when
- [00:37:10.000]I have good prices and just make sure I've got some risk management taken care of on that aspect.
- [00:37:19.120]You know, some of those things are where the value of some of those historical layers just as simple
- [00:37:28.160]yield map can really pay dividends for reducing risk and improving management for the next year.
- [00:37:35.520]Jackson: That's really good, and I guess you know listening to you talk about that aspect as
- [00:37:41.840]well as some of the analyses that SMS offers, I immediately start to think especially when
- [00:37:46.560]I think about kind of variety performance within a field and that variety analysis
- [00:37:51.840]how much On-Farm Research that this SMS platform has enabled. I mean growers can probably now put
- [00:37:57.920]in trials that they couldn't have before and get you know good results from them.
- [00:38:02.320]Aaron: And that's you know I mentioned that was that was one of the things I’ve kind of grown
- [00:38:08.400]up with as a as a farmer. Not just you know listening to where dad wants the next wagons.
- [00:38:20.080]On our farm, I've tried putting trials in different fields to make sure
- [00:38:27.200]I’m you know at least testing something different and that's really something too
- [00:38:31.120]where you know sometimes you don't know what you want to try unless you have a accidental
- [00:38:38.320]and oh well you know I had to had a set for thirty thousand seats an acre instead of
- [00:38:43.920]thirty three thousand seeds an acre and it doesn't seem like made much of a difference
- [00:38:47.600]except for I saved some money on some seed and that was really one of the driving forces with
- [00:38:56.400]our new field trial module that we've released in the last year. You know, being able to take
- [00:39:02.720]and do structured research for your farm or for your clients if you're a crop consultant.
- [00:39:09.680]And you know, for example doing a planting rate prescription if you want to really dive into what
- [00:39:17.600]the optimum seed rate is for a certain variety you know drop in five different rates from thirty,
- [00:39:24.560]from twenty-eight thousand up to forty-two thousand and you know you can- most guys will
- [00:39:30.880]stomach having forty two thousand seeds an acre planted for a three hundred foot strip right.
- [00:39:36.720]And just see what it does and then on the back end doing all the statistics work to be able to say
- [00:39:41.760]you know this is the bushels per acre that we got and this is the selling price that we're
- [00:39:50.000]gonna you know assume for this year, the cost of the seed you know where was the economic optimum
- [00:39:55.840]seeding rate for that for that variety, for that field.
- [00:39:59.280]And then doing that across all of your field all of your operations, fertilizing
- [00:40:08.160]to planting to you know different tillage or different planter settings. You know,
- [00:40:14.000]that's really where you can start maximizing some of that profit where you're kind of honing in on
- [00:40:20.560]what really makes that yield like you want and our consultants have used that tool for
- [00:40:28.880]you know across all of their clients. So, they'll have that same seeding prescription from 28 to
- [00:40:34.800]42 and they'll throw it out on 20 different fields and all the operator has to do is just
- [00:40:41.280]plant the prescription that we that he created for. Those trials in it or go out and harvest
- [00:40:46.240]that field and you know we get that information back on the back end and we can you know kind of
- [00:40:52.720]sort out how things worked for that grower. So you know, it really makes a very powerful tool
- [00:41:00.800]that just calculates all that information for you without having to go through the statistics and
- [00:41:06.400]most people don't like statistics. We did all we need all that great work on the back end.
- [00:41:13.520]Samantha: It's awesome to see how far we've been able to come and how
- [00:41:18.560]useful data management software can be. Can you speak to the future of you know SMS or
- [00:41:26.000]the data management softwares. What do you perceive to be the greatest opportunity
- [00:41:29.920]for growth for ag data management software over the next five years?
- [00:41:38.720]Aaron: I think profit loss layers are going to start being more and more you know the norm.
- [00:41:46.640]I think that's gonna really start being important it's gonna be important
- [00:41:50.640]in tough farming economic years. And, in good economic years, I mean like I said earlier
- [00:41:57.360]those tough years you really you know that pencil has to be pretty sharp to
- [00:42:00.880]make sure you're covering your bases and in the good years you really want to make
- [00:42:05.200]sure you're maximizing as much as you can. You know, those tools will start being important.
- [00:42:15.040]We have other development items that we're always working on. We have a lot of things that we are
- [00:42:30.320]kind of working on in the background to help you know with future projects and future opportunities
- [00:42:38.320]that exist. And you know there's different things that happen you know outside of our world like
- [00:42:47.040]you know carbon credits and some of these things where we may not make the tools that actually
- [00:42:55.280]secure that information or to process that information, but we make the tools where you
- [00:43:00.080]can pull that data from. So, you know we have some integrators that use our tools for that.
- [00:43:06.120]Jackson: So, where are we in terms of adoption right now
- [00:43:20.960]for farm data management software? And I don't want to put you on the spot, but I am interested
- [00:43:25.200]to kind of know you know how many consultants out there are actually using this, how many
- [00:43:29.280]companies are using this and where are we with growers that are using it for their own farms?
- [00:43:33.120]Aaron: Yeah, so I can't disclose any you know actual numbers. But, I would say you know when you
- [00:43:39.680]look at the our consultant base there's a lot of consultants that use SMS Advanced for their needs
- [00:43:50.480]and that number doesn't seem to change you know from one year to the next. We see new
- [00:43:56.960]consultants coming on and returning customers you know that keep using it from one year to the next.
- [00:44:05.360]And the modules that we've got, I mentioned the field trial module you know we also have
- [00:44:10.080]a water management module for tiling and booklet printing and for small plot research. You know,
- [00:44:16.880]those serve different communities and those tools are very tailored to what that community does and
- [00:44:26.800]so there's opportunities there all the time on the growers side. You know, I would say that we have
- [00:44:34.480]a lot of growers also use SMS Advanced they're maybe more the tech savvy you know maybe like me
- [00:44:40.080]they kind of grew up with it they kind of had to you know that was that was what they were around.
- [00:44:45.840]And the same way they use SMS Advanced they use us basically use that they use the tool that meets
- [00:44:55.200]their base needs the most. So, as far as adoption, you know we've always had a very loyal following
- [00:45:06.320]for our data management products. With SMS Basic and SMS advanced you know when we haven't seen
- [00:45:14.960]you know there there's still a great need out there you know regardless of what online platform
- [00:45:20.720]comes out. We still see a you know a need for that layer, that information. And the tools to process
- [00:45:30.960]you know what they've got. And so, you know we're very proud of our customer base and we do a lot
- [00:45:37.920]to try to help keep them and with the tools that they need and try to help them as best we can.
- [00:45:46.560]Samantha: So, if someone's interested in learning more or trying out an SMS
- [00:45:52.240]either basic or advanced, where do you suggest that they go to learn more?
- [00:45:55.920]Aaron: Sure, so we are on we are on Facebook, we're on Twitter, Instagram. If they want to
- [00:46:07.280]learn the actual you know process what is this hopper gonna do for me? I mentioned YouTube and
- [00:46:13.440]that's it's really interesting to be able to look at YouTube and be able to say okay this is what I
- [00:46:18.080]think I'm gonna get and this is the process of getting there okay. That's how you get there
- [00:46:23.920]and the great thing about YouTube is you know if they purchase the software or even if
- [00:46:29.680]they've downloaded the 21 day free trial from our website- they can kind of click along,
- [00:46:34.880]hit pause on YouTube and then you know kind of catch up you know on their side and you
- [00:46:39.920]know kind of learn that new process and see if that's giving them what they're looking for. So,
- [00:46:46.880]you know I've lost count on how many videos we have, but I think it's north of 50.
- [00:47:10.480]Jackson: So, for somebody who's you know maybe getting started with data management
- [00:47:21.600]or maybe wanted to do their data management a little bit better- what's one piece of
- [00:47:24.800]advice that you might like to offer to those folks that are in that position?
- [00:47:29.120]Aaron: Yeah, you know go in with a little bit of an open mind you mean you can you know sky
- [00:47:34.640]is kind of the limit and being able to kind of challenge yourself okay if I have this field,
- [00:47:40.960]and I know that it has these areas that probably need improvement you know is it
- [00:47:47.680]something I can quantify with the number. And that's really kind of the other thing
- [00:47:50.560]you kind of get out of a mapping program is that I know it's always been bad in
- [00:47:54.560]this area and now I can put a put a query around it or a tool tip and say okay it's
- [00:48:00.800]not as bad as I thought it was, but it's not as good as I want to be. You know, start simple
- [00:48:08.240]start, with reading yield data or making planter maps to be able to do a better job scouting
- [00:48:15.680]you know is there a pollination difference between these two varieties that kind of thing
- [00:48:23.520]using the layers to start with using identity using you know going out and scouting the middle
- [00:48:29.520]of the season if you have different varieties out in the field which one which one looks like it's
- [00:48:32.960]going to be you know weathering some of that you know August weather better than others.
- [00:48:41.040]Jackson: Thank you to Aaron for joining us today on the FarmBits podcast, we work with SMS Advanced
- [00:48:48.560]for our research here at the digital ag team at the University of Nebraska and it was really great
- [00:48:53.200]to hear some more about some of the software's capabilities that even we were not fully aware
- [00:48:57.840]of how they worked, and so I guess for me I really enjoyed the discussion that Aaron gave us
- [00:49:04.720]about kind of profit and loss and how that is tied in to organized data. Right, so you have
- [00:49:11.440]to have well-organized multi-year data in order to really look at profit and loss long-term
- [00:49:16.560]as well as kind of handle risk management for some of these fields saying okay if I'm in a bad year
- [00:49:21.600]this is how much I know I can account for and I need to make sure that I'm managing that risk
- [00:49:25.200]appropriately and so having organized data is important for those types of analyses and
- [00:49:30.240]that's exactly what the SMS software gives you and that's what digital technology has enabled.
- [00:49:36.160]Samantha: That was really interesting to hear about. And, I like the discussion of where Ag
- [00:49:40.160]Leader is going in the future, so they're they have been working to improve their management
- [00:49:44.640]zone software or their analysis tool they are working more on the profit loss tools and so
- [00:49:51.040]that's so great to see where they're going. I also really appreciate how Ag Leader as a company has
- [00:49:57.360]worked to produce YouTube videos and help videos to help the producers and they want to make their
- [00:50:05.440]software usable and that's such a great thing to see from a company.
- [00:50:10.160]You love to see that emphasized for sure. So yeah, with that thank you so much for
- [00:50:14.480]joining us today on the FarmBits podcast, we hope you learned something alongside us
- [00:50:18.720]learning more about Ag Leaders SMS Advanced software and we hope to see you again next week.
- [00:50:24.320]Jackson: Thank you for taking the time to join us today on the FarmBits podcast. If
- [00:50:25.138]you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
- [00:50:25.976]YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts to be informed about the latest content each week.
- [00:50:26.891]Samantha: We welcome your feedback so if you have comments or questions for us please reach out to
- [00:50:27.855]us over email, on Twitter or in the review section of your favorite podcast platform. Our contact
- [00:50:28.810]information can also be found in the show notes. Jackson: We would like to thank Nebraska Extension
- [00:50:29.774]for their support of this podcast and their commitment to providing high quality informational
- [00:50:30.700]material to members of the agricultural community in Nebraska and beyond. Samantha:
- [00:50:31.518]The opinions expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast are solely their own and do not
- [00:50:32.443]reflect the views of Nebraska Extension or the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
- [00:50:33.212]Jackson: We look forward to you joining us next week for another episode of FarmBits!
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