Dashboard technology for precision farming

Farms in New Zealand and the US are to get access to the first Connected Farm dashboards being launched by Trimble, a leader in precision agriculture, GPS and guidance solutions for the efficient operation of farm vehicles and implements.

The California-headquartered company claims the dashboard enables better decision-making by putting key information at farmers’ fingertips.

On one centralised location, they can view key information via Trimble’s new TMX-2050 display, or internet-enabled devices such as desktop and notebook personal computers, smartphones and tablets.

Connected Farm dashboard users can view the weather forecast weekly, daily, or hourly for a given location including temperature, humidity, chance of precipitation and wind speed.

For example, wind speed will allow a farmer to plan when to spray.

They can set up the Doppler radar maps used on TV forecasts, to show upcoming weather patterns for their area, and assess whether or not to continue with a current farming activity.

They can check daily rainfall totals for “virtual” rain gauges, made possible by Trimble’s acquisition of assets from RainWave, which provides precipitation monitoring services for US agribusiness, construction and engineering, government and consumer industries.

They will allow farmers to reprogramme their irrigation systems, optimising use of water.

Trimble has also purchased assets from IQ Irrigation, to provide irrigation pivot data available on the Connected Farm dashboard in New Zealand. Users can check the latest prices — useful in countries like the US with well-developed commodity price monitoring.

They can also view farming operations data on the dashboard. For example, if the farmer is viewing yesterday’s planting activities, the dashboard may show population, singulation, skips and doubles. Another use is monitoring a machinery fleet by tracking the location and status of vehicles, or geo-fence and curfew alerts.

The snapshot view of their latest field operation as well as key information such as rainfall, commodities, and the weather forecast in one convenient central location enables the best daily decisions on the farm. Because the dashboard can be accessed from internet-enabled devices, farmers can make these decisions from potentially any location at any time.

The Connected Farm dashboard is a free web portal and is currently available.

To set up an account, visit the www.connectedfarm.com website. To view rainfall totals, monitor pivot irrigators (when available), or for fleet management, customers will need to purchase these services.