In beta testing in the region for much of this year, the Climate FieldView crop data system from Monsanto’s Climate Corp. has gone live on the Prairies.
The Climate Corp. announced Wednesday the Climate FieldView platform is available for purchase in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta on a per-acre basis, allowing farmers to start using it on their farms in time for the 2018 growing season.
To get the platform’s “complete value” for the whole growing season, the company advised interested farmers to sign up for a Climate FieldView account by Jan. 1.
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Climate FieldView was made available to producers in Eastern Canada in September last year and has had a “strong testing effort across many farm operations in Western Canada,” the company said, with participation from “hundreds of farmers across nearly one million acres.”
The beta testing allowed the Climate Corp. to further develop the platform’s compatibility with all types of farm equipment and crops, including canola and wheat, to collect and analyze data from multiple sources, the company said.
Part of the challenge with field data is “managing all of the numbers and having an adequate cloud system to store and effectively analyze the information,” beta user D’Arcy Hilgartner, who farms near Camrose, Alta., said in the company’s release.
“The Climate FieldView platform instantly transfers the field data gathered from my farm equipment into my Climate FieldView account, which is especially useful during harvest season because I’m able to see where various crop inputs were used and analyze the corresponding yield.”
Climate FieldView was first launched in the U.S. in 2015 and was also made available to producers in Brazil earlier this year.
On the Prairies, users will be able to collect, store and visualize field data using the Climate FieldView Drive, which streams field data directly into the Climate FieldView platform.
The platform’s seed performance and analysis tools are meant to show users “what worked and what didn’t at the field level or by field zone, and apply those insights to better understand field variability by quickly and easily comparing digital field maps side-by-side.”
The platform uses satellite imagery to allow users to “instantly visualize and analyze” crop performance, identify issues, prioritize scouting and take action to protect yield, the company said.
The system is also meant to help users manage inputs to optimize yield using manual variable-rate seed and fertility scripting tools.
Farm equipment maker Agco last week announced a “digital partnership” agreement, giving Agco equipment users the option to connect with Climate FieldView using either FieldView Drive, Agco’s Precision Planting 20/20 SeedSense Display, or through application program interfaces (APIs), starting later this year.
The Climate Corp. last year also reached an agreement with John Deere allowing users to transfer current and historical field data between the John Deere Operations Center and Climate FieldView.
Agreements have also previously been reached for connectivity between Climate FieldView and agronomic software and equipment platforms including AgIntegrated OnSite, Agrian, SSI AgVance Mapping, FS Advanced Information Services, MapShots AgStudio and SST Summit. — AGCanada.com Network
