Author: veritytomson

Field Applications Powered by YAGRO

Customers of both Gatekeeper and YAGRO can now save time and effort when passing field operation data between the two systems. Farmplan and YAGRO have worked together to create a new report in Gatekeeper, which is designed specifically to let users handle and manage the exchange of data into the YAGRO platform.

‘Field applications powered by YAGRO’, found in Gatekeeper’s analysis module, enables users to extract their data in the right format for YAGRO. The resulting file can then be uploaded into the YAGRO platform without requiring any further management.

Head of Product, Edwin van Leeuwen from YAGRO commented, “Users have been able to extract their data from Gatekeeper in a variety of ways in the past, but now they have a dedicated report which provides all the necessary information for them to fully utilise YAGRO’s analysis tools.”

Andy Wolff, Gatekeeper Product Manager adds, “We are delighted to work with YAGRO to help provide a resolution to a pain point for their customers. In just a few clicks data can be prepared in the right format and template to enable smooth input and analysis in the YAGRO systems.”

There is no need to unlock or request the new report – all Gatekeeper users will receive this enhancement. To collect it, just make sure your system is synchronised and up-to-date.

Are you an existing Gatekeeper user and want to explore the new YAGRO reporting tool?

Visit: Dedicated Gatekeeper Data Export Function where you will also find details on how to upload your data to the YAGRO Platform.

• It is often challenging to execute workplans precisely and in an easy way, especially when it comes to variable rate application maps.

• The integration between Proagrica’s Farmplan Gatekeeper software and John Deere Operations Center™ creates the ability for farmers to share and execute data much faster, maximise income streams, enable seamless recording, and allows access to insight for informed management decisions.

UK farmers benefit from the long-standing relationship between Proagrica and John Deere. Both partners have now improved the workflow through the integration of Proagrica’s Farmplan Gatekeeper software and the John Deere Operations Center™. This integration enables seamless data recording and gives farmers access to insights that can help them drive efficiency and make informed management decisions..

Smart data workflow is a key issue when it comes to the acceptance of precision Ag technology. Today it is often challenging to execute workplans precisely and in an easy way, especially when it comes to variable rate application maps. The integration enables a direct transfer of Farmplan Gatekeeper jobs into John Deere Operations Center™, from where they can be sent straight down wirelessly to the machine. This makes execution much faster, saves time and supports collecting precise data.

Both Proagrica and John Deere are continuously developing better functionality in their tools for easy data management and sharing. This is something that will naturally evolve with the development of Gatekeeper Cloud, alongside further integrations creating the ability for farmers to share data and maximise income streams.

“Our partnership works so well because we have complementary strengths which benefit our farmers,” say Joedy Ibbotson, Division Business Manager and Brian D’Arcy, Division Sales Manager at John Deere. “John Deere delivers the machines, the technology, and the connectivity, and Farmplan Gatekeeper delivers the compliance, analytical capabilities, and integrations with agronomists and advisors. The two combine seamlessly providing farmers with invaluable business insights and ensuring decision making can be made with confidence.”

For Proagrica, the relationship with John Deere in the UK may not be new, but it’s a shared vision for their joint customers that’s set to develop further. “The continuing improvements in food production efficiency and sustainability that will be needed in the years ahead rely upon accurate information to drive change,” says Piers Costley, VP Operations at Proagrica Ag Solutions.

Farmers across Europe are confronted with pressing challenges, requiring them to boost crop productivity, while simultaneously reducing their reliance on synthetic fertilisers and minimising nutrient losses. With a transition to more nature friendly production methods alongside ever more unpredictable weather, the challenges are immense.

With that in mind, Proagrica, the company behind the UK’s leading crop management solution, Farmplan Gatekeeper, was delighted to be invited to join the NUTRI-CHECK NET project to bring its data integration expertise to help address these challenges.

The three-year EU-funded project is focused on improving nutrient management on arable farms, and will help growers adopt the best farm and field specific nutrient management practices.

Led by ADAS, an independent provider of agricultural and environmental advice, the project’s goal will be the creation of NUTRI-CHECK NET, a platform where growers will be able to find best practice nutrition tools, products, services, and recent research to help them manage crop nutrition.

How will it work?

Each participating country is forming Crop Nutrition Clubs (CNC) of interested farmers, to identify and share their current crop nutrition challenges. A National Expert Group (NEG) comprised of researchers, policy advisors, industry partners, and CNC representatives will then compile the best nutrition tools, services, commercial products, and recent research findings on the NUTRI-CHECK NET platform. The platform will be a ‘toolbox’ from which every grower can select the solution that best helps them meet their crop nutrition challenges.

The platform will provide access to the latest developments on nutrient management and information on best practice, so growers can make more precise crop nutrition decisions, no matter what farm system they employ.

“Every farmer needs a level of nutrient management control,” says Charley Burnell, Sentinel Product Manager for Proagrica. “Whatever system they are in, they have to have the data points against which to measure their performance whilst ensuring they conform to national guidelines and legislative requirements.”

Making life easier for growers

This is where software like Farmplan Gatekeeper comes in. When it comes to nutrient management, growers who use Proagrica’s Farmplan Gatekeeper software are already in a good position. Now, Proagrica wants to make life even easier for growers to make good crop nutrition decisions in the future through their involvement with the NUTRI-CHECK NET project.

“Nutrient management can be an intensive process for growers and their advisors with all of its information gathering and calculations,” says Charley. “If you are a Gatekeeper user, you probably already have 90% of what you need to create a nutrient management plan, in one place. Growers don’t have to log into multiple locations to enter their data. We bring the industry-standard nutrient management tool to them, and we have one of the highest levels of integration into our program.”

It’s these high levels of integration that make Proagrica perfectly placed to help deliver this project.

Proagrica has a history of integrating Gatekeeper with widely-used nutrient management solutions: users currently have the choice of utilising either the PLANET algorithms from ADAS, or more recently the AHDB’s RB209 API. There are also more integrations and developments coming that reflect the ever-changing requirements of the agricultural industry.

An investment in our growers

“Getting involved with the project is a great way of demonstrating how we have our growers and their best interests in mind, and that we are at the forefront of progress in research and development,” says Charley.

The NUTRI-CHECK NET project is currently at the information gathering stage, but for Proagrica, the creation of a platform that widens the accessibility of nutrient management systems to every farm and field is an exciting prospect.

“It’s really encouraging that Proagrica has been asked to participate and really forward thinking of the project group to have involved us,” says Charley. “It shows that they are thinking about the challenges facing agriculture from a whole system perspective. It’s not just about the research or the findings, they are looking at the whole picture from best practice to transferring that knowledge onto farms and enabling its best use for as many growers as possible.”

More information about the NUTRI-CHECK NET project is available at www.nutri-checknet.eu

• This partnership will help to provide farmers with additional options to manage their data at a single point of access, supporting critical business decision-making. 
• This new integration will connect Farmplan Gatekeeper users with more manufacturers and software than ever before.
• agrirouter will be made available to Farmplan Gatekeeper users from 11th July 2023.

Farmplan, part of Proagrica, have today announced a new integration with agrirouter, which will provide Gatekeeper users with an expanded range of connectivity options and new ways to access and manage their data.

Incompatibility between IT systems is a growing problem in agriculture, leading to commercial inefficiencies for farmers, as technology improves, and data expands. However, this new integration allows farmers to gain better control over their data through a user-friendly interface that centralizes data management.

agrirouter, developed by the non-profit organization DKE-DATA, will provide Gatekeeper users with a new level of compatibility for their machines, allowing for efficient data exchange between multiple software systems. Farmers can have peace of mind knowing that they will remain independent and in control of their data through this integration, as agrirouter does not use the data it delivers.

The integration will enable Gatekeeper users to connect with a wider range of agricultural technology and equipment manufacturers, expanding wireless connectivity for their machines and software. Unlike before, users can now connect to platforms which were previously not compatible, such as Trimble,  AGCO, SDF, McCormick, Grimme, Amazone and Krone. In addition to this, agrirouter will also allow farmers working on the fields to send their data back to their software via the cloud. This streamlined process not only saves users valuable time and eliminates unnecessary hassle but also mitigates the risks associated with data duplication, loss, or corruption when transitioning between different systems.

With Farmplan set to roll out the agrirouter integration to precision farming customers, Piers Costley, VP Operations at Proagrica explained the benefit, “This integration is a hugely exciting development for Gatekeeper users. Updates to connectivity and compatibility for customers, as well as new levels of data control and visibility, will ultimately improve the efficiency and user experience for farmers using Gatekeeper across the UK.”

Johannes Sonnen, Managing Director at agrirouter, said “The digitisation of agriculture can only work if all companies in the agricultural industry pull together and bundle their know-how. In this way, the entire industry can provide customers – farmers and contractors – with more and more interoperable smart farming tools that enable farms to continuously optimize their food production processes while meeting legal, ecological and economic requirements. At Smart Farming Days in June 2023 (https://smartfarmingdays.com/), visitors were able to learn about smart farming tools that are already available today and those that will be available in the future.,”

This new integration between Gatekeeper and agrirouter will be available from 11^th July 2023.

To learn more about Gatekeeper and Farmplan, please visit here.

To learn more about agrirouter, please visit https://agrirouter.com/en/

For growers, pre-harvest is the perfect time to take stock. Once T3 and T4 have been done and the last of the fertiliser has been applied, how can you best prepare for harvest and that all-important post-harvest analysis? Adam Joslin, Customer Success Manager at Farmplan, part of Proagrica advises growers to go back to basics and focus on good data housekeeping.

Get into good habits with data

Keeping accurate, consistent, and complete records will give you a far better understanding of what’s going on in your farm business. If you want to optimise output and profit, you need to manage what you’ve got, and to do that, you need to be able to measure how you’re performing.

“If you want to get your farm business into the best shape possible pre and post-harvest”, comments Adam, “there are some key areas to focus on”.

Tidy up your data

To avoid running into any complications later in the year give your data a bit of a tidy up. Check to make sure you’ve exported or you’re ready to export your field list, your field boundaries are correct, and check the output names match the crops types you are going to be harvesting so the products are correct in the terminal and in Gatekeeper.

Take stock of your financials

“Ideally, the harvest data you’ll be bringing in should complete the picture of how your farm business is performing”, continues Adam. That will be the case if you’ve been building up an accurate and consistent set of records all year. Good records are essential for accurate reporting and analysis, and they are a strong foundation on which you can develop your farm business.

When it comes to the financials, look at what’s been entered in Gatekeeper throughout the year. Are your fertiliser and pesticide applications up to date? Have you recorded any fixed costs? Once you import your harvest data into Gatekeeper, it gives you a cost per tonne of production. This means growers can see the cost per tonne of inputs like pesticides and fertilisers, and by inputting sale prices and yield data, they can see what they are actually making on every tonne they are selling.

Jonathan Storey, who farms 500ac of arable crops in Norfolk, says the software has helped him use his resources better and keeps track of his numbers.

Managing stock and doing some housekeeping of your stock data is also important. Check that the prices are against the right things and everything is in order so you can prepare for doing some cost analysis and gross margin reporting once the harvest is in.

Make sure you have connectivity with your combine

Farmplan Gatekeeper software enables seamless data exchange between machines and between machinery and manufacturer. “ Coming soon to Gatekeeper is Agrirouter, a wireless integration which will give seamless single point of connectivity, to a wide range of manufacturers” says Adam. “This will make it easier to bring data from the field to the farm office”.

Far from making farm management more complex, Agrirouter is being hailed as the next logical step in improving connectivity and collecting the data that matters.

It’s all in the analysis

For growers who want a better picture of how their farm business is performing, it’s all in the analysis. Gatekeeper has an analysis module which combines data from every part of the program  in every year so you can run reports on every aspect of your data, from what you’ve purchased to what’s in stock, what fertiliser you have applied, and much more.

“We always recommend that growers head here before and after harvest”, says Adam, “this will ensure they get a detailed look at performance in every area of their operations”.

Good data matters

If you import data into incomplete or inconsistent records, the reports you create aren’t going to be as valuable. That’s why going back to basics and getting into the habit of keeping good data is essential.

But it’s not just about collecting data, the data needs to mean something so growers can make informed decisions. Jonathan Storey adds that Gatekeeper helps him do just that.

“We have such sophisticated machines now that can deliver precision decisions but we

need software to be able to handle the data so it means something,” says Jonathan. “ Gatekeeper does this so we can make decisions based on evidence.  To be successful, we need to farm data as well as the soil.”