Connecting what happens on the field to the balance sheet is no easy feat. FieldView™ platform partners like Conservis, Ag-Analytics and Traction Ag are harnessing software to empower farmers with more knowledge about their financial performance.
Profit. The math is simple on paper if you’re running a lemonade stand. But a globally connected business, like a farm, is another matter. For decades, farmers have contended with fluctuating prices of inputs, operational costs, labor and more. This volatility has made a challenging profession even more difficult. Connecting what happens on the field to the balance sheet is no easy feat. FieldView™ platform partners like Conservis, Ag-Analytics and Traction Ag are harnessing software to empower farmers with more knowledge about their financial performance.
Image courtesy of conservis.ag
Yield and profitably are not necessarily the same. This is a harsh reality that plagues many farmers at the end of the season. When you’ve cultivated more bushels, one would logically think, “I made more money.” The truth is more complex. You need a comprehensive understanding of every pass in the field, every input in the ground and even the time required to produce a crop. But factoring all these variables is too much for one brain, one notepad or even masterful use of a spreadsheet. This is why farmers are taking cues from other industries that also deal with complex, ever-changing supply chains, markets and accounting.
Throughout the past few decades, the aerospace and airline industries have taken a close look at the cost of every single part that goes into building and repairing a plane. But even further than that, with the help of finance departments and complex software, airliners have even been able to estimate the cost of tightening a single bolt. How can they do that? They add the cost of purchasing said bolt, the time it takes to deliver the bolt, the labor required to supervise and tighten the bolt along with an estimate for how long that bolt will last before it needs to be replaced. This is what many call the true cost of production.
On the farm this takes the form of not just the cost of buying seed, but the fuel consumed, labor to operate the planter and the cost to rent or own the land that seed is planted in. Conservis has many expert solutions that can help you reconcile every cost in your farming business. As they say, having a partial view of your farm’s economic performance simply doesn’t cut it in today’s environment. Conservis helps you create a full financial picture of your operation. When you till a field, plant, spray or harvest, all of this can be tracked with the push of a button on their software. Just like tracking field data, you can monitor the financial impact of every field activity. All of this leads to more control over your financial performance and less room for operational gaps.
What is a good deal? In its simplest form, it’s gaining more value out of a good or service than you originally paid. When you purchase or lease a farm, you enter into it, hoping the person selling or renting the land has undervalued their asset. Using data to measure property value has long been a staple in commercial and residential real estate. Many factors can affect the financial performance and value of a property – and farmland is no different. Ag-Analytics is providing solutions that closely measure the profitability of every acre. Their product ProfitLayers® uses your precision data to generate profit maps and perform advanced profit ROI analysis. You can measure by crop hybrid, application spray, custom management zones, and more. Ag-Analytics also equips farmers with historical data on soil health, elevation, and crop history to better evaluate the potential of farmland. By looking at non-traditional data points and analyzing for ROI, Ag-Analytics tools and services help you gain the upper hand in boosting your field profitability.
With all that’s involved in running a farming operation, you need to keep accurate, detailed records; be it for compliance, end of year projections or to gain insight into the financial health of an operation at any given moment in the season. Traction Ag is making this much more attainable with mobile-first software solutions. Through this farm management software, farmers can blend the worlds of agronomy, farm accounting and operational data into one platform. Their products make it easy to keep great records, manage day-to-day operations and focus on bigger goals.
Traction Ag is not yet integrated into the FieldView platform, but will be in Spring of 2022. Image courtesy of tractionag.com
FieldView platform partners like Conservis, Ag-Analytics and Traction Ag embody the openness and inventiveness required to advance farming operations around the world. We’re proud to partner with the best Ag Tech solutions in the world because the more data farmers have at their fingertips, the more thoughtful and informed decisions they’re able to make. Farmers should always have control over who has access to their data, and all FieldView platform partners uphold themselves to the same high standard. The more we work together, both farmers and platforms, the more we can solve some of the most pressing problems facing our planet.
Just like your machinery needs the right fuel in order to function, any digital farming platform depends on high quality data to do its job well. There are simple steps you can take to maintain your data integrity so that you—and FieldView—can optimize your results and take your operation to the next level.
The FieldView Drive can make old equipment collect data like a brand-new model. With only a simple GPS and Bluetooth® connection, you can automatically track every planting, spraying and harvest pass.
Despite a global pandemic, farmers across the country have continually found ways to stay safe and productive. That alone is an accomplishment worth celebrating.