Climate Corp. crop data system in beta for Western Canada

A major farm data analysis package, already being offered for sale in Eastern Canada for use this spring, is in beta testing toward a rollout later this year in Western Canada.

 

Management from Monsanto and its farm data systems arm, The Climate Corp., speaking on a conference call last Thursday, said they see a launch for their Climate FieldView platform in Western Canada toward the end of 2017, as they work on the platform’s compatibility with small grains and related equipment.

 

The Climate FieldView suite, launched in 2015 in the U.S. to tie Climate Corp.’s product offerings into one package, comes also to Brazil this year. Launches in Australia, Argentina and South Africa are expected in 2018-19, the companies said.

 

The company said it will also bring its products into the European market in 2018-19, having taken its first steps there by buying Estonian farm management software firm VitalFields in November.

 

The FieldView package had its Canadian launch in September at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show and was offered for sale in the East last month, for use in the 2017 crop season

 

Climate CEO Mike Stern on Thursday described the East as “very much of a corn and soybean environment,” similar to the company’s markets in Michigan and Ohio.

 

The FieldView suite of tools is meant to allow farmers to visualize and analyze crop performance, using field data maps as well as satellite imagery.

 

Thursday’s conference call laid out near-term plans for both Climate Corp.’s and Monsanto’s research and development pipelines, and noted Climate has “more than 35” R+D projects in the works.

 

“Farming at the zone level is the new reality,” Climate’s chief scientist Sam Eathington said in the company’s release.

 

Climate, he said, “is already delivering advanced seed scripting and zone-level nitrogen monitoring capabilities, and our robust research pipeline ensures we will continue to provide farmers actionable insights to help them operate more efficiently and sustainably.”

 

Among those, the company said, it plans to develop variable-rate prescription tools for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, creating what it described as “the industry’s first comprehensive fertility solution, delivering customized insights for crop nutrition and fertility management.”

 

The company, through collection and analysis of “millions” of data points on seed product performance across various geographies, said it also plans to provide seed product selection plans for its farmer users.

 

Climate said its field health research will lead to development of a disease insights package, identifying and predicting a specific field’s disease vulnerability and diagnosing crop diseases, applying artificial intelligence to images of infected plants.

 

Climate said it’s also working on a new “directed scouting” tool to help farmers better sort out which fields to prioritize before heading out to scout.

 

That tool, which Climate said will be “a first for the digital ag industry,” is meant to help farmers save time and protect yield, before yield is impacted at the end of the season.