Seth Lawrence gets excited about precision technology. He gets even more excited when he can use data he collects on the combine to provide an instant picture of what his financial position looks like on the farm, based on those yields.

Lawrence, of Brook, Ind., recently participated in a virtual interview hosted by The Climate Corporation. He joined the family farming operation four years ago after spending time working with precision agriculture. He still operates a precision ag consulting business, assisting other farmers to get more out of the precision equipment they have and the data they collect.

Benefiting from precision agriculture all starts in the cab, Lawrence says. “It starts with collecting data,” he notes. “You need to do it efficiently, using what’s best for you. There are many ways to do it and many monitor options out there.”

Lawrence uses FieldView from Climate to collect and analyze data. He also uses specific platforms that integrate with FieldView to help him get as much information from the data he collects as he can. “Platforms” are software solutions that allow you to do even more with yield data and other layers of information you’ve collected.

Financial analysis

At the end of the day during harvest, on farms where the broadband infrastructure supports sending data directly to the cloud during the day in real time, Lawrence says he and other members of the farm operation huddle around iPads to view yields and various comparisons they can make in FieldView to analyze the data.

On one part of their operation, located in a county without good broadband service, they must take the iPad from the combine home, where they have Wi-Fi, to upload data to the cloud before they can do analysis. He’s hoping for the day when more rural areas will have adequate broadband service so they can take advantage of all the features precision agriculture provides.

“I like to go further and see what the financial implications are from the yields we harvested,” Lawrence explains. “There are financial platforms available today that allow you to do so. It takes yield collected in FieldView and lets you see the financial implications from your yields right away.”

One platform Lawrence uses to get a handle on his financial picture is Harvest Profit. Learn more at harvestprofit.com. Other software options are available to help track the financial side of your business and how it’s affected by yields.