During Agritechnica 2023, a range of companies displayed precision-agriculture management tools, and a key marketing point was working with mixed fleet owners. Trimble is raising the game with its announcement of a new data user license for mixed fleets that work through the Trimble display.

“We’re working for simplicity,” said Devon Liss, product development manager. “We want to reduce the complexity of getting precision agriculture data in the field.”

Called the Trimble Ag Software-Data license, it is designed to address common farm challenges by connecting data, environments, workflows and stakeholders across the farm, according to the company.

With the new system, the company’s in-cab display becomes a central control hub, letting farmers connect different data sources in one place. The display is the link between farm and the Trimble Agriculture Cloud, which then can connect to different systems across brands. That’s done using the Trimble application program interface (API), a kind of universal translator between different data systems.

The company already has APIs that work with John Deere, Agco, Raven, New Holland, Case IH and others. Liss said the number of systems linking to the API is expanding as the company makes the Trimble system work across more brands. He said this data-sharing license is the first not tied to a major manufacturer or brand.

“There has been a need for a multi-brand approach to precision agriculture data for many years,” Liss said. “We’re creating a more open environment that can benefit farmers with mixed fleets.”

Share data more easily

The company has an app that links its cloud so connected devices — including third-party machines —can provide real-time information as needed. This allows a user to always know what’s happening on the farm — and share data more easily.

“We can share that information via those APIs,” Liss said. “That allows a farmer to move prescription information, path plans and other job data to specific machines.”

Using the Trimble display, farmers could prepare field data and job instructions, including boundaries, guidance lines, landmarks and materials, and share as needed through the cloud and the relevant API. In addition, the license allows collection of real-time data, which can be centralized in the farmer’s Trimble Agriculture Cloud account, and made available for reporting, record-keeping, agronomic analysis or work with business partners.

Liss said it’s important to bring all the farm information together in one place. “Agronomy is local, and we connect with a wide range of systems that allow the farmer to work with advisers as needed,” he said. The Trimble Agriculture Cloud allows the farmer to share data with trusted advisers from all machines more easily when creating those prescriptions and work plans.

During conversations on the show floor at Agritechnica, a common sentiment surfaced. Farmers are collecting a lot of information on their farms but still struggle with how to use it. Liss explained that this new data-sharing system is designed to make that chore easier for any farm using the Trimble display. “It’s all about simplicity,” he said.

Learn more at agriculture.trimble.com.