The changing nature of data acquisition on the farm creates an upstream challenge for those who support farmers — maximizing management information. Trimble has announced a new tool to help tackle that issue.

Advisor Prime provides a crop adviser or agronomist a centralized location for bringing in farmer data; but more than a storage tool, the system also allows the adviser to create useful information for clients and customers.

Creating information for specific needs
Devon Liss, a project manager at Trimble, explains that Advisor Prime is a tool that allows an agronomist to collect information from a range of sources and apply that information to multiple growers. “There are tools in this system for creating management zones for customers and sending that information out for variable-rate application,” he says.

Liss says Advisor Prime is built to take information from every major data capture system, from John Deere to Agco. “We can read the information from a USB stick, or files can be emailed to the agronomist or consultant; there’s no need for wireless data transfer access,” he notes. “Though we can work that way, too.”

Trimble was the first company to bring a connected farm approach to moving data from equipment to computer for further analysis. That capacity has expanded to work with a range of companies as Trimble continues its work across more platforms.

Liss explains that a key part of the system is the ability for the agronomist to set up rules. The rules can be set up by the customer, and then the information is built to match the very specific needs. For example, a farmer may have different practices needed for rented versus owned ground. Working with the consultant and Advisor Prime, rules can be established on the front end that will then dictate how zones and prescriptions are applied on the back end.

“This can speed the development of prescriptions and make sure they’re meeting customer needs,” Liss says.

The web-based system can link with a farmer-customer’s Farmer Pro account, which is Trimble’s farmer-level software, and with that link information can move from farmer to agronomist and back, simply and easily. Also, as a web-based program, Advisor Prime allows the agronomist to have information on a mobile device when in the field working with customers.

Pulling it all together
One of the challenges facing the precision ag industry is making sure the trusted adviser has the tools needed to provide farmers with the management information they need. With Advisor Prime, the agronomist can help customers better manage their input use and make decisions more easily.

“The adviser can work with clients and share files, helping them make input decisions,” Liss says. “And the adviser can manage the records for all customers in this system.”

The system can also provide the adviser other information, including access to crop health imagery for vegetative crop health maps in season, soil test information, and other tools to help make definitive management zones and prescriptions.

“The farmer can provide their yield maps, and we can provide information on the same field with crop health information for the past two or three years,” Liss says. “With the Crop Productivity Index, the adviser can access up to 15 years of crop information to help the farmer develop new management zones for improved input use.”

The system is available today, and advisers are already signing up. Liss says. For farmer-customers, this tool offers the potential for an improved connection between your farm and your adviser's information. Learn more at agriculture.trimble.com/software/advisors.