| On Topic
Good data management the key to precision farming
An average harvest and rising fixed costs have meant that AHDB Wantage Monitor Farm host Julian Gold has seen , like many farmers , falling arable gross margins .
Wantage Monitor Farm looking at various applications for satellite data
F or this reason , he was keen that the Monitor Farm group carefully evaluate the potential benefits and challenges of precision farming , before investing in any expensive technology or software .
The Wantage Monitor Farm group met late last year at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire , in the shadow of the Rutherford Appleton laboratory .
Paul Hill , AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Knowledge Exchange Manager , said : “ Surrounded by the latest innovations in technology , the space-age setting was a great inspiration to make us think about all the possibilities , but actually the message to farmers was simple : get your data management in order before anything else .”
Speaker Ian Beecher-Jones reminded farmers that the amount of data available is growing exponentially , and that in order to make the most of this , they should know what they want to do with the information .
“ You have to question what you want out of the data ,” added AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds board member James Price .
The group heard how the mismatch between the physical farm and digital representations of it – for example , fields duplicated in computer files , or the same field spelled differently – were the root cause of much frustration and wasted time on farms .
Mr Beecher-Jones said : “ Have a plan for your data , how you ’ ll input , manage and use it , and get your digital farm to match your physical farm .”
Precision farming and good information , he explained , could improve operator and machine performance , with , for example , elimination of fieldwork overlapping and more targeted crop protection and nutrient applications
He suggested that a good place to start was to enter all the field names for each farm into the farm management system in the office , and then copy those onto other consoles via USB sticks .
Another farmer in the group told how precision farming steering had helped him to reduce his fuel costs and brought down his overall costs of production .
For Julian at East Hendred Farm , his main challenges are :
Bringing data together across various systems . This has a cost implication .
Measuring variable rate applications via yield data
Growing his own confidence in the digital systems
Paul Hill : “ There ’ s a lot of free data available for farmers , but the real key is working out what you want to achieve – why you need the data , how you ’ re going to interpret it and what you are going to do with it . How can precision farming data help you to become more resilient , for example , or to improve your yields or reduce fixed costs ? These are all questions to bear in mind .” Looking back The Monitor Farm group revisited some of
10 | Farming Monthly | March 2017 www . farmingmonthly . co . uk