As the world moves towards greater digitalization, farming, the centuries-old activity, has also gone a notch high in the modern day, and agribusiness has more data than ever. With tons of data generated in everyday operations, obsession with specific metrics will miss the big picture, and managing such data—a valuable asset for farmers to get immense returns out of—is one of the biggest challenges that overwhelm farmers across the world.
As the agriculture sector is increasingly data-driven, many software innovations come up as solutions to the data plight that is afflicting the farmers. One of such innovations is the Farm Management System (FMS), a unified platform that helps farm operators improve efficiency and revenue through information-based smart management of agricultural production processes. In this blog, we will explore how FMS stands out as a great booster of productivity for agricultural success.
Putting Data Control at Your Fingertips
With everything going digital these days, the farming industry is no different. Farming is no longer considered a traditional activity of producing food for consumption but a serious business that seek productivity to remain operational. Like any other business, farmers—the businessperson of this venture—should keep track of all the expenses and any activity carried out on the farmland. To this end, farm management system comes with a plethora of features that converge and analyze the data from all activities to help farmers make informed decisions for subsequent operations.
There is an abundance of systems available for this purpose on the market, and they look much the same in terms of common features. But it is worth noting that farming is a highly specialized activity, let's say, if you're considering exporting your coffee beans to the international market, you surely want a farming software that can provide any report required to facilitate compliance with quality assurance. That's why you should be careful with the kind of system you settle for. Generally, a comprehensive farm management system can cover farmers' basic needs for streamlining workflow with many straightforward functions, including:
Connectivity: FMS serves as a data hub that synchronizes data from or to other devices, such as autosteering or guidance systems, for seamless information sharing and task assignment.
- Real-time Work Status: FMS provides real-time location, direction, RTK status, and speed of farm equipment while in operation, enabling farmers to monitor progress and make adjustments as needed.
- Job Records: Upon completion of a task, farmers can view job records on the FMS to assess the completion status and analyze the data for future improvements.
- Online Task Management: Farmers can create tasks on the FMS according to their planting plans, which will be simultaneously updated to their equipment's terminal. Likewise, if a task is selected on the terminal, farmers can view all job records for that task on the FMS.
- GIS File Import and Export: FMS supports various file formats, such as GeoJSON, Shapefile, and ISOXML, for easy import and export of field and guidance line data.
Alarm Prompt: When paired with autosteering components, FMS can receive alarms synced from the autosteering system, alerting farmers to issues such as RTK errors and motor malfunction. Regular reminders and statistical analysis of these alarms help farmers troubleshoot and learn the autosteering system more effectively.
- Prescription Creation: Experienced farmers can create prescription maps by dividing the field into multiple sections and inputting appropriate rate values. Prescription map files can be exported in ISOXML format and imported to the terminal for use.
Embracing the Data-Driven Future of Precision Agriculture
Today, FMS has become indispensable allies to modern farmers. The system provides a bird’s-eye view of vast agricultural landscapes, empowering real-time surveillance over every activity happening in the fields. Whether you are running a small or large farm land, FMS is more than just a wise investment; it’s the modern farming necessity that offers insights gleaned from seemingly incomprehensible volumes of data. With an FMS at the helm, the union of bytes and seeds promises a productive and profitable future.
As the Farm Management System evolves to provide ever-more-advanced data management, it becomes more integrated into the larger precision agriculture ecosystem. Now that we stand at the nexus of traditional agronomy and technological advancement, one thing is clear: farming’s future is technologically bright, and data is the gold you can extract the most from.