It’s Your Farm and Your Data: AGCO’s Data Management Approach

By Carla Gasparin

Partnerships through connectivity solutions, and utilizing industry standards, are key enablers for today’s farmers. With Fuse^®, AGCO is pioneering an open approach to precision farming built on adherence to industry data standards and a growing list of partnerships. Fuse is AGCO’s precision farming and precision machine management strategy that allows farmers freedom and flexibility in their choices of machinery, farm management and agronomy software, and service providers – while providing unique solutions for managing their valuable data.

A rapidly growing area of machine technology is remote connectivity, with solutions integrated into products that communicate equipment performance information and wirelessly send agronomic (task) information from the field to the office and from the office to the field. In order to preplan, manage and analyze agronomic data, AGCO offers the wireless transfer of task data from the machine terminal to the office computer through a unique data pipe, separate from raw machine data. AGCO recognizes and respects customers’ data privacy rights and acknowledges that all equipment and crop data generated during a grower’s operation belongs to the grower. An AGCO customer can choose between task and fleet management products and data paths to wirelessly transfer operational information:

• AgCommand^®, AGCO’s telematic machine and fleet monitoring system, captures and wirelessly transfers equipment status, location and performance data to a unique user interface used by farmers and AGCO dealers to provide machine optimization, performance monitoring and machine uptime. Customers and dealers can access data through the AgCommand website and app on an iOS smart device. Telemetry focuses on keeping equipment in the field and ensuring the machine is optimized for the best performance. Focusing on minimizing downtime, AGCO uses technology to make sure farm equipment is not only continually moving, but also running optimized. Products that are never idle and providing the current status is the target. We develop solutions that help farmers to understand where his/her pieces of equipment are, and let him/her knows what operations it is doing.

• Task data management is possible with a wide selection of AGCO’s partner Farm Management Information Systems including FarmWorks, Claas Agrocom Net, Helm, BASF and Land-Data Eurosoft AgrarOffice. Since 2010 the VarioDoc/TaskDoc offering from AGCO has been based on the ISO 11783-10 standard. AGCO’s task management solutions include wireless transfer of crop data in the form of work orders and work records. This can be done through an exchange server directly from a machine terminal through cellular connection or Bluetooth. AGCO is not locked into a single service provider or FMIS. We are the connectivity partner between the farmers and service providers, so our customers are free to choose which trusted advisors he/she wants to work with. It is important we offer capabilities that link service providers with our customers, more specifically to business data and field operations. It is important to respect customers’ choices, and let them to choose their service providers.

We in AGCO recognize that task and fleet management data are important information that should be handled differently. We want to make sure the farmers are connected to each step of the crop cycle, and also connected to AGCO dealers and service providers. The data collected in one operation can be used to create information that will be used in the next operation, from planning and planting, to growing, harvesting and storage. Fuse Technologies address each step of the growing cycle, focusing on adding new technologies on all AGCO equipment.

To learn more about the Fuse data privacy policy, visit http://www.agcotechnologies.com/about-fuse/data-privacy/.

Carla Gasparin is a Manager for AGCO’s Advanced Technology Solutions group, working in  Product Management for Global Off-board Technologies for Fuse Technologies.