Technology of a Winning Game Plan
Latest Technology Allows Brothers to Make Management Decisions on the Fly
Stoy Farms (www.stoyfarms.com), of Ashley, Ind., uses so much high tech that brothers Tom, Kevin and Ken seldom stop to think about it anymore. Precision ag systems and other tech gadgetry are fully interwoven into their professional lives. Much of the advantage to it all, they have found, is that the ever-new and advancing technology they deploy produces the refined information they need to make on-time, right-time decisions.
"We believe in staying current with technology and that you continuously have to use it or you'll fall behind," said Tom, who is in charge of fitting such systems into the family's three-state, 13,000-acre corn, wheat, soybean and parsley farm. For him, running an operation of this size depends heavily on getting information instantly and being able to direct the right resources to the right place at the right time.
FARMING FROM THE IPAD
"In a certain way, high technology makes things easier to manage," he said. "It brings a lot of information to your fingertips and helps you manage your resources quickly for any given activity."
From his iPad, Tom monitors and controls many high-tech applications. Case in point: A recent acquisition, an asset tracker application called FollowMee (www.FollowMee.com), lets Tom track the locations of grain trucks from his combine cab as he harvests. Each truck carries an iPad with the app installed for recording its exact location by GPS.
"We can tell when a truck will be back in the field, whether it's at the grain-handling system or wherever," he said. "Anyone interested can watch." Even though FollowMee is not dedicated specifically to agriculture, Stoy has found it useful.
Other applications are helpful during other steps of grain production and harvest. Following are some that have worked. Others that the Stoys have tried haven't been so successful.
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-- FieldNET from Lindsay is an app-based program that lets the Stoys monitor and control their center-pivot irrigation rigs from anywhere. "We can start pivots, shut them down, change directions," Tom said. "If one shuts down for any reason, it sends me a text message, and I can go fix it." FieldNET is a handy tool since the Stoys have pivots watering 2,100 acres spread across many miles.
-- The FieldView monitoring system provides what its maker, Precision Planting, calls an instant picture of planter performance. "We used the FieldView Plus in 2013, and it allowed us to gain some data from equipment wirelessly," Tom said. "I believe the whole industry will explode toward that. It helps. I can pull up the data at any time and see if my corn planter operators are maintaining proper down-pressure and seed placement. At any time, I can take my iPad out and see what is being planted and where. This past year, we saw that all the data wasn't readily available. It was a little cumbersome, but they'll get it fixed."
-- Tom has also tried Precision Planting's yield monitor program, YieldSense, released in 2013. "It works off the iPad platform, transferring data from machine to machine," he said. This helps with multiple combines working a single field.
"If I'm coordinating truck drivers coming to a field, I know how many bushels are harvested and how many trucks we'll need," he notes.
-- GrainTrac from Vertical Software is a grain- accounting system that integrates the operations of large farmers with grain elevators and others in the production chain. The Stoys use the system to track storage and shipment of grain, and prepare statements and invoices. Tom notes, "A truck leaves the field, goes to a scale where the driver scans a card that records moisture and test weight. A computer prints a scale ticket and logs the load."
-- The bases for all the Stoys' fieldwork are prescription field maps made by an agronomist, yield monitors (used by Kevin and Ken since the middle 1990s) and GPS-guided auto-steer. Tom calls the latter the most valuable technology they use and said, "We would all fight to keep you from taking that away from us."
EXPERIMENTATION IS KEY
Tom does not believe in software perfection, but he believes strongly in experimentation. "When one doesn't work out, that's just a tuition expense," he said. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Efficiency, time, operator comfort, knowledge -- technology can save us all of the above. But I'm not one to preach that this saves or makes you all kinds of money."
And, there is no single wellspring of tech information. "Word of mouth and dealers are good sources," he said. "Sometimes you think of something that would be nice, then you research it and come up with your own solution."
With all the positives for big-scale farms, are there any drawbacks to this tech revolution? Well, maybe one.
"The downside is, it doesn't always work right," Tom said. "It can be very frustrating to try and track down an electrical problem or computer issue. For example, we've become dependent on auto-steer and row shutoffs, and it's hard to convince yourself to keep moving without them."
There's always a problem with something, he adds. "All of a sudden your auto-steer won't engage or your down-pressure sensors won't work right. Sometimes a simple reboot will fix it. Sometimes you need help."
For help, the Stoys have come to rely heavily on dealers' technicians from John Deere and Precision Planting Inc. The farm's own mechanic also has grown adept at diagnosing some issues.
But time marches on, and the brothers are in step.
"A lot of what we're doing is staying current," Tom notes, "so we're ready to capitalize on the next technology that comes out."
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