New tool helps producers monitor crop yield, management and weather trends by field.
Landmark Services Cooperative introduces the YieldEDGE Viewer, a new management tool for crop growers to monitor trends by field.YieldEDGE Viewer is a web-based program that allows crop growers who are Landmark members access to the cooperative's data on the owner's fields in real-time, at any time. The program is free to all Landmark members.
After logging into the system with a username and password, YieldEDGE Viewer shows the grower all of the data that Landmark has compiled about their operation, based on each field's set boundary. This information can include: yield maps, fertilizer rates applied each year, soil test data, multi-year yield analysis, seed varieties planted, historical prescriptions by field and historical weather trends on the farm's acreage.
Gary Myers, YieldEDGE Precision Ag Manager for Landmark, says growers are already benefiting from the recently launched program as they're noticing trends and then making changes based on real-time information.
"This program allows us to digitize farms and fields and make educated decisions based on the yields and performance of fields in the past," Myers says. "After a grower decides to become involved with YieldEDGE Viewer, we create their field boundaries by either digitizing them or through the use of geo-referenced information. Once those are set, we can begin to collect data and/or enter the grower's past information according to that field."
Producers can then log-in to the YieldEDGE Viewer and access their information whenever needed. Myers says that evaluation of the data can help growers gain the edge over previous growing years.
"We can begin to detect trends when all of the data is in one place," he says. "At harvest, we can look at the yield, the fertilizer applied, weather conditions that year and several other factors and determine ways to improve the yield the next year. Analyzing the data right away and comparing to other growing seasons can help our members make more informed decisions."
Weather patterns, forecasts and trends are also shown through the YieldEDGE Viewer. Myers says that recognizing weather according to acreage can help with adjustments in irrigation levels, monitoring time according to growing degree days and fertilizer rates.
Growers can also share data that they have collected themselves with the Landmark team to be added into their specific YieldEDGE Viewer account. All information is proprietary to the Landmark grower, is only accessible by the individual grower and used only for decision-making on that operation.
"The YieldEDGE Viewer opens a new avenue to collect and share data with our growers with data at the growers' fingertips whenever they need it," Myers says. "We're excited to work with growers and add their data into the system. The more data we can put in together, the more analytics we will have to help make better management decisions."
Growers interested in the YieldEDGE Viewer are encouraged to contact their Landmark agronomist for a demonstration. The agronomist can then set up the grower with a username and password to access the YieldEDGE Viewer site.
For additional information on YieldEDGE Viewer, visit www.landmark.coop
Landmark Services Cooperative is a member-owned cooperative business dedicated to providing both rural and urban customers the highest quality products and services. For more than 80 years, Landmark has been providing agronomy, energy, animal nutrition, grain, retail and transportation products and services to its more than 15,000 members in South Central Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. Employing nearly 500 people in rural areas and reaching sales in excess of $570 million, Landmark provides the benefits of volume buying and access to state-of-the-art technology to its members while maintaining a hands-on, customer service-oriented approach in each of the communities we serve. For more information, visit www.landmark.coop
11.8.2013