Forecast: sunny skies ahead

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/11/2016 (3277 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Thanks to a partnership with a local weather tech firm, farmers with John Deere tractors will soon have site specific, real-time weather and soil-moisture information available on screens in their cabs.

Winnipeg-based Precision Weather Solutions introduced the new product, called WxAgrios (Wx stands for weather) at a recent John Deere dealer conference in Kansas City, Mo.

Suzi Bonk, CEO of Winnipeg-based Precision Weather Solutions, said it is an exciting proposition for her company to be able to be connected to a global player such as John Deere.

“We expect it will have a significant impact on our growth,” Bonk said. “John Deere is a huge company, and this will be available worldwide.”

Specifically, WxAgrios can layer on predictive weather-forecasting and soil-moisture and temperature data with both John Deere Operations Center and John Deere Field Connect, two separate information technology platforms John Deere equipment users can subscribe to.

It will allow growers to better manage all of their field operations by factoring in real-time weather data and forecasting models with their seeding, spraying and harvesting activities.

Before WxAgrios, the two John Deere systems did not interact with each other, and in fact, PWS is the first company with an application that can integrate data from both systems, effectively creating a precision farming application for John Deere dealers to promote.

Ray Bouchard, the CEO of Enns Brothers, owners of one of the largest John Deere dealership organizations in the country with eight dealerships, said it’s an important new tool for its total-field-solution offering.

“The inclusion of predictive weather modelling, from my perspective, is going to be absolutely key to the future of precision agriculture.” Bouchard said.

WxAgrios customers who subscribe to the John Deere Operations Center can analyze current and forecast weather information alongside their field, crop and weather information. They will be able to access weather data from Deere’s own weather stations or other approved weather stations including PWS’s own equipment.

“We have a wide range of agronomic models that growers can select from depending on what they are growing,” she said.

Bonk founded PWS in 2013 with veteran meteorologist Guy Ash. The company has designed and installs and maintains its own weather stations that can deliver advanced predictive models and customizable prescriptive tools. Through its first two years of operation, it installed about 800 of its own stations but for competitive reasons does not publicly disclose current installations.

Bonk said PWS ingests data from about 28,000 weather stations, including its own equipment as well as federal, provincial and municipal stations across Canada and the U.S.

‘We expect it will have a significant impact on our growth. John Deere is a huge company, and this will be available worldwide’

“The neat part of this is they (PWS) have come up a with a way they can pull in data from existing Deere Field Connect systems and also integrate their own and other weather stations,” said Bouchard.

Older John Deere equipment still on the field may not be able to collect and stream data seamlessly, but the convergence of equipment technology and crop science is only a couple of years old.

Bouchard believes in five to 10 years about 95 per cent of production agriculture will be utilizing this type of technology.

Bouchard believes adding predictive weather modelling to John Deere’s precision agriculture offering will “allow growers to make better business decisions that are going to lead to increased productivity in a more environmentally sustainable manner.”

John Deere has its own weather stations, but Bonk said PWS will be able to leverage its association with the global agri-industry heavyweight and potentially access additional customers for its own weather stations.

“Your ability to gauge how fast you will grow with a relationship like this with John Deere is virtually impossible,” said Bonk.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca