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Farmers Edge

37K views 134 replies 47 participants last post by  cr9060 
#1 ·
Can anyone share and good bad or otherwise feedback from using the farmers edge services. Not looking at VRT at this time though just the other services.
 
#2 ·
they are good at wrecking the windshield of your pickup, the rep in our area drove by like a maniac and threw a lot of stones up (guess he was in a hurry to get to his client gotta love that attitude though ;))
as far as farmers edge go, guys that I know that do it ALL do VR fertilizer. In our heavy gumbo its not really worth it. Farmers edge specialises in VR technology, if your not planning on using it, I wouldn't even consider it. Know your soil samples and fertilize for the potential you have.
 
#3 ·
I'd say the other services are interesting but they don't know VR. Taking Satellite imagery and processing it in Farmworks to make a subscription is not difficult, and it's also not effective. Very few people have enough layers of data to really collect a true and effective VR prescription.

As for the other services, they were a disaster last year. If they got the bugs worked out then they might be real good.
 
#5 ·
Don't know a lot about the service. But listened to friend who is a rep. We aren't doing VRT now but plan would be to go that route in future.

They have data collection tools that plug into tractor, sprayer and combine maps to log data and go into the farm command software. Seems like a lot of data, but I'm not sure how that helps my bottom line either.

I think they have a one year get your money back guarantee.
 
#7 ·
nicemustang - If your looking for all the other services and NOT VR, you should try Western Ag Labs. I have used them for the past three years and have been very happy with the intel they provide. Definitely had some yield gains due to their help. They don't do a whole bunch of scouting though. They are more focused on your fertility plan and diseases.
 
#9 ·
Thought I'd pull back this thread from a while ago. Just attended a grower meeting that included a presentation from Farmers Edge.
Got me to thinking, it seems great to have the satellite imagery every few days. They give you a weather station with forecasts tailored to your fields.
Soil sampling program.
I'm not enthusiastic about plugging a doohickey into my combine, and cloud connecting... (they can shove that part of it)
And I will look closer at their privacy policy.
I know there are lots of farms doing this.
Is it worth it?
I seem to like the idea of ease of compiling year to year data, and seeing how things change from year to year.

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#10 ·
We dropped them like a hot potato, and couldn't be happier with our new company.

1. CanBus drains batteries
2. Weatherstations never worked
3. Prescriptions were blocking and hard to control
4. Yield maps to make next years prescriptions is DUMB
5. Satellite photos told us NOTHING. If you have a use for them, great.
6. Too large of a team. Had 7 separate people working on our farm in one year. Mid sized farm. Some good people, some questionable
7. Of those 7 people, not one followed up until it was time to pay for the next tr.

I could rant on. They were always good to us with composite soil sampling. Liked them, until we joined the new company and realized what we were missing
 
#11 ·
If Data collection is your main interest Climate Field View costs a lot less..... not sure if I buy the "we don't use your data" line or not.... but definitely interesting looking system if it works.


planning to try it this year.


have heard that its hard to keep I Pads running in tractor all day (apparently they are using more power than charger is providing?) - any truth to that?
 
#17 ·
Money spent on this stuff is usually better spent on actual inputs. Having said that, I am trying so VR corn planting this year with Decisive Farming. I can imagine a benefit there. I think a guy with a satellite shot and a knowledge of the field in question could make zone maps as good as half these guys.


totally agree - I had prescriptions done up for a few canola fields in 17, and not only did the VR make my maturity more uneven the flat rated fields out yielded by a bu / ac! totally takes over your GPS system and in one case left the drill sitting in the field not putting out a pound . was pulling out what little hair was left! the one field was the best producing, flat as a pancake field I have and the N rate was constantly changing - I think just for the heck of it! totally over thought in my mind, could likely do a way more efficient job yourself with larger zones based on topography and known problem areas.....


just to show how "wrong" those maps (or the guys reading them) can be, the first time I had the "sell", the rep looked at a satellite map and said "look at the off the chart vegetation there! that's where we will put all your nitrogen!" to which I said "that's the bottom of a 3/4 mile long slope. It's sub irrigated, lots of biomass but always lodges and never matures, we usually have to bale the crop seeded there most years. still want to put on 150 lbs?"
 
#14 ·
have heard that its hard to keep I Pads running in tractor all day (apparently they are using more power than charger is providing?) - any truth to that?[/QUOTE]

Have an ipad running Libra cart in the grain cart. Added an inverter to use the 120 volt charger and you still lose battery power through the day. Dimming the screen brightness down balances it out to even.
 
#19 ·
Farmers Edge is a waste of money. We fell for their fancy marketing and ran away from them as fast as possible for all the same reasons Orsy mentioned.

If you can't keep your ipad power on in a tractor all day you have the wrong charger. We have been using Agrimatics for a few years now and the charger we have will bring the ipad to 100% then we can unplug it and top up our phones.
 
#21 ·
Having all our field data collected into one platform is a neat idea but???

1. Heard of lots of issues with compatibility problems with different brands of equipment and monitors.
2. How accurate is the data. Has the equipment been calibrated?
3. Who's data is it??? Who else gets to see/use/buy our data??
4. If information is worth money why are we paying to collect our data. I'm thinking the big $$$$ are not in the fees farmers pay for this service but on the other end where some corp is paying big $$$ to use our data.
5. Data companies are now getting aligned with equip makers ( Farmers Edge + Case IH ).
These companies will know more about our farms than we do.
6. With new equipment getting so integrated will we not only have to buy the equipment but now have to pay an annual fee to use it. Computer software companies went this way years ago. Gauranteed revenue stream for them. Sounds like highway robbery!!
7. The trend seems to be everything is going to cloud based tech storage. Yeh its great I can access it from laptop/ipad/cell phone from anywhere in the world but is it secure!!! If it's not safe from hackers on my own laptop how on earth can it be secure in the cloud??
8. Had a fellow from FCC software call me to do a survey about their Field Manager program. Wanted to know what I thought of some of the updates they were planning on. A cloud based system was one of them which is great for accesability via numerous ipads/tablets/phones etc. I asked him about data security. He said its secure. My response was if the fed Govt computer system can be breached what makes this better than theirs. He couldn't answer that. He also mentioned that they had a cloud based version of AgExpert they were working on. My response was that was of no interest to me. I'm not interested in having all my finacial records floating around the world in some cloud for every hacker to see. Who else can see my data in this type of program??? He told me it was secure and only I have access to it. I asked him who he worked for. His reply was FCC software. I asked him who owns FCC. He didn't respond. I told him the Fed Govt owns FCC so that makes him an employee of the Feds. So I asked him if CRA wants to see my financial records do they have to ask me for my books or can they just get it off the cloud since they are the owners and developers of the accounting system and cloud storage system. His response was he never thought of that!! My response was NO THANKS. I'll keep my data at home.
9. I get it. With new tech, social media etc,etc we are giving up some of our individual privacy. Its one thing if its by choice but where some of this is heading we may inadvertantly and unknowingly give up control of our data/ information. When our data is in someone elses hands the reality is it will be used by some corp/govt/banks for their financial/business advantage and not ours. And to think we paid someone to give them our data!!! WE ARE ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE!!!
10. Didn't mean to get somewhat off topic. End of long winded rant.
 
#23 ·
Not off topic bmich, I. brought this thread back for open discussion about these companies. And you bring up all valid points. And my initial concern when contemplating going this direction was that info security.
The option I was considering had the iso bus readers, but theres no way i was gonna plug those in!
FE could build off of what you tell them your yield was for a particular field and make fert recommendations from that.
For 3.50/acre
- satellite imagery scouting and crop health maps (7 meter resolution)
-fert planning
-soil testing (16 holes per quarter)
-flat prescription maps
-weather station
There are a few more things included with the 3.50 but these are the items I was most interested in.

Now if there was some way an individual's data could be earmarked somehow... and then searched online, if it showed up anywhere it shouldn't be, sue the company that guaranteed your data couldn't go anywhere.
I would pay for that level of security!
 
#43 ·
Years back when I was doing some acres with FE they would print some nice looking comparisons based on potential costs/yield/net return comparing VR to std fert application and would show a potential net return.

I asked them to pick a field and set up replicated trials to compare Vr fert to conventional composite fert applications. I thought it should be easy for them to set it up since they were the mapping company.

Was told if I wanted to do it would have to set it up on my own!!!!!! Very reassuring that this is a good deal!!!!

A neighbor of mine has a saying he told me that is so true and I regularly use it with sales people.

" DON'T TELL ME HOW GOOD IT IS. SHOW ME HOW GOOD IT IS"

Most don't like hearing it especially when in a group of other farmers listening.
 
#27 ·
It's not the hacking I'm worried about with my data... it's that grain buyers collect everyone's data and begin to get a really good idea about how much is out there to sell and adjust prices accordingly.... same with fert prices.. supply and demand, of course they dont want to produce too much and have to give it away end of season...
 
#31 ·
My data security on the cloud is pretty low on my give a **** list.

What makes me crazy is the move to centralized software that you never own just pony up your yearly subscription.

It’s coming from every front.

Farmworks auto updated from desktop software to a yearly subscription as an example.

Completely lost my **** with support and they sent me a link and instructions to get back to my desktop version that’s mine till obsolete.
 
#38 ·
It bothers me a little when people aren't worried about how their data is being shared or sold once out of their hands. This data can be sold at real time during harvest, grain companies world wide would know exactly what kind of yields are coming off and adjust prices. Gone would be the days of some market rallys because of some crop uncertainties. People get pi$$ed when Facebook sells their info on you to other companies for advertising purposes, but hey, my farm data means nothing.
 
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