Farmers today face more decisions than ever, but now they don’t have to make decisions alone. The John Deere Operations Center is a single secure platform that lets you set up, plan, monitor, analyze, and share your farm data anytime and anywhere. Ryan Stien, go-to-market manager for digital products with John Deere, talks about why the Operations Center is a game-changer for farmers…tape
“It really is the customer’s farm in digital form. So, what I mean is, they can see their fields, they can see their equipment, they can see the historical records of what has happened on that farm, what the equipment is doing right now on the farm, and even make plans for the future in one spot. It’s accessible from a cell phone, a computer, and a web browser, so any place, any time an internet connection is available, especially as we come into harvest season. If we’re talking at this time of year, waiting on a grain cart, maybe waiting on a semi to show up, all of those things can be viewed in the operation center in real time, and so it becomes a game-changer for farming on the fly.”
The Operations Center can help farmers make better year-round decisions.
“When we think about making decisions before, during, and after the growing season, the operations center’s power comes in analyzing the data that comes into the system. For instance, if I had a field of corn that I planted this year, and maybe I wanted to try fungicide on a part of it, or even maybe two passes of fungicide on a certain part, or maybe I wanted to try an in-season fertilizer versus a single dose of fertilizer at the start of the year, and analyze what is my ROI on that decision. Did I actually see a yield lift? And was that yield lift profitable for my farm? The operations center gives the ability for any farmer, regardless of size, regardless of expertise, to go in, make those plans, execute their own on-farm trial, and understand a bit better what’s making money for me. I mentioned examples of inputs, but it could also be my equipment.”
He talked about how a farmer might use the platform to monitor performance.
“My family farms, and I can pull up operations center and just look at this last week. It gives the report rundown. How many fields did I get harvested? How many acres am I harvesting through that? What percent of moisture are those fields pulling out at? If I’m a farmer, and I’m making those decisions, I’m monitoring the data as it’s coming through. Now I’m looking at, do I have drying capacity? You know, we’re a little bit early in the harvest season. Some of that corn is coming out at 23-24 percent moisture. All right, do I have a spot to get it dry? All of that data gets synthesized and surfaced to the customer in our John Deere Operations Center mobile app. So, it’s a great place for them to make those decisions on the fly.”
It’s also a great system for sharing vital information with their trusted advisors. Stien talked about where to go for more information.
“Work with your local John Deere dealer. They’re a great resource and will be excited to get you set up with the John Deere Operations Center. We also have a full suite of playlists on YouTube. So, if you go to YouTube, search for the John Deere YouTube channel and Operations Center, you’ll find a whole host of videos, so it’s a self-started thing. If you want to go out and learn about it today and do it, you can go to deere.com, Operations Center, hop on the YouTube channel, and it will walk you through the setup process along the way. So, it’s a free platform to use. Anyone can use it regardless of what equipment you use, and if you have a mixed fleet of equipment, all that data can be housed in the operations center, and it can engage with it for completely free.”