NEXT Machine Management to include live telemetry data

Pfarrkirchen, 15/07/2020 — FarmFacts GmbH, a fully-owned subsidiary of BayWa AG, has collaborated with leading agricultural machinery manufacturers AGCO (Fendt, Massey Ferguson, Valtra), Krone, Kuhn, Lemken, Rauch and Pöttinger to develop a system for automatic documentation and the exchange of data between a wide range of machinery. NEXT Machine Management provides farmers and contractors with brand new opportunities by enabling cross-manufacturer data transmission and the integration of key machinery data into the cloud-based farm management system NEXT Farming LIVE. This presents a complete solution for all sizes of farm as well as for mixed fleets.

NEXT Machine Management utilises data transmitted via an agrirouter to facilitate planning, production and documentation processes using machinery from various manufacturers. The module can be used with any machine that is connected to the agrirouter.

NEXT Machine Management has now been further enhanced to include new features. A telemetry solution has been introduced to enable farm managers — provided their machinery is equipped with the relevant technology — to monitor the locations where their machines are deployed and to obtain a live snapshot of machinery data, such as current utilisation, output and spreading quantities. This makes allocating machinery to jobs easy, meaning the entire fleet can be deployed more efficiently, and processes can be professionally monitored.

A few improvements have also been made to the existing software solution, which will save farmers and contractors even more time when documenting the work that has been carried out. At the touch of a button, extensive legally required reports on the measures implemented on fields can now be created even more quickly. Jobs can be transferred easily to machines, enabling optimum utilisation of capacities and effective farm management. A particular highlight is the ability to transmit waylines or prescription maps to machinery with GPS steering systems so that the fields can be farmed site-specifically.

Farmers can plan out their field work in the office, then transfer the information to the machinery terminal — regardless of its manufacturer, type or location — and later use the data received from the machinery to automatically document the work that has been carried out on the field. Data points such as a location ID and time stamp, and parameters such as speed of travel, diesel consumption and spreading quantities (e.g. fertiliser or crop care products) are automatically captured and documented in the farmer’s NEXT Farming LIVE account. As with all NEXT Farming modules, all of the data belongs exclusively to the account owner. No data is shared with third parties without the owner's consent.

FarmFacts

As farmers and developers with a strong affinity to both agriculture and IT, the FarmFacts team has been programming farm software since 1985. FarmFacts has become a market leader by creating innovative products and complementary services under the NEXT Farming brand name.