If there’s one lament farmers share when talking ag technology, it’s the challenge of bringing together information from single-brand and even multibrand fleets. Farmers Edge has long been in the telematics business with its FarmCommand system, but a new enhancement kicks up that data access to a new level.

Called the In-Cab Tool, the new app-based add-in for FarmCommand provides users with enhanced information. “What the farmer will get with the In-Cab Tool is a much more real-time sense of the operation from every machine, inside the cab, in a more appealing experience,” says Ron Osborne, chief strategy and product officer, Farmers Edge. “We’re bringing more insights faster than before into the cab to be able to have a fusion of data — weather, satellite imagery, management zones and other tasks from other parts of the farm.”

He explains that this information can provide the user a greater awareness of what’s going on at the farm at any given time. But the system also allows trusted advisers to have easier access to your farm’s information to help guide in-season tasks and management decisions. The tool is also designed to work with retailers that might have dozens of machines in the field at the same time.

“We can help the retailer with route planning for a custom application business,” Osborne explains. “They can deliver a message to that applicator and have real-time fleet awareness showing which fields have machines, and why.”

The system can help retailers better schedule a fleet of machines to be where they can do the most good at the right time; and that same functionality is available to farmer-users, too. By providing weather, soil, scouting and other information into the platform, retailers and farmers know where to dispatch machines to the most appropriate field first.

Not duplicating information

Osborne notes that Farmers Edge now has a range of agreements with most major players in the market for tools that gather and monitor information. A recent agreement with CNH, for example, provides enhanced access between those machines and the Farmers Edge platform.

“You’ve got tech like Raven and other partners with a monitor in the cab; we don’t see any need or purpose to duplicate some of the information you might see on that monitor. When you have a strong monitor like the CNH pro700, why duplicate that information?” he observes. “We want to focus on matching field information to tasks, let that existing monitor show you machine RPM.”

The idea is that the In-Cab Tool will provide the user improved information to make better marketing decisions, and the aim is to consolidate information into one place for more field insights.

The In-Cab Tool connects to the Farmers Edge Gen 2 CanPlug via Bluetooth, and it streams real-time planting, spraying, harvest, fertilizer application and field maintenance job data and equipment performance diagnostics to any tablet, computer or mobile device. And that information syncs to the cloud, so all data is in one place.

There’s a Manager View that you can use to connect multiple machines within a field to one view and easily toggle between machines during the day. This is a simple way to view all active jobs on the farm.

With the Operator View, users can get a live equipment view from a tablet or mobile device. And with this view, it’s easy to share data with managers and trusted advisers.

More features to come

But that’s just the start. Osborne notes that there are more features in the works now that the In-Cab Tool has been released. Teased in the official announcement of the In-Cab Tool are features like real-time harvest management to manage grain inventory, and an integrated scale to eliminate manual harvest data entry for more accurate record keeping.

Integrated market data will provide insight on market activity throughout the day, with information on a range of commodities including corn, soybeans, canola and wheat.

The company is also working to launch CanPlug powered RTK (real-time kinematic) with partners and dealer networks of base stations to provide more precise guidance information.

And A/B line sharing will be available soon to allow sharing of those lines across multiple pieces of equipment.

Osborne adds that the In-Cab Tool is integrated with the FarmCommand system, which provides a range of features for enhanced management. Mating that information — including weather, supply management, automated grain inventory management, daily satellite imagery and automated crop health detection — with the real-time In-Cab Tool offers enhanced management.

Learn more at farmersedge.ca/incabtool.