Managing Increasing Amount of Ag Data

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

Applicable Industries

Agriculture

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Farm Monitoring & Precision Farming
Predictive Maintenance
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Data Science Services

The Challenge

Payne Brothers Ranches, a farming operation in Northern California, was facing a challenge of managing an increasing amount of agricultural data. The data was coming from various sources such as independent PCA’s, soil reports, and tissue analysis. The Payne Brothers wanted a solution that could consolidate all their data in one place for better utilization. The transition to using independent PCA’s also meant that they had to start submitting their own chemical use reports to the counties and state, which they didn't want to turn into a lot of paperwork. The increasing flow of data was becoming overwhelming and the repercussions of not having the correct data available or interpreting data wrong could be significant.

About The Customer

Payne Brothers Ranches are located just north of Sacramento, in the Knights Landing, California area. The ranches, measuring 6,000 acres in total, are managed by Brothers Bob and Bill Payne. They grow walnut, almond and pistachio trees as well as a row crop operation that grows a rotation of processing tomatoes, garbanzos, sunflowers, wheat and barley. Their father started the farming operation back in 1953, with Bob and Bill taking over the helm around 30 years ago. Over the years, they have transitioned from a 100% row crop operation to planting more permanent crops like walnuts, pistachios and almonds. They have also moved from using PCA’s affiliated with chemical companies to independent PCA’s.

The Solution

Payne Brothers Ranches decided to adopt the Agworld platform across their ranches in early 2014. They not only gave themselves access to Agworld but also their foremen. The Agworld platform allowed them to capture all incoming data and store it in one place. It also offered them a cross-analysis tool that enabled them to see, field by field, the operations that are going across that field year by year. They could see if they had more operations than they’d planned, or less, or if they spent more on fertilizer or pesticides than they had planned. The platform also allowed them to comply with worker protection standards by showing the time and date of pesticide applications and any re-entry interval restrictions.

Operational Impact

By having all data available on one platform, Payne Brothers are able to perform analyses across multiple layers of data.
They are able to see, on a field level, exactly what happened during the season and how much they have spent on any kind of operation.
By streamlining their data, they have also been able to simplify the communication process both internally with their foremen and externally with their PCA’s and others.